Basic Information : Synopsis : Thoughts : Evaluation : New Words : Book References : Good Quotes : Table of Contents : References
Basic Information:
Author:
James W. Sire
Edition:
Paperback
Publisher:
IVP Books
ISBN:
0830833323 (ISBN13: 9780830833320)
Start
Date: April 2, 2020
Read
Date: June 15, 2020
227
pages
Genre: Christianity
Language
Warning: None
Rated
Overall: 3 ½ out of 5
Religion:
Christianity
Religious
Quality: 4 out of 5
Christianity-Teaching
Quality: 5 out of 5
Synopsis :
James
Sire takes us through ten Psalms which has a range from praise of God
to cursing of enemies to complaint of situation similar to Job to
Psalms of the day. In each Sire takes the reader through a mini Bible
Study exploring what he calls the rational structure, emotional
structure, and the rhetorical structure. But Sire’s purpose is not
Bible Study but how does this Psalm get used as prayer, a model for
us.
The
model he uses is an adaptation from Eugene Peterson’s Answering
Speech. This is where God moves in a life and we answer with prayer.
This form envisions a conversation with God with him being the
instigator of the conversation.
The
last chapter is a summary of his thoughts on prayer. There are six
items he talks about:
- We learn to Pray by Praying
- The God to Whom We Pray
- Prayer Arises Out of a Discipline Life
- Prayer Arises Out of Our Condition
- Prayer Runs the Gamut of Emotions
- Prayer Takes Place in Silence
Thoughts:
Below
is more my outline of notes, plus a Bible Study I lead with my small
group. So it is different from most of my book blogs.
Introduction
For
the Psalms to be real, your heart must be ready (steadfast as the NIV
says)-Psalm 108:1
He
talks about answering
speech
which he got from Eugene Peterson. PRAYER
IS ANSWERING SPEECH Prayer is never the first word. It is always the
second word. God has the first word. Prayer is answering speech; it
is not primarily "address" but "response."
Essential to the practice of prayer is to fully realize this
secondary quality . . . .
From the Institute
of Biblical Worship
Answering
speech
is Sire’s goal in going through the Psalms-to make the answering
characteristic plain.Three goals:
- To learn what the Psalms say on prayer
- To learn to pray by means of the Psalms’ words
- To develop a means of praying the Psalms with others
Steps
to learning these lessons:
- Read the Psalms and read them well.
- Each Psalm has a sense of answering Gof
- Steps to reading the Psalms:
- Read, read read
- Clarify the text-words or phrases which seem fuzzy or uncertain. What is important?
- Figure out the structure
- Rational-flow of ideas
- Emotional structure-flow of emotions
- Rhetorical - in order to produce an effect or to make a statement rather than to elicit information.
- What is the Psalmist complex and changing relationship with God-trying to emulate it.
- Making the answering speech our own.
- Imprecatory Psalms cause believers trouble. (Psm 137 for instance)
- Spiritual Discipline
- Prayer is closely related to silence and solitude
- Assumption is that we will be working through these Psalms during our times alone
- Praying the Psalms in Community
- Psalms are used as a way to bind the Christian community together as they seek God
Spiritual
fruit will come only if you actually pray through the Psalms.
Becoming
Right with God - Psalm 32
The
best way to start with the Psalms? To read them. He points out that
for whatever reason, you will have already picked out a Psalm. Then
read it again, slower, and then a third time. Let the words seep into
your mind. With
each reading, observe and absorb the words and sentences, the images
and ideas.
The reader will probably pick only certain words which resonate with
you.
Do
not start with analysis or on judging what it says.
Hear!
Listen! First.
- Getting at the meaning of Psalm 32
- Absorb
- Do not read our thoughts into the text: isogesis
- Read out of the text into our thoughts: exegesis
- Open to what God is trying to say to you
- Meaning of Words
- Look for words which you do not know or understand. Words which may have a different context than we use today.
- What keywords do you see in this passage?
- What images does the Psalmist present to us?
- Structure
- Rational Structure-the flow of the main ideas
- Look for a new set of ideas.
- Emotional Structure
- Implicit Context of the Psalm
- No known historical context
- Seems generic in content, universally human
- Praying Psalm 32
- Prayer is an activity which is best done by doing rather than reading
- Some Further Reflections
- Confession is an ongoing Christian activity, not a once and done.
- Learning to Pray Through the Psalms in Community
- Psalms are mostly written to be used in community
- Private prayer in solitude needs to be linked with those who we are in community with.
- If nothing else, we are in community with King David who prayed this originally.
- Study:
- Are you happy? How would you define happy? (Or blessed)
- Read the passage to yourself-2 minutes
- Read the passage out loud
- Play the John Michael Talbot Chant of Psalm 32
- What words are you not familiar with or may have a different context
- What images does the Psalmist present
- Sire goes through two structures: Rational and Emotional.
- Rational. Lets go through the rational side first.
- How does this Psalm flow? What headings would you put on the different sections in this Psalm and where would you place them?
- What kind of progression does the Psalmist have?
- Does he come up with a conclusion?
- Emotional.
- What emotions does the Psalmist express?
- Why does this Psalm touch on the emotions of David?
- How would you chart the emotions?
- What is the main topic of this Psalm?
- How is Psalm 32 an answering speech of God’s initiation?
- Sire question 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
- How is being happy different than joy?
- Sire question 12
- I will read through the Psalm, stopping at a certain point with a thought. Feel free to respond either quietly in spirit or out loud.
