Praying the Psalms I 

I invite you to pray along with me this January in the book of Psalms. 

Psalms- a strange literature indeed. They appear to be straightforward and uncomplicated, but are more than can be touched and handled by a mere mortal. They forever invite us into the wholeness that comes from knowing God’s presence.

Psalm 46

Often, we are childlike, reporting to a mother when we pray-

“Hello, God!” I have much to tell you about myself. 

Humanity has a monologue with God in its first breath, then runs out of wind, waiting for a response. The Psalmists remind us that prayer is a dialogue in which God speaks first and we respond. Our prayers are never detached from God’s word. 

“Be still and know that I am God.” 

1-3 God is a refuge

4-7 Safety of the City of God

8-11 Be still and know God 

Be still. Allow the Holy to nourish the inner life. We must be in a habit of attention in the stillness and the universe falls into alignment, opposing the habitually distracted life. 

Stillness prepares for the second command: “know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” 

The world suppresses the greatness of God and laughs at the heavens, while this psalm affirms our intense and hazardous living- “an ever- present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear”, even when we fail to be still. 

Pray, submit, be still, know He is our refuge. 

Pray: 

Psalm 46

Hello God, I exalt you!