Praying the Psalms III 

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

Psalm 1; Psalm 150 

Psalms- a strange literature indeed. The opening Psalm of the Hebrew hymnbook begins with a teaching hymn and is divided: the first three verses are devoted to the saint, the next three to the sinner. It ends 150 Psalms later with an exhilarating praise composition.

First verse of the Psalms: 

Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 

Last verse of the Psalms: 

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD! 

I mesh together words, sentences, and thoughts, and scramble them to help me understand and remember what I have seen and read. 

An example of how my word mesh aids memory. 

“A person who stands, sits and walks saying, ‘Praise the LORD, ‘ will avoid the wicked sinners and scoffers.” 

The word “praise” occurs more than 10 times in Psalm 150.  More of more. It is the cherry on top, icing on the cake. Imagine all of humanity, along with the birds of the air, animals of the forest, and fish of the sea, praising the Lord. They are blessed. 

“In our culture …we believe that the function of language is only to report and describe what already exists…By contrast, in the Psalms, the use of language does not describe what is. It evokes into being what does not exist until it has been spoken.” -Walter Brueggemann, Praying the Psalms, p.17,18 

Speak the Psalms and be amazed, it may evoke what does not exist. Watch for singing squirrels. 

Pray: 

Psalm 1 and 150