Waiting
for the Lord - Psalm 130
Similar
poem which looks like it is derived from Les
Fleurs du Mal
by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Richard Howard. Poem Out of the
depths I cry
Out
of the Depths
Sole Being I love, Your mercy I implore
Out of the bitter pit of my heart's
night,
With leaden skyscapes on a dismal
shore,
Peopled only by blasphemy and fright;
For six months frigid suns float
overhead,
For six months more darkness and
solitude.
No polar wastes are bleaker and more
dead,
With never beast nor stream nor plant
nor wood.
No horror in this world but is outdone
By the cold razor of this glacial sun
And this chaotic night's immensities.
I envy the most humble beast that ease
Which brings dull slumber to his
brutish soul
So slowly does my skein of time unroll.
— Jacques
LeClercq, Flowers
of Evil
(Mt Vernon, NY: Peter Pauper Press, 1958)
- Getting at the meaning of Psalm 130
- Read through the Psalm three, thoughtful times
- Sense of longing
- Look for the structure
- Meaning of words
- Out of depths.
- O Lord
- More than watchmen wait for the morning
- Desire for morning
- Rational Structure
- Cry to the Lord from the depths (1-2)
- Relief from guilt
- But does not simply look the other way.
- The Lord who forgives (3-4)
- Loving but punishing God.
- Confident in God’s mercy
- Waiting on the Lord (5-6)
- Waiting in the hope of God’s deliverance
- This may be the most difficult part of the psalm to realize as our answering speech, for this particular speech calls us to wait--to stop flailing our inner arms, even to stop praying our endless prattling prayers, to be still, to remain silent as we are.
- Waiting is not having, It is hoping.
- Waiting is not playing around until something happens, He talks about Waiting for Godot.
- Israel’s hope in the Lord (7-8)
- Call for Israel to hope in God
- Emotional Structure
- Rhetorical Structure
- Much of this Psalm exhibits parallel poetry
- Rarer is the vs 6.
- Praying Psalm 130
- Think about why you are in distress. If unsure, read Romans 3
- Wait for God’s response.
- Some Further Reflections
- Psalm is to be read many times
- Central for spiritual development.
- Study
- Read the poem Flowers of Evil or
- Read Romans 3:10-20
- Read the passage to your self-4 minutes
- With each reading look for
- Words and phrases which are emphasized, which create an impression
- Images and ideas
- Read the passage out loud
- What do you imagine the Psalmist feels in this Psalm?
- Sire uses the Eugene Peterson term, answering prayer. If the Psalmist is answering God, what do you think he is answering too? What has God laid on his heart and mind?
- What words and phrases stood out for you? Why? Were they personal?
- One for me was Out of the depth. Did anybody else relate it back to Jonah? This was pre Jonah. I wonder if Jonah was thinking of this Psalm.
- How is this Psalm structured?
- In the Pits (1-2)
- Awareness of sin and forgiveness (3-4)
- Waiting and Hope (5-8)
- What is it that concerns the Psalmist? What troubles him?
- Q 6. What does the Psalmist ask of God?
- Q7, but frame this with What problem does he address in these verses? How can mercy and holiness both be characteristic of God?
- How are the word wait and hope related? How are the two used in vs 5&6.
- What function does a watchman have?
- Why does the Psalmist repeat the phrase More than watchmen wait for the morning twice?
- Place yourself in the shoes of the watchman. What are you waiting for? What is the Psalmist waiting for?
- Q9. How do you wait on God?
- Sire notes that This may be the most difficult part of the psalm to realize as our answering speech, for this particular speech calls us to wait--to stop flailing our inner arms, even to stop praying our endless prattling prayers, to be still, to remain silent as we are. Pg 41.
- Q10
- Q11
- Who is God according to this Psalm? What do we discover about him?
- Let's take vs 1-2
- What does the Psalmist ask of God?
- In vs 3-4
- What does the Psalmist talk about in these verses?
- What problem does he address in these verses?
- How does he reconcile the fact of his sin with God being forgiving, but holy and righteous?
- How are the word wait and hope related? How are the two used in vs 5&6.
- What function does a watchman have?
- Why does the Psalmist repeat the phrase More than watchmen wait for the morning twice?
- Place yourself in the shoes of the watchman. What are you waiting for? What is the Psalmist waiting for?
- Who is God according to this Psalm? What do we discover about him?
Night
Thoughts - Psalm 4
- Initial Reading of Psalm 4
- Vs 8 is what I am keying off of.
- Getting at the Meaning of Psalm 4
- Rational Structure
- Invocation and Prayer (1)
- The context of his plea (2)
- How long? How long must a person endure defeat, oppression, harassment? Before God hears and rescues?
- Confirmation of confidence (3)
- Advice to oneself and others (4-5)
- The desire for God’s presence (6)
- The beneficence of God (7)
- Final confidence in God (8)
- Sire notes the Psalm 4 is sung each evening in monasteries which follow the St Benedict rule. What he does not note is that several other Psalms are sung as well.
- Sire notes that people have been harrassing David. This is probably the guy who was throwing stones at David while he was escaping Absolam.
- Who is George Swinnock? an English nonconformist clergyman and writer.
- Secrecy is the best opportunity for this duty
- Emotional Structure
- Frustration to resolution, tension to release, antagonism to peace
- Praying Psalm 4
- Study
- Background.
- Probably while David is fleeing from Absalom.
