Psalms in Real Life

This week we're taking a break from hot breakfasts and transformations in and around the building to focus on worship itself. After all, worship is the center of our ministry and vision to Experience Jesus.

Thank you to Pastor Diane Sponheim for writing this week's blog, and for her work in putting together the summer Psalm worship series!

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I challenged myself and all of you to try praying the Psalms with me this summer as we go through the 6-week series “Drinking Deeply From the Psalms” I hope you're trying it – it's never too late to start! The Psalms will teach us to pray, and they will stretch us and work on us.

Here's what a couple of families had to say about their experience of praying the Psalms.

“Our family decided to take the challenge! After dinner, we look up a Psalm, and read it one verse at a time, passing the Bible around the table, so everyone gets a turn. As we read, we stop and ask what they mean – what is God teaching us? When we read Psalm 3, first we had to look up why the heading of the Psalm told us that David (the writer of the Psalm) was running away from his son Absalom, so we learned something! Then, we thought about people who need deliverance, and each person named someone to pray for God to deliver them from their situation. The boys came up with “The Okies” (recovering from the tornado) and hungry people. It was cool to see our kids connecting the words of the Psalm with situations that are happening today.”

“My wife and I are both going through very difficult times at our jobs. We decided to pray not just one Psalm a day, but a few. It's helped us both get through some really hard days. We feel like the Psalms articulate some of the really “unacceptable” emotions we feel (anger and the desire for revenge) while also giving us hope. We've noticed that God has answered our prayers and helped these situations resolve quickly. Thank you for encouraging us to pray the Psalms!” 

I encourage you to read and pray the Psalms with us. I'd love to hear how God is working on you through them!

If you didn't pick them up in church, you can download the instructions for my Praying the Psalms challenge right now.

- Pastor Diane Sponheim