Psalm Prayers

Stephen Cherry

Description

Psalm Prayers is a devotional companion to the Psalms and a practical resource for creating prayers for public worship. It introduces each of the 150 Psalms and their central themes before offering a prayer in response, crafted in a traditional style that complements the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Practice
• Christian Rituals
• Philosophie et théologie
• Liturgy
• Worship

Informations

• Publié par: Hymns Ancient & Modern
• Date de parution: 30 avril 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786222398
• Langue: English

Extrait

Psalm Prayers
Stephen Cherry






© Stephen Cherry 2020
First published in 2020 by the Canterbury Press Norwich
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Canterbury Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, Canterbury Press.
The Author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the Author of this Work
Bible quotations are from the
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide and the Authorized Version of the Bible (The King James Bible), the rights in which are vested in the Crown, are reproduced by permission of the Crown’s Patentee, Cambridge University Press.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
978 1 78622 237 4
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Group ( UK ) Ltd





Contents
Preface
Praying with the Psalms
Psalms 1‒150 Introductions, Prayers and Meditations
Psalm 1: Like a tree
Psalm 2: Desire of me
Psalm 3: My defender
Psalm 4: Gladness in my heart
Psalm 5: Lead me
Psalm 6: I am weak
Psalm 7: God is provoked
Psalm 8: How excellent
Psalm 9: Consider the trouble
Psalm 10: Forget not the poor
Psalm 11: My trust
Psalm 12: Pure words
Psalm 13: How long?
Psalm 14: An open sepulchre
Psalm 15: An uncorrupt life
Psalm 16: A goodly heritage
Psalm 17: The apple of an eye
Psalm 18: My strong helper
Psalm 19: The glory of God
Psalm 20: Thy heart’s desire
Psalm 21: Everlasting felicity
Psalm 22: Look upon me
Psalm 23: The waters of comfort
Psalm 24: The King of glory
Psalm 25: Show me thy ways
Psalm 26: Examine me
Psalm 27: Seek my face
Psalm 28: I cry unto thee
Psalm 29: The voice of the Lord
Psalm 30: Joy cometh in the morning
Psalm 31: Into thy hands
Psalm 32: Thou forgavest
Psalm 33: Stand in awe
Psalm 34: O taste, and see
Psalm 35: The great discomfort of my soul
Psalm 36: The foot of pride
Psalm 37: Fret not thyself
Psalm 38: Forsake me not
Psalm 39: Let me know mine end
Psalm 40: My heart failed me
Psalm 41: Heal my soul
Psalms 42 and 43: (A) My soul is athirst
Psalms 42 and 43 (B): Thy waves and storms
Psalm 44: Lord, why sleepest thou?
Psalm 45: A ready writer
Psalm 46: Be still
Psalm 47: A merry noise
Psalm 48: In the midst of thy temple
Psalm 49: Wise men also die
Psalm 50: A consuming fire
Psalm 51: A troubled spirit
Psalm 52: A green olive-tree
Psalm 53: Where no fear was
Psalm 54: God is my helper
Psalm 55: My companion
Psalm 56: I am sometime afraid
Psalm 57: My heart is fixed
Psalm 58: Break their teeth
Psalm 59: God of my refuge
Psalm 60: Vain is the help of man
Psalm 61: The covering of thy wings
Psalm 62: In God is my health
Psalm 63: My soul thirsteth
Psalm 64: The imagine wickedness
Psalm 65: The madness of the people
Psalm 66: Behold the works of God
Psalm 67: Bless us
Psalm 68: The earth shook
Psalm 69: I wept
Psalm 70: Haste thee unto me
Psalm 71: When I am grey headed
Psalm 72: Deliver the poor
Psalm 73: I was grieved at the wicked
Psalm 74: The King of old
Psalm 75: God the Judge
Psalm 76: The earth trembled / Thou art to be feared
Psalm 77: My own infirmity
Psalm 78: Marvellous things
Psalm 79: Where is God?
Psalm 80: Turn us again
Psalm 81: Sing we merrily
Psalm 82: A Judge among gods
Psalm 83: Keep not still silence
Psalm 84: One day in thy courts
Psalm 85: Truth will flourish
Psalm 86: Knit my heart unto thee
Psalm 87: My fresh springs
Psalm 88: The lowest pit
Psalm 89: Thou hast broken the covenant
Psalm 90: A thousand years in thy sight
Psalm 91: Thou art my hope
Psalm 92: How glorious are thy works
Psalm 93: The floods are risen
Psalm 94: Thy mercy held me up
Psalm 95: A great God
Psalm 96: The beauty of holiness
Psalm 97: Rejoice in the Lord
Psalm 98: Show yourselves joyful
Psalm 99: Fall down before his footstool
Psalm 100: Be joyful
Psalm 101: The way of godliness
Psalm 102: I have eaten ashes
Psalm 103: Mercy and loving-kindness
Psalm 104: The earth shall tremble
Psalm 105: All his wondrous works
Psalm 106: Noble acts of the Lord
Psalm 107: Declare the wonders
Psalm 108: Awake, thou lute, and harp
Psalm 109: I am helpless
Psalm 110: A priest for ever
Psalm 111: The beginning of wisdom
Psalm 112: A good man
Psalm 113: Glory above the heavens
Psalm 114: The mountains skipped
Psalm 115: Trust in the Lord
Psalm 116: Trouble and heaviness
Psalm 117: The truth of the Lord
Psalm 118: The gate of the Lord
Psalm 119: Walk in the law
Psalm 120: Woe is me
Psalm 121: Thy keeper
Psalm 122: The peace of Jerusalem
Psalm 123: We are utterly despised
Psalm 124: The snare is broken
Psalm 125: The lot of the righteous
Psalm 126: We rejoice
Psalm 127: He giveth his beloved sleep
Psalm 128: O well is thee
Psalm 129: They vexed me
Psalm 130: Out of the deep
Psalm 131: As a weaned child
Psalm 132: My rest for ever
Psalm 133: Together in unity
Psalm 134: By night
Psalm 135: Sing praises unto his name
Psalm 136: Great wonders
Psalm 137: A strange land
Psalm 138: My whole heart
Psalm 139: Thou knowest
Psalm 140: Adders’ poison
Psalm 141: As the incense
Psalm 142: My spirit was in heaviness
Psalm 143: I flee unto thee
Psalm 144 Bow thy heavens
Psalm 145: The eyes of all
Psalm 146: While I live
Psalm 147: The waters flow
Psalm 148: He spake the word
Psalm 149: Such honour
Psalm 150: Every thing that hath breath

