Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Listen to my words, Lord,
    consider my lament.
Hear my cry for help,
    my King and my God,
    for to you I pray.
In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice;
    in the morning I lay my requests before you
    and wait expectantly.
For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness;
    with you, evil people are not welcome.
The arrogant cannot stand
    in your presence.
You hate all who do wrong;
    you destroy those who tell lies.
The bloodthirsty and deceitful
    you, Lord, detest.

• Psalm 5:1-6

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise,
    for he has been good to me.

• Psalm 13:1-6

Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
    praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power;
    praise him for his surpassing greatness.

• Psalm 150:1-2

“’Our dear Lord, who has given to us and taught us to pray the Psalter and the Lord’s Prayer, grants to us also the spirit of prayer and of grace so that we pray with enthusiasm and earnest faith, properly and without ceasing, for we need to do this; he has asked for it and there­ fore wants to have it from us. To him be praise, honor, and thanksgiving. Amen’ (Martin Luther).
“The entire day receives order and discipline when it acquires unity. This unity must be sought and found in morning prayer. It is confirmed in work. The morning prayer determines the day. Squandered time of which we are ashamed, temptations to which we succumb, weaknesses and lack of courage in work, disorganization and lack of discipline in our thoughts and in our conversation with others, all have their origin most often in the neglect of morning prayer.”

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, psalms, The Prayer Book of the Bible

“To busy Martin Luther, extra work was a compelling argument for spending more time in prayer. Hear his answer to an inquiry about his plans for the next day’s work: ‘Work, work from early till late. In fact I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.’ If our view of the importance of prayer in any degree approximates that of Luther and Luther’s Lord, we will somehow make more time for it.”

• J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership

Dietrich Bonhoeffer concludes with a quote from Martin Luther and a plea for morning prayer.

Martin Luther, from the quote in Spiritual Leadership, definitely believed in morning prayer.  If we could be half that disciplined to spend more time in prayer, knowing it would be a busy day.

To use the psalter as a prayer book, however, requires knowing the Psalms better.  Or a topical search could produce a psalm that meets a special need.  Or there are a lot of lists of the psalms as to what type of psalm each psalm is.  I have been using one such list in the every other week Monday morning Bible Study on the Psalms.  Tomorrow’s installment will be Psalms 79-81.

Nothing beats reading the Psalms several times, maybe in several translations.  While God wants us to express ourselves, praying the Psalms puts us in the right frame of mind to seek God’s will.

I have prayed the Psalms when I needed help.  I have prayed the Psalms when I felt a lack of control of the situation – rather than worry, pray the Psalms.

But as a result of this study, I am going to pray the Psalms much more.

And I have firsthand experience at what Bonhoeffer said about a lack of morning prayer.  When you start off the day in the wrong way, it tends to get worse.  And if you skipped the morning prayer due to the day starting early and it being a long day, those days tend to snowball out of control.

Lord, guide us as we pray.  You have given us Your Word, for instruction and reproof.  We are often guilty of not knowing where to turn in Your Word for the answers to our questions.  But in praying Your Words back to You in our times of needing answers, we may often find the answers in the same psalm that we pray to You.  You have many ways of answering our concerns.  You have laid out the Psalms for our use.  Help us to not forget that resource.  In the name of Jesus, I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.