On Sunday we introduced our faith family to The Basic Rule. A “rule” in the life of faith gives structure to our schedules, “taking the small patterns of life and organizing them towards the big goal of life: to love God and neighbor” (Earley). Like the trellis on which a vine grows, the Basic Rule has been used for millennia by those desiring to follow Jesus to give shape to their ordinary daily and weekly participation in God’s kingdom come and will being done on earth as it is in heaven. Because we want to become a people who Do What Jesus Did in in-step with the Spirit and as mature children of our Father, we have to start—and continue to come back to—“the basic rule.”
In a nutshell, the Basic Rule consists of a commitment to three habits, the first and last being Common Worship and Recollected Prayers. We’ll discuss these more in the coming weeks. But in the center of these two commitments is Praying the Pslams Daily—whether we feel like it or not!
Historically this praying has been done in a cyclical rhythm over 30 or 60 days (see attached schedule), most often dividing the scheduled psalms into morning and evening prayers. This fundamental self-discipline recognizes what our ancestors in the faith believed to be true, that the Psalms are necessary, and not mere art decoration.
Psalmist scholar A.F. Kirkpatrick noted, “if a history of the use of the Psalter could be written, it would be a history of the spiritual life of the Church. From the earliest times, the Psalter has been the church’s manual of Prayer and Praise in its public worship, the treasury of devotion for its individual members in their private communing with God.” For the psalms are a “school,” as Augustine wrote, where we go to learn to pray, to communicate and commune with the author and perfector of our lives. As Louis Bouyer explains, “The Psalter [is] our fundamental prayer. For the Psalter is also, in its way, a prayer of [humans] which is at the same time the Word of God. If we wish, therefore, to give to God’s word the most faithful and most obedient answer in our prayer, we must use above any other that prayer which continues in the mouth of [humans] to be the Word of God.”
We employee the basic rule of daily psalm praying not because it is necessary for salvation, “for by grace you have been saved through faith; and this not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not because of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). Nor do we make a habit of learning to pray through the psalms to somehow make sure God hears our prayers, “Right words and correct forms are not prerequisites to a heavenly audience” (Peterson). No, we voluntarily submit to the prayers of the psalms because “we wish to develop in the life of faith, to mature in our humanity, to glorify God with our entire heart, mind, soul, and strength [and love our neighbors as ourselves].”
So, choose a Psalm Schedule (attached) of 30 or 60 days, and get back to the basics with your faith family! This is where we start, simply committing to the formation. Over the coming weeks, we’ll learn more about how this “school” works, but for now, print and cut out the schedule of your choice and use it as bookmark to keep your place as we pray the psalms together!
“In this as in so much else I find that you are one with the church, that you pray the psalms.”
(von Hugel)