I apologize for the delay in this post. I had to reset my computer last night so I couldn’t share this with you even though it was finished! I pray the psalms are a blessing to you when you don’t know what or how to pray.
I have a confession. Over the past few months my prayer life has really stagnated.
The first week I noticed my lack of pause to pray, I determined it was understandable. We had moved. Life was upside down and inside out. A bump in my daily patterns was to be expected. So, I let it go.
But then I guess I let the whole thing go.
It’s so hard as moms to figure out when and how to pray. Just now I decided I needed a cat-nap, so I got my son ready with some toys and crawled under my favorite blanket on the couch. Within moments my son pooped in the potty.
Normally I would be cheering for him, but this time I groaned.
We moms struggle to get enough sleep let alone enough time to ourselves.
What does prayer look like in this wearying time when we are often too tired to even know how to pray?
The psalms have been a lifesaver for me.
In my third trimester of pregnancy with Ben, I meditated on Psalm 23.
He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.
He renews my strength. Psalm 3:1-3
The meditations turned into prayers as the words became one with my heart. When Ben was born and I often found myself at my wits end with fatigue and recovery and feeding after feeding after feeding, the first verse not only reminded me of the truth, but became a prayer. “Lord, you are my shepherd. Please keep providing for me what I need right now.”
There are psalms for every occasion. For joy (Psalm 100) and sorrow (Ps 13). For repentance (Ps 51) and worship (Ps 8). For petition (Ps 86) and thanksgiving (Ps 30). If it is words we are looking for, the psalms can provide them.
But my favorite thing about the psalms is that they are authentic. There is no pretending in these prayers. If a psalmist is angry with someone, he expresses that anger to God. If he is repentant, he speaks openly about his sinful nature and requests God’s change in his heart. If he is depressed, he mourns and begs God to lift him up.
In the same way, if the psalmist is joyful his words continue on and on describing the magnificence of God, praising His name.
Being melancholy in nature, I could learn a few things from those celebratory psalms.
For now, I am going to return to the psalms as my book of prayer. I’m sure there will be days when a specific psalm won’t match my mood, but isn’t it good to know that the words are there for the next time they are needed?
What about you? What do you like about the psalms? Do you have a favorite psalm? I think my all time favorite is Psalm 139. There are so many aspects of life covered, it always “works” for me to feel more grounded and rooted in God.
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