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Love

Teaching Text: Psalm 147: 1-11

Praise the Lord.

How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
    he gathers the exiles of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted
    and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars
    and calls them each by name.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
    his understanding has no limit.
The Lord sustains the humble
    but casts the wicked to the ground.

Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;
make music to our God on the harp.

He covers the sky with clouds;
    he supplies the earth with rain
    and makes grass grow on the hills.
He provides food for the cattle
    and for the young ravens when they call.

His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
the Lord delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

Praying the Psalms

Formation

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

What has the easter reality of the resurrection of Jesus changed for you personally?

Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

What should we do? What was the resurrection for?

“A restored relationship with Jesus”

We should talk with Jesus. We should listen for what Jesus has to say to us.

We should participate relationally in His Life, Death and Resurrection

I can talk with Jesus.

Our hope for the Resurrection of Jesus is not simply about verifying a past event. It is about experiencing the ongoing reality of a conversation with Christ, a friendship with Christ.

“The resurrection is not just something that happened to Jesus two thousand years ago and will happen to each of us sometime in the future, after we die, when our own bodies will be raised to new life. It is that, but it is much more. The resurrection is something that buoys up every moment of life and every aspect of reality. God is always making new life and undergirding it with a goodness, graciousness, mercy, and love that, in the end, heals all wounds, forgives all sins, and brings deadness of all kinds to new life.”

– Ronald Rolheiser

Our life becomes a prayer, becomes a sensing of God's presence, becomes worship, becomes talking and listening to God.

Mary Magdalene who was first human to tell of Jesus resurrection. How did she begin? She talked with Jesus. She heard Him say her name, and her eyes were opened.
Peter was an erratic mess, in shambles, buried in shame. And in talking and listening to Jesus after the resurrection, his life was reasssmbeld stronger than before.
Thomas was full of doubt. He wouldnt believe his friends’ account of Jesus being alive. He has to see Him for himself too talk with Him.
A couple on the road to Emmaus - they were leaving dejected and confused. They talked with a man as they left town. And then they finally recognized Him in the breaking of bread.

As they recounted their time with Him they said, as we were talking....

Did our hearts not burn?
Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
What should we do?

But the reality is many of us find prayer challenging.

We struggle to get started
We struggle to keep it going
We struggle to make it a regular part of our day
Many of us feel we don't pray very well
We wish we prayed more

Caleb says:

“And the least part of the challenge from my experience is that many of us have a primary way we have thought about prayer that is basically EYES CLOSED SPIRITUAL IMPROV”

Have you experienced prayer this way?

How would you describe your experience of prayer?

Is your idea of prayer helpful for or hindering to your prayer experience?

And if that is intimidating, then hear this:

You are not alone
That’s not the only way to pray

“The great and sprawling university that Hebrews and Christians have attended to learn to answer God, to learn to pray, has been the Psalms. More people have learned to pray by matriculating in the Psalms than in any other way. The Psalms were the prayer book of Israel; they were the prayer book of Jesus; they are the prayer book of the church. At no time in the Hebrew and Christian centuries (with the possible exception of our own) have the Psalms not been at the very center of all concern and practice in prayer.”

– Eugene Peterson

In Jesus’s most trying moments, He prays a pre-written prayer that He is familiar with. He was praying the psalms.

“My God my God why have you forsaken me”

“Into thy hands I commit my spirit”

– Psalm 22 and Psalm 36.

We learn to pray by praying other prayers.

The Psalms is an amazing place to learn to pray.

Our vision as a church this year is to expand our prayer life.

For every person in TGC to talk and listen to God every day.

“The Psalms model ways of talking to God that are honest, yet not obvious – at least, they are not obvious to modern Christians. They may guide our first steps toward deeper involvement with God because the Psalms give us a new possibility for prayer; they invite full disclosure. They enable us to bring into our conversation with God feelings and thoughts that most of us think we need to get rid of before God will be interested in hearing from us. The point of the shocking psalms is not to sanctify what is shameful (for example, the desire for sweet revenge) or to make us feel better about parts of ourselves that stand in need of change. Rather, the Psalms teach us that profound change happens always in the presence of God. Over and over they attest to the reality that when we open our minds and hearts fully to God who made them, then we open ourselves, whether we know it or not to the possibility of being transformed beyond our imagining.”

– Ellen F. Davis: Getting Involved with God

Easter tells us God’ve love will not fail.

Unfailing love is a pretty good foundation for prayer - God is not disappointed in you.

For conversation - for talking and listening

God is always previous - you don’t have to start it all

God is in conversation - you don;t have to sustain it all

Praying the Psalm is a way to being when you can’t work out how to begin

“I need a language that is large enough to maintain continuities, supple enough to maintain nuances across a lifetime that brackets child and adult experiences, and courageous enough to explore all the countries of sin and salvation, mercy and grace, creation and covenant, anxiety and trust, unbelief and faith that compromise the continental human condition. The Psalms are this large, supple, and courageous language.”

– Eugene Peterson

Praying the Psalms this week: