Praying the Psalms in Community
The Psalms were meant to be prayed in community. The Psalter was the prayerbook of Israel, Jesus, and the Church. The early Church “devoted themselves to…the prayers” (Acts 2:42). And when you zoom in on what they prayed together, it was the Psalms (Acts 4:24–26). God intends for the Psalms to teach His people the practice of praise and lament, confession and exaltation, protest and thanksgiving. The Psalms train a community to “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). The Psalms are essential for a flourishing community sustained by prayer.
How do we pray the Psalms in community?
From my own reading and reflecting, prayer and practice, I came up with a way for small groups to pray the Psalms together. This practice is meant to be text-attentive, Christ-centered, experiential, and communal.
FIRST READING: Insights & Inquiries (15 minutes):
Read the psalm aloud once, slowly, pausing briefly between sections/stanzas, attending to the overall tone of the Psalm (e.g. If a praise, read excitedly. If a lament, read gloomily). Have the group share insights (what is in the text) and inquiries (questions of the text).
- What is the structure of the Psalm. Where are the breaks between stanzas?
- Is this a psalm of praise, lament, confession, thanksgiving, instruction, etc.?
- What is the experience of the Psalmist?
- What is the emotion of the psalm? How can you tell?
- What is the psalmist going through?
- What kind of imagery and metaphor does the psalmist use (e.g. “The LORD is my shepherd”).
- How does this connect with our experience?
SECOND READING: The Prayers of Jesus (15 minutes):
Have someone read the psalm again, slowly, possibly in another translation. From Paul to Augustine, from Dietrich Bonhoeffer to Tim Keller, the Church has heard all 150 psalms as coming from the lips of Jesus. This allows us to hear Jesus at prayer with His Father in a whole new way (Hebrews 2:11). We also get a glimpse into how Jesus shares our humanity, with all of ours weaknesses and triumphs, successes and struggles.
- How does it illuminate the meaning of the psalm to hear it coming from Jesus’ lips?
- Would Jesus have prayed this during His life, death, resurrection, ascension, reign, or second coming?
- How does it helps us understand Jesus’ solidarity with his church (He is the head, we are His body)?
THIRD READING: Pray the Psalm (20 minutes):
This part can be done either altogether as a group or broken up into groups of 2–3 people. Read through the psalm again. Pause after each stanza and turn the words into prayer.
- Paraphrase the words of the psalm as you pray them in your own words.
- Take the very words of the psalm as your own.
- Use the psalm as a jumping off point to pray in line with the psalm.
Move through the psalm this way, stanza by stanza. If you’re praying the psalm altogether, the leader can turn the stanza into prayer, then pause in silence for the rest of the group to turn the words into their own prayer either silently or aloud. For more help on this read: How to Pray the Psalms.
I’d love to hear feedback from anyone who tries this. What was confusing, insightful, clunky or worshipful? Email me.
Selah.