- Remember that when David was leaving, a man decided to harass David and his people
- On the other hand, Sire thinks this is normal everyday life getting at David-he thinks that David is still regularly going to temple services..
- Read Psalm 4 to yourself, slowly. It should only take a minute, I will give you 3 minutes
- Read Psalm 4 out loud.
- When you read this Psalm, how do you picture David? Standing? Kneeling? Sitting? In the temple? In bed? Angry and upset? At peace with the world?
- When do you find the best time of the day to meet with God?
- Question 5
- Question 6
- How long? How long must a person endure defeat, oppression, harassment? Before God hears and rescues?
- What is being asked for? Sire says it is not just a matter of days, but of type. What is being yearned for?
- Question 8
- In vs 5, David says that he is to offer the right sacrifices. What is the right sacrifice?
- Psalm 51:16, 17-For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
- Micah 6:6-8- Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
- Romans 12:1-2-Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
- Talk about letting God’s face shine on us.
- I personally think of two things:
- Moses and his face shining when God passed him by
- Jesus at the mount of transfiguration. (Matt 17:1-3)
- Question 11
- Where does David end up praying this Psalm? Is the end of the day a good time to think through your day and discuss it with God? Is this your practice?
- Directed Prayer
- If time permits, read George Swinnock’s thoughts.
- Blessing on close from Numbers 6:24-26
- “‘“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you
and
be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you
peace.”’
A
Morning Meditation - Psalm 5
- Background
- Morning prayer
- This is the fittest time for intercourse with God. An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening. While the dew is still on the grass, let the grace of God drop upon the soul. The Sword and the trowel; ed. by C.H. Spurgeon
- Initial Reading
- Getting at the meaning of Psalm 5
- Sire says there is a double ebb and flow:
- Rational Structure
- Invocation (1-2)
- Context of the day (3)
- God as holy, evildoers as wicked (4-6)
- Sire finds it striking that it is not the holiness of God, but that God is holy.
- Confidence before God (7-8)
- Wickedness of the deceitful (9-10)
- Prayer for Protections (11)
- The Lord’s Blessings (12)
- Emotional Structure
- Study
- Zoom teaching moment-draw
- Background.
- Probably the second morning while David is fleeing from Absalom.
- If so, it is after a night of reflection
- The Hymn - When Morning Gilds the Skies is based upon vs 3 of this Psalm.
- Read Psalm 5 to yourself, slowly. It should only take a minute, I will give you 3 minutes
- Read Psalm 5 out loud.
- Last week, many of you talked about being a morning person. What is your morning routine like?
- From this Psalm,what was David’s routine like?
- Q 4
- I would like to chart out words by verse. I will share a spreadsheet with you. We will look at action words. And words which strike us a uplifting/downers/good/evil and try to place it on this chart.
- What is striking to you about this chart?
- Q6
- In vs 3, David said that he waits expectantly. What does that look like-remember we talked about waiting on Ps 130.?
- David has been driven out of Jerusalem and is in the desert someplace. Does this mean that David just awaits his fate?
- In vs 7, The words fear (KSJV) and reverence (NRSV) is used. What is the difference between fear and reverence? How are they related? How do we enter into worship?
- How do the words of the first wave of recrimination differ from the second?
- Q7
- What about this Psalm makes you uncomfortable? Why?
- Who is David praying about?
- Why would David be praying this so harshly?
- What does this say about David and his thoughts about himself? Do you think David is innocent?
- Q10
- As a Christian, can you pray what David is praying?
- What would be comforting to him?
- How would you pray?
- When David prayed this prayer, why does he have two rounds of vindictiveness?
- Does this mean that he was not satisfied with ne?
- When we pray, are you ever distracted? Or feel like you are not reaching God? Is this what David may have felt like?
- How does this Psalm conclude?
- Why does he conclude it that way?
- Q11
- Directed Prayer
Thirsting
for God - Psalm 42-43
He,
along with a lot of commentators think that Psalm 42&43 should be
read as one Psalm
We
should come away from praying this psalm with a deeper grasp of our
own self and a stronger sense of our need for the presence of God.
It
is a more complex psalm than the other psalms we have read
before-both in terms of structure and meaning
It
is relevant for those whose lives have been a disappointment or are
depressed..
- Background
- Initial Reading of Psalm 42
- Initial Impressions
- First two verses sets up a dichotomy of longing, a schism of the soul:
- I long for the presence of God
- I do not long for the presence of God.
- Misunderstanding and Understanding the Deep
- Not the depth of one's soul,
- But the chaos which is overwhelming him.
- Deep-Same word as in Gen 1:2 and Jonah 2:3
- The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery says that references to ‘the deep’ and ‘the depths’ are images of terror with associations of danger, chaos, malevolent evil and death. ‘The deep’ is a major negative archetype in the biblical imagination-a place or state of mind or soul that one would wish to avoid but that no one can completely avoid.
- More Initial Impressions
- Even if you do not have these experiences, they become a window into someone else’s reality
- Real enemy is not physical, but spiritual, namely Satan
- Physical oppression does take place. Problem of evil.
- Pray for those
- Clarifying the Details
- Jordan-main river and the surrounding areas.
- Waterfall-near the source of the Jordan, under Mr Hermon
- Mt Hermon-northern Israel
- Mt Mizar-mean smallness. Unidentified location
- Could mean the Psalmist is in exile
- Respite from Despair or a Prayer in Hope
- What is the context of vs 8-a break from deep dispair and chaos of 7? Or has God come through for him?
