A Rhythm of Reading the Psalter

What I've discovered from reading the Psalms regularly is a friendship with this book of the Bible that's our prayerbook.

God Who Understands

Psalm 56

When life abruptly changes

   God have mercy on me.

When friends become betrayers

   God have mercy on me.

When I have been wrongly accused

   God have mercy on me.

When the next step is utterly dark

   God have mercy on me.

When I feel alone in the wilderness

   God have mercy on me.

When I struggle to trust you

   God have mercy on me.

Remind me of your faithful love,

   God of mercy.

Be my companion, my savior,

   God of gentleness.

All my hope is in you,

   God who overcomes.

You have traveled the path of suffering yourself

   and you travel it with me.

Thanks be to you, O God.

A Lived Psalm

Psalm 23

Loving God, I have lived this psalm.

Not the flowery King James Version, but the straightforward Common English one.

You have kept me alive through my darkest hour,

leading me to restful waters—the river, the marsh, the lake—

when I was so very dry within,

when tears had wrung me out.

When I lost almost everything

I came to know that you are everything.

I lack nothing for I have you.

Though others proclaimed me worthless,

you welcomed me to a lavish feast,

feeding me love in heaps and mounds,

overflowing, extravagant love.

You bathed my broken soul with oil,

gratitude spills out of my full heart!

I now know that you never stop pursuing me.

We will always dwell together.

My home is found in you!

Lament

Psalm 22

My God, my God

have you left us all alone?

have you turned away from our anguish?

Do you not see what is happening?

Snarling dogs pounce on the weak—

besting the aged for food,

tearing families apart,

trampling the gentle,

attacking the poor.

When they lose a crumb from their enormous loaf

the rich blame the hungry for their “loss.”

They trust might and weapons, feeding on these

until they are glutted,

while compassion and mercy fade into oblivion.

But the new day reminds me that you are constant.

You have not abandoned us. It is we

who have abandoned you, trusting in wealth and weapons,

in power and possessions, and not in your ways,

which work like yeast, steady, unseen.

Expand our hope, grow our compassion,

crowd out our fear, fill us with love

until we sing praise,

until our lives ring true,

until we resist evil.

Bless the Lord

Psalm 78:1-4, 52-55

Bless the Lord, O my soul

for God, the faithful

does not leave me alone,

but is always with me

through storms and sunshine.

Bless the Lord, O my soul

for God, the nurturer

led me through my darkest hour

so I could endure my trial

and emerge with stronger faith and love.

Bless the Lord, O my soul

for God, my advocate,

who knows the truth of who I am,

and surrounds me with friends who know this truth

so I can claim it for myself.

Bless the Lord, O my soul

for God, the merciful,

who does not hold my failures against me,

whose memory of my sin is short

and whose love is long and generous.

Bless the Lord, O my soul

for God, the playful,

who fills my life with laughter,

who revels in relationships

of mutuality and depth.

Bless the Lord, O my soul

for God, the creator

of coffee, chocolate and wine,

of sunrises, oaks and sparrows,

of color, music and mountains.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Visual Praise

Psalm 147

Sing songs of praise to God

   for the glory of creation!

Do not keep silent

   in the presence of God’s diversity!

Birds and bugs, fish and flowers,

   trees and their fruit, seasons and weather,

stars and soil, vegetables and oceans,

   animals of every color, shape and disposition,

and people of every hue and size and belief—

   you made and love them all!

We all reflect your glory,

   though some would deny it in themselves and in others.

May I see you today

   in every bird and everybody,

in every leaf and in my food,

   in sun and clouds and wind,

in water and blossoms and bugs,

   even in the small, the irritating and mean.

May I see you today in every moment and person and place.

Give me eyes that praise you

with love and adoration for all you have made.