Index of Themes




Preface
Towards the beginning of the daily service of Choral Evensong, the psalms of the day are sung in the Prayer Book translation to Anglican Chant. Towards the end of the same service come ‘the prayers’. These bring to the mind of the congregation and to the ears of God the concerns that are felt to be appropriate and pressing, and words of thanks and praise that are considered to be apposite.
The psalms and the prayers thus balance each other, presenting human reality and need for God both towards the beginning of the service and near its end. In style, however, they are often extremely different. But while the psalms and prayers play a similar role, they do so very differently.
The psalms are full of unguarded and undefended expressions and sentiments; they marshal concrete language and vivid images to vent feelings in God’s direction. They do nothing to take the edge off the sharpness of either life or death; they are bold attempts to put experience and reality in all its actuality – however disorienting, distressing or frankly disgusting – squarely in front of God. By contrast the prayers can sometimes seem polite and guarded and the language in which they are expressed can feel safe and predictable. It’s as if the psalms represent what we need to express to God, whereas the prayers reflect what we think God wants to hear.
The psalms express a huge variety of moods and situations and are full of raw human passion and energy. Despite the fact that there is in the Bible a book whose primary purpose is to provide a paradigm of prayer, our actual praying has drifted far from this God-given resource. As Eugene Peterson, pastor and author of The Message transliteration of the Bible, has written, ‘the Psalms are where Christians have always learned to pray ‒ till our age’. 1
Not long after I first noticed the gap between the psalms that were sung and the prayers that were often offered at services, I set myself the challenge of writing a new prayer in response to every psalm in the Psalter and was soon offering prayers after the anthem at Evensong that had been inspired by one of the psalms that had been sung that evening. 2 My hope was that some of the ancient authenticity of the psalms would help ground and shape the prayers, and that some of the rawness that characterizes the psalms would remain in the prayers and make them real, despite the obvious fact that our times are extraordinarily different to those in which the psalms were first used as prayers themselves.
This book is the result. The prayers lie at its heart, but as the collection began to take shape so it became apparent that many potential readers would be helped by a few words that introduced the psalm itself. This is especially the case as everything here is based on the familiar and beautiful, but not always accurate or clear, version found in the Book of Common Prayer. Each prayer is therefore prefaced by a short intr