- Discerning the Structure
- 42:2-6-Lament&Refrain
- 42:7-12-Lament&Refrain
- 43:1-5-Lament&Refrain
- Insights on Prayer
- Our emotions should be and is open to God
- Prayer of this type is not a one off
- Continue to live in hope
- Study
- Not that many people think that Psalm 42&43 are actually one continuous Psalm. We will be treating it as one Psalms
- Read Psalm 42/43 to yourself, slowly. It should only take a minute, I will give you 3 minutes
- Read Psalm 42/43 out loud.
- What are your initial impressions of this Psalm?
- Who wrote the Psalm? Who are the sons of Koresh?
- In the opening lines (1-2), what attracts you attention? What desires does the Psalmist have? Is this a good description? What kinds of descriptions would you use in your current desires for God? Sire talks about the schism of the soul-the longing and not longing.
- Do you resonate with the conflict which Sire talks about?
- When do you not long for God?
- Let's look at vs 5. Read it.
- What is the Psalmist asking?
- Why is he asking this?
- I read the second part of this verse as an encouragement to himself. What is he encouraging himself to do? How will that solve his distress?
- Vs 5, 11 and 43:5 all are repeated. How does the Psalmist use this verse to form structure within the Psalm? Why does he use this as a refrain?
- Q11. How do they correspond to the refrain?
- What kinds of questions does the Psalmist ask? (When, where, why,-informational gathering questions)
- Are these questions which are only informational?
- What does the Psalmist want to get at by asking these questions?
- In vs 7, it says that the deep calls to the deep in the roar of your waterfalls. What is this deep the Psalmist is talking about?
- Read the Biblical Imagery definition.
- How does vs 7 encapsulate the image of a soul in chaos? Q10
- The Dictionary says that we all cannot escape this. Does this describe a time in your life? How have you escaped this chaos?
- This Psalm not only talks about times of distress and depression, but about times where he has had closeness to God (vs 4, for example)
- How does the Psalmist use these times to combat the times of distress?
- How does your memories of these “good” times work in your life? Do they lift you up? Or do they make you have a feeling of how deep the hole you are in then/now?
- Why does God give us these peak times?
- Q12
- Directed prayer
A
Plea for Deliverance from Slander -Psalm 7
- Background
- What is a shiggaion?
- Bible Study Tools: from the verb shagah, "to reel about through drink," he plural form, shigionoth, is found in Habakkuk 3:1 (A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.) . The word denotes a lyrical poem composed under strong mental emotion; a song of impassioned imagination accompanied with suitable music; a dithyrambic ode.
- Strong’s: Word Origin perhaps from shagah Definition perhaps a wild passionate song with rapid changes of rhythm NASB Word Usage Shigionoth (1). Shiggaion, Shigionoth.
- Who is Cush the Benjamite?
- There is a group of people called the Cushites. But this seems to be a particular person named Cush who was an Isreali of the tribe of Benjamin.
- An unknown event is the source of this Psalm. Some commentators think that Cush was somebody who slandered David in front of Saul.
- Book
- Initial Reading of Psalm 7
- Getting to the meaning
- Background is obscure
- Psalm is straightforward
- Rational Structure
- Plea for deliverance from slander (1-2)
- Declaration of innocence (3-5)
- Prayer for judgement of the slanderer (6-8a)
- Prayer for judgement of the psalmist to show his innocence (8b)
- Prayer for judgement for all the righteous (9-11)
- Warning of coming judgement (12-13)
- Judgement as self destruction (14-16)
- A resolution of thanks and praise for God’s righteousness (17)
- Structure is more cohesive than the Psalm really is
- The Psalms are all made up of … cries of wonder, exultation, anguish or joy. The very concreteness of their passion makes some of them seem disjointed and senseless. Thomas Merton, Praying with the Psalms, pg 11-2
- Emotional Structure
- Plea for refuge and safety
- Calls on God to act as judge
- Asks God to express His righteousness
- David does not take action himself or asks permission to do so.
- Evil will self-destruct
- Give thanks to God
- Praying the Psalm
- Some Further Reflection
- Sire thinks the Psalm is a response to slander. But it could be other places or times David has been wronged.
- Study
- When you find yourself wronged, what is your natural inclination? Later, when you have had time to reflect, how do you think Christ would react?
- Read Psalm silently. I will give four minutes.
- When you hear ___ read this Psalm, think of yourself as David.
- Read Psalm Psalm 7 out loud.
- Answer as if you were David. So I would like to have you say “I” and not David for a few minutes. I am going to walk you through the Psalm one time. Place yourself in David’s sandals.
- What are you as David feeling? How do you use the images?
- Where is God?
- Why are you appealing to Him? What do you expect Him to do?
- From this Psalm, what did David do when he was wronged?
- Much of our world seems to want to fight back. The President takes pride in that he is a counter-puncher when attacked.
- How would you classify this Psalm-laid back? Emotional? Poetic? Theological statement? Something else?
- What words or phrases leads you to this?
- It sounds like David was wronged. What is troubling David? How was he wronged? What fits David’s plea?
- Q8
- Q9
- What did righteousness from God look like in David’s time? What would righteousness look like in the context of today’s America?
- What does whet mean?
- To sharpen
- Q12
- Q13
- Was David innocent enough to pray this Psalm? Are we ever innocent enough to pray something like this? Is being innocent is what is needed?
