The psalms are a “school of prayer” that God’s children have attended for millennia. These poetic prayers do more than give us words to use in our prayers, they invite us to find our voice within them. The language of the Psalms is not merely descriptive; it is evocative. It is language meant to evoke, to bring to mind an image, a memory, a feeling, that then leads us to prayer.
This evocative nature is especially true for our seven Psalms of Lent, which have been our guide through the Lenten Season for the last two years.
The words of these psalms particularly, draw us into an image or memory or feeling of pain or surprise for ourselves and/or those around us. And in doing so, invite us to find God in these needy places, much like the “two sons” found their father in their time of need.
So today, take a moment to pray Psalm 6, written out for us below.
Before starting, ask the Spirit to help you see who and for what you are praying along the plot line of faith. Then, read each paragraph and let whatever image, memory, or feeling that comes to mind (whether for you or another) lead you to express the psalmist’s words in your own words. Then do the same for the next paragraph and the next until you’ve concluded the psalm.
WRESTLING WITH GOD
Please, God, no more yelling, no more trips to the woodshed. Treat me nice for a change; I’m so starved for affection. Can’t you see I’m black-and-blue, beat up badly in bones and soul? God, how long will it take for you to let up?
WRESTLING WITH LIFE
Break in, God, and break up this fight; if you love me at all, get me out of here. I’m no good to you dead, am I? I can’t sing in your choir if I’m buried in some tomb!
DONE WRESTLING
I’m tired of all this—so tired. My bed has been floating forty days and nights On the flood of my tears. My mattress is soaked, soggy with tears. The sockets of my eyes are black holes; nearly blind, I squint and grope.
SURPRISED BY HOPE
Get out of here, you Devil’s crew: at last God has heard my sobs. My requests have all been granted, my prayers are answered. Cowards, my enemies disappear. Disgraced, they turn tail and run.