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Thursday, July 21, 2005

Praying the Psalms

This past semester, I took a course on the book of Psalms. I really enjoyed it and learned a great deal from it.

One of our assignments was to read the entire book of Psalms (50 a month for 3 months). We were not to simply read them, but to pray and/or read them aloud. I had never done this, so I did not really know what to expect or if I was doing it correctly. Then, we had to keep track of this in a 'journal'. In other words, we had to write down what our feelings were on what we prayed or read aloud. The exercise was not to read through commentaries and books to find out meanings. We had to write about how a particular pslam or verse spoke to us.

What an amazing exercise this is! I highly recommend it to everyone! When something spoke to me, I would highlight it in my bible, and then write about it after I was finished praying or reading it aloud. What I found (and from talking to others found they had similar experiences), was that there seemed to be common themes that I felt the Lord was trying to get my attention regarding. We all might not have the same themes pop up in our readings, but the Lord speaks to us about the things that we need to hear, about situations in our lives or maybe attitudes that we need to change.

One of the things I felt the Lord telling me at that time, for example, was that I needed to praise Him in all situations. Not only do I need to praise Him when things are going right and there are no problems, but I need also to praise Him even for the rough and tough situations, for sad times, etc. God is definately worthy of all praise and honour and glory and thanksgiving! I am still learning to give praise to the Lord in all situations. I don't always remember to do this, but I do try and I am working on it (though I do need His helpful reminders).

So, if you have not tried this exercise of reading aloud and/or praying the Psalms, give it a try and see what the Lord is trying to teach you.

3 comments:

Darlene Schacht said...

That is such a wonderful exercise to try for three months. It could give direction to someone who is a new time reader, and inspiration to old time readers.

Just a note...your web URL is not correct at my site each time you leave a comment. There is an extra e in there and so if anyone else wants to find you ~ and I'm sure they will ~ they can't. I guessed at it the first time myself. Maybe next time you can change it and then it will stay the same each time.

Live, Love, Laugh said...

this is the first time I have visited your site and I truly feel God led me here. I have my bible sitting here beside me at work and I was wondering what I was going to read and not only that, I have two people who have asked me to help them with a bible study, now I know what I will tell them, thanks!!

Shelley L. MacKenzie said...

Darlene, thanks for letting me know about that extra 'e'. I've fixed it so hopefully it will stay correct now.

Mandy, I think maybe the Lord led me to your site, even if it was only to give you some encouragement. I'll be back though :o)

Live, love, laugh...thank you so much for the encouragement. It's great to see how and when the Lord leads someone to us. I do hope you will enjoy the bible study on the Psalms. It is a great exercise and I think I will be starting it again on my own at my own pace. I feel the need to get deeper in touch with what the Lord wants me to work on (in myself), and this might be the way to do it. I forgot to add before reading each Psalm or group of Psalms it is a good idea to pray asking the Lord to guide you and reveal what He wants you to know. Keep me posted on how you make out with it!