- Who can pray this Psalm? Under what circumstances?
- Read Psalm 7
- Introduce that I will only read the Psalm with only a few words of direction. But I will pause. Think and pray through your own experiences. Confess where you fall short. Ask for God to pursue justice to those who have wronged you or situations you are involved with. Make this Psalm your own prayer
- After v8. Place yourself in God’s courtroom. Start with yourself being tried. Now be the accuser and plead for justice.
- After 13. Ponder your own culpability and repent of anything which interferes with God’s righteousness and His grace.
- After 17. Know that we have a merciful God who is our stronghold and refuge. May His grace pour into our lives and into those who have oppressed us.
A
Blazing Song of Joy - Psalm 84
Sire
goes through the stages in understanding a Psalm so that you can pray
it:
- Read the Psalm-intentionally, intensively, quietly, meditatively.
- Absorb it with the direct language of the Psalms
- Rational Structure: Determine the flow and structure of ideas
- Emotional Structure: determine and reflect
- Understand the historical, cultural and intellectual background of the Psalm.
- Consult the scholars for the background.
- Realization of the central character of the Psalm
- Understand the relevance of the Psalm for you and your community.
- Your response is the answering speech to God reaching out to you.
- Background
- Book
- Getting at the meaning of Psalm 84
- Rational Structure
- The beauty of Zion (1)
- Longing for Zion (the presence of God) (2)
- The hominess of Zion (3)
- Joy in Zion (4)
- The joy of pilgrims to Zion (5-7)
- Refrain/invocation (8)
- The joy of servants in Zion (9-10)
- The God of Zion (11)
- The joy of all who trust in the God of Zion (12)
- Rhetorical Structure
- To God (1, 3-5, 8-10, 12)
- To the Israelite worshipers (2, 6-7,11)
- Emotional Structure
- Love and Joy
- Four Direct addresses to God
- Moving from God’s place of worship to the presence of God
- Modern Parallel
- Relates a person experience
- Study
- Thanks Jamie
- Prayer group over the summer. Book goes through June 15th.
- Go through Sire’s leading up to being able to pray the Psalms.
- Background:
- Gittith-stringed instrument, something like a zenther
- Baca - Valley of tears or weeping
- Read Psalm 84 to yourself, slowly. It should only take a minute, I will give you 3 minutes
- Note what Sire says. Internalize this psalm
- Muting sound
- Read Psalm 84 out loud.
- Psalm seems to fit very naturally into speaking to God.
- What is on the Psalmist mind?
- How does he express it?
- What lines did you latch onto? What spoke to you?
- When reading this Psalm, what was your emotional response?
- In this Psalm, where does the Psalmist talk about his places to stay? What does a place to stay represent to a person? Why is this sense of a place important to this Psalm?
- Identity the hurt the Psalmist feels.
- What is Zion? How does the Psalmist reference it? Why?
- Picture yourself being a pilgrim who has been in exile for ten years from your home. You are coming along a long and dusty trail. What are you hoping to see? How would you imagine it?
- How does this sense of hurt magnify the joy of the thought of his expectation?
- How have you experienced the joy of looking forward to worship?
- What is the flow of ideas in the Psalm? (Q60
- The Psalmist talks about the sparrows in the temple. Why? How does Jesus reflect on this portion of the Psalm? How should we be thinking about the sparrows in the temple?
- Matt 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?
- The pilgrim needs to go through the Valley Baca. Dy does a pilgrim need to pass through the dry, desolate places to reach the presence of God? Why? What has your experience been?
- Who can be blessed or happy according to the Psalmist? What is happiness? How does that differ from what our society tells us what will make us happy? With this differentiation, what are some ways we can be blessed?
- If this Psalm is an answer to God working in the life of the Psalmist, then what do you think was happening in the Psalmist’s life to bring about this emotional response?
- We have met up with David talking about his innocence. Now this Psalmist writes about being blameless. What does being blameless look like? How can the Psalmist write that he is blameless before God? What does this say about how we should live?
- Who can pray this Psalm? Who should? What should be prayed for from this Psalm?
- Pray this Psalm. I will read it.
- I will be pausing after 1 3 7, and 9
- Read with me vs 1
- After reading verse 3, pause briefly and read Matt 6:26-27
- Pray for those who serve us, either physically or spiritually
- Read aloud with me vs 10-12
Praying
Our Anger - Psalm 137
- Background
- Written from exile.
- Babylonia’s destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 587BC
- Psalm is a problem for a Christian.
- Book
- A sense of home or place
- Initial Reading of Psalm 137
- Does the emotional level of the Psalm match the intellectual content?
- Getting at the meaning of Psalm 137
- Every line of it is alive with pain, whose intensity grows with each strophe to the appalling climax. Derek Kinder, Psalms 73-150: A Commentary on Books III-V of the Psalms, pg 459
- No section of the Psalter causes us greater difficulty today than the so-called imprecatory psalms. With shocking frequency their thoughts penetrate the entire Psalter…. Every attempt to pray these psalms seems doomed to failure.Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, pg 56
- Rational Structure
- A situation remembered (1-3)
- Our response remembered (4-6)
- A plea to God to remember injustice (7)
- Prophecy (curse) addressed to Babylon (8-9)
- Moral and Emotional Structure
- Opens with beauty
- Beauty is enhanced with empathy
- Taunting
- Think of slaves being told to sing for their masters
- Evangelistic opportunity??? No more than the blacks singing for their freedom
- Sire thinks the Israeli’s were back home.
- Revenge for the destruction of their city and temple
- Vs 9 seems in appropriate revenge
- Imprecation in the Psalms
- Psalm 109
- Psalm 10:15
- Psalm 28: 4
- Psalm 31:17-18
- Psalm 58
- Psalm 69
- What the Scholars Say
- Holiness of God
- He reveals only what he wants to reveal to us.
- What is hidden by God from us?
- Sire notes that the Psalmist is only prophesying, not cursing the Babyloians.
- I do not know if I buy this.
- Also, how does that help us to pray this Psalm?
- The Wickedness of Mankind
- The Justice of God’s Judgement
- The Context of Ancient Israel
- Dashing children’s heads against rock was a “feature” of ancient warfare.
- See Lam 2:20-21
- Was vs 7-9 carried out?
- A New Testament Perspective
- God judges as He sees fit
- Christians are not the source of vengeance
- New Testament view of God is as Redeemer
- Christ took the dashing against the rocks at Golgotha
- The Context of Human Nature
- The Psalmist is praying his agony
- Implications for Praying the Imprecatory Psalms
- Lewis notes that it is wrong to prayer for the injury of another. Probably good theology
- Sire says that pastorally we may need to pray something like this rather than have it bottled up.
- Eugene Peterson says that Our hate needs to be prayed, not suppressed.
- How safe is it to be talking to God about this?
- Bonhoeffer quote
- Analogical Reading
- Understand the Psalm in its context
- Absorb the mindset of the Psalmist
- Praying Psalm 137
- Read the Psalm slowly, putting yourself in the Psalmist position.
- Pray the Psalm
- With eyes wide open, read the Psalm again.
- Pray a section at a time
- Wait for the Lord’s response
- Study
- Background
- Exiled in Babylon
- The Psalms we are going through are getting harder to comprehend. Some are more complex in thinking, others have emotions and thoughts we must grapple with.
- Where do you call home? Where do we belong? To whom? Why?
- Picture yourself as one of these (https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations):
- Palestinian who has had their home taken away
- A Syrian who had fled the civil war in Syria
- Afaganie who has fled 40 years of war
- Cuban’s who live in exile in Florida
- Venezuelan who has fled a dictator
- Or any refugee situation which has been made critical due to the Covid-19 virus issues.
- Visualize this and express what you are feeling.
- Read Psalm 137 to yourself, slowly. It only is 9 verses, I will give you 3 minutes
- Look for breaks in thought and what emotions the Psalmist feels
- Muting sound
- Read Psalm 137 out loud.
- When you were reading the first two verses, did you hear the Godspell music run through your head? I did. The more I read the more I thought it did not capture the Psalm.
- Do any of you have a problem with this Psalm and what is it?
- Show pictures. Which one captures the Psalm the best for you?
- What sections of thought do you find in this Psalm?
- What contrasts do you see in this Psalm?
- What emotions does the Psalmist feel?
- Work through the Psalm and what the Psalmist is thinking and feeling.
- Is this how you would feel as well?
- Why does the Psalmist feel like he cannot sing the songs of his homeland?
- What would give those songs meaning?
- Are there songs which we can only sing in America, which maybe they would be out of place elsewhere?
- Several of the Psalms we have struggled with. This one also seems to be as well. Can we pray this Psalm and under what conditions? And how?
- What does imprecatory mean?
- No section of the Psalter causes us greater difficulty today than the so-called imprecatory psalms. With shocking frequency their thoughts penetrate the entire Psalter…. Every attempt to pray these psalms seems doomed to failure.Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, pg 56
- Vs 7-think of the outrage which we as American’s felt as we saw the jets crashing into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon
- Several issues with vs 7-9
- Why does the Psalmist feel this hatred?
- Why do these verses appear in this Psalm? Particularly vs 9.
- Why does this Psalm appear in the Psalter?
- How can we as Christians pray this Psalm?
- Show the six factors in understanding imprecatory Psalms.
- If time permits, read Bonhoeffer, pg 58-60
- Directive Reading
- I will pause some for us to think about the section we have read.
- I may ask you to think about something
- Stop after 2, 4, 6 9
- After 6, say let us not take for granted what our Lord has given to us: family, home, fellowship
- After 9, Let us each know that we are human and have human reactions and emotions. If you are experiencing hurt, take it to God now. Pause
- Read Is 53:4,5:
- Surely he has borne our infirmities
- and carried our diseases;
- yet we accounted him stricken,
- struck down by God, and afflicted.
- 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions,
- crushed for our iniquities;
- upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
- and by his bruises we are healed.
The
God Who Knows Me - Psalm 139
- Book
- Rational Structure
- God knows me inside and out: the omniscience of God (1-6)
- God is inescapable: the omnipresence of God (7-12)
- God is my intimate Creator: the omnipotence of God (13-18)
- Prayer for God to punish the wicked: God is a righteous Judge (19-22)
- Prayer for personal righteousness (23-24)
- Sire is looking at the omni’s
- Highly personal. The me and your
- No guilt involved in the relationship.
- Vs 19-22 is jarring.
- John Sttott says that When a man’s world is full of God, he longs for the elimination of evil.
- Discusses David’s Search Me verses.
- Study
- Read Psalm 139 to yourself, slowly. I will give you 5 minutes
- Muting sound
- Read Psalm 139 out loud. Select three people, reading 8 verses each.
- How do you see this Psalm? What are the main thoughts presented in it?
- In what terms does the Psalmist address God? How does David describe himself?
- How well does God know David?
- What kind of relationship does David and God have according to this Psalm?
- Where is the guilt in this relationship?
- How did they develop this relationship?
- In vs 7-12, does David really want to escape God? What is David trying to establish by his statements?
- What imagines does the Psalmist us throughout this Psalm? What do they represent?
- Four basic questions:
- What does this Psalm say about God?
- What does this Psalm say about man?
- What does this Psalm say about our relationship with God?
- What does this Psalm say about my fellow human?
- Talk about my view of this Psalm. There is a sense of the immensity of God. How there seems to be answering speech within the Psalm.
- David talks about how God knows him
- Then David asks God where can he go to escape him. Does David really want to escape God?
- God formed David and David admires what God has done.
- Followed by the action David wants done.
- In vs 19-24, David prays for God to work in his world. That the wicked and evil are eliminated.
- How would you define the wicked? The evil?
- Is there wicked and evil today?
- How can we pray this today?
- John Sttott says that When a man’s world is full of God, he longs for the elimination of evil.
- How can David pray that God is to search and test him? Does not David know that we are all fallen?
- What of this Psalm resonates with you?
- What does God know about you? Do you/I think about this in our daily lives? Why is this important?
- Do you pray like David does, Lord Search me! Test me!?
- Directed Prayer
- Read vs 1-5
- Pray and think about that God knows you and what he knows about you. Pause. Now praise God with the Psalmist
- Read v6 pause
- Read 7-12.
- Ask yourself, where could you go to escape God? Do you want to? Find comfort in the fact that we cannot outrun God. Pause
- Read 13-16
- Recognize God has formed you. Be thankful and understand that.
- Read v17, 18. Pause.
- Read 19-22.
- Consider our world today and prayer with our Lord, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Pray that His will be done in our world.
- Read 23-24.
- Brothers and Sisters, know that we have a friend in Jesus who made us, who knows us and will be with us. Amen
- For those who want to stick around for about 20 minutes, I will be playing a piece by Paul Swearingen. Before we discuss this piece, I would like you to think about what he said. Think about if there is a first step for you. After playing this, I will stop the meeting.
Our
Mighty Fortress - Psalm 46
- Background
- Martin Luther was inspired by this Psalm to write the hymn, A Mighty Fortress is our God.
- Book
- Rational Structure:
- God is our refuge: Invocation (1)
- God is sovereign over nature (2-5)
- God is sovereign over the nations (6-7)
- God is sovereign over the future (8-0)
- Listen! I am in control (10)
- God is our refuge: Benediction (11)
- Sire thinks that many sermons on Psalm 46 promote ideas which this Psalm never was meant to put forth.
- He thinks that the Be still and know that I am God is the most frequently taken out of context. He says that the context is not about meditation, but rather come to a stop and do not muck up His creation. Let God be God.
- He also finds a parallel with Jesus calming the sea in Mark 4:39
- Application is when we are in danger or about to be overwhelmed, we can depend on God to be in the midst.
- Emotional Structure
- Vivid imagery is used in this Psalm
- Psalm of hope
- Study
- Many hymns based upon this Psalm:
- 46 Hymn - A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. #11, Hymns II
- 46 Hymn - God Is Our Strength and Refuge. #186, Hymns II
- 46 Hymn - God is Our Refuge. #201, Hymns II
- Read Psalm 46 to yourself, slowly. I will give you 5 minutes
- Muting sound
- Read Psalm 46 out loud.
- Who is speaking or praying?
- The word Alamoth is for female singers, probably virgins who are close to being marriageable.
- In what voice? What pronouns are used for those who are praying? (for himself? for others?)
- How does this make a difference in how you read and reflect on this Psalm?
- In what sections do you naturally break this Psalm into? Also what titles do you have? There is more than one way to do it.
- How do the ideas of this Psalm flow?
- What difference does it make how you break this Psalm up?
- What images does the Psalmist use? What emotions do these strike?
- How is nature used in this Psalm? Why does the Psalmist use these images?
- What does this say about God and nature?
- What would be the major point in this Psalm?
- Is this theme repeated? How so and were?
- What does it mean for God to be our refuge and strength?
- How can this be applied today?
- From this Psalm can it be applied personally?
- To our country? To the Church?
- Sire pictures this as being a Psalm of hope? Hope does he get this? Do you see it as hop for yourself? How so?
- Vs 10
- If this is a group prayer, how do you vs 10?
- What does Be Still and Know that I am God mean in that context?
- Where is God in the midst of the pandemic?
- Where is God in the midst of the civil unrest today?
- The Psalmist ends with a refrain similar to the first verse. Why does he do that?
- What does this Psalm say about God?
- What about our relationship with Him?
- What does it say about you and our community?
- Why is this Psalm important to you?
- Directed Prayer
- As we pray, think about and pray this Psalm according to our times.
- Pause after 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11
- Close: Know that God is our strength and refuge in these times of trouble. Know that He loves and cares for us all. Let us be still and know our God.
Teach
Us to Pray
- Book
- Introduction
- Hard to write because of the personal nature of the Psalms Also spiritual.
- Talks about Pascal hiding his spiritual journal in the lining of his coat so it was only between him and God.
- Six principles Sire has learned:
- We learn to Pray by Praying
- Prayer is a discipline, not a teaching.
- The more you pray the more you learn about praying. Then the more you pray
- The God to Whom We Pray
- Prayer is not self help
- There is God who is standing behind prayer. We pray “O Lord”
- Important to know who the God we pray to is?
- Prayer Arises Out of a Discipline Life
- Who is Joachim Jeremias? German theologian. Was in Germany during WW II. Jeremias was appointed in 1935 to the chair of New Testament studies at the Georg-August University of Göttingen, where he taught until his retirement in 1968. In 1976, Jeremias moved from Göttingen to Tübingen, where he died in 1979.
- Sire quotes him as saying Jesus probably prayed three times a day, like a good Jew.
- Prayer to the ancient Jewish people was done three times a day.
- Many of the Psalms which we looked at were set for either certain times-morning or evening or at certain times of the year.
- Prayer Arises Out of Our Condition
- Sin leads to confession and the need to re-enter into God’s grace.
- Despair.
- Troubles being faced
- Waking up to a new day
- Measuring myself to God
- Prayer Runs the Gamut of Emotions
- Agony
- Ecstasy
- Desperation
- Hope
- Anger and hatred
- Prayer Takes Place in Silence
- Do we listen to the noise around us or just absorb it?
- When there is noise around us, can we listen to God?
- Ps 130:6
- Principles and Practice
- Study
- Last study from the book.
- No Sire study or Psalm
- Describe the rest of summer’s time of House Church.
- Need someone to lead next week and the succeeding weeks
- Possible we may not be here next week. But still can meet with this Zoom link.
- When you hear “Teach Us to Pray”
- Sire does not talk about the Lord’s Prayer
- Read Luke 11:1-4
- What do the disciples want to learn?
- What does Jesus want the disciples to learn?
- What is between you and God? (Do not ask this question)
- What have you learned about praying during our time with the Psalms?
- How does the Peterson’s Answering Prayer help to explain the prayer of the Psalms?
- What is an honest prayer?
- Describe the God which you pray to? How have the Psalms described this God?
- Do you pray at a certain set time?
- What practices do you have during your time with God?
- How do you make these times a time to meet with God rather than a routine which you keep/ Sire says a time of encouragement?
- As we have read and prayer through the Psalms, what conditions have we met?
- Do the Psalms we have read talk to you where you are at? In what ways? Do they help you to work through your condition?
- What emotions are talked about in the Psalms we have read? How do the Psalmists address these emotions? What do the Psalms teach us about our emotions? Are they ones you have?
- Sire asks the question, with the range of emotions and demands the Psalmist expresses to God, what is off the table when speaking to God?
- What is God’s reaction to these emotions?
- What does God do with these prayers?
- When you are alone, do you have silence? Do you seek places of silence? How do you create these places? What do you do then?
- Yesterday Geruld talked about gratitude. In very many ways the Psalms circle back around to this. In what ways have you noticed gratitude towards God talked about and expressed. How are we to express it?
- Sire ends his book with the need to practice prayer.
Appendix:
Guide for Small Group Leaders
Evaluation:
I
had this book laying around on my bookshelf. When our small group
decided to do Psalms during the shelter-in-place time, I picked this
book up as a guide for the group. It worked out well. While I am more
familiar with Sire in more intellectual ways, this book is more
personal and hands on.
Sire
leads us through 10 Psalms, as the title suggests, it is using these
Psalms to highlight prayers to God. He uses Eugene
Peterson’sAnswering
Speech
as a means to say these Psalms are an answer to something to which
God has worked in their lives. He goes through working through the
structures of these Psalms in three ways: rational, emotional and
rhetorical. But the emphasis is how to use them to pray.
One
thing is that Sire uses a lot of paper with certain redundancies. On
each structure he examines, he goes through each Psalm in full. Also
when he shows us how to pray to them, there is another printing of
the Psalm. Finally in the small group study guide he uses directed
prayer on the Psalm. Sire wants us to take an in-depth look at each
Psalm, but I found myself skiming the Psalm rather than concentrating
on it. This may be more my weakness than a fault with Sire’s book.
New Words:
- Strophe (Praying Our AngerPraying Our Anger): the first section of an ancient Greek choral ode or of one division of it.
- Imprecatory (Praying Our AngerPraying Our Anger): Psalms, contained within the Book of Psalms of the Hebrew Bible (תנ"ך), are those that invoke judgment, calamity, or curses, upon one's enemies or those perceived as the enemies of God.
- Lex talionis (Praying Our AngerPraying Our Anger): the law of retaliation, whereby a punishment resembles the offense committed in kind and degree.
- Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Richard Howard. Poem Out of the depths I cry
- Waiting for Godot by Samuel Becket
- First Line: I remember it clearly.
- Last Line: May God give you great joy in serving him by helping others
- Spiritual fruit will come only if you actually pray through the Psalms. Chp: Introduction
- Introduction
- Becoming Right with God - Psalm 32
- Waiting for the Lord - Psalm 130
- Night Thoughts - Psalm 4
- A Morning Meditation - Psalm 5
- Thirsting for God - Psalm 42-43
- A Plea for Deliverance from Slander -Psalm 7
- A Blazing Song of Joy - Psalm 84
- Praying Our Anger - Psalm 137
- The God Who Knows Me - Psalm 139
- Our Mighty Fortress - Psalm 46
- Teach Us to Pray
- Appendix: Guide for Small Group Leaders
References:
