The Psalms

I've been taking a little time and rereading Lewis' Reflections on the Psalms. It's a real treasure. While reading it you discover the role that the Psalms played in Lewis' prayer life. Simply, they served as the framework of his conversation with God. He assumed that the 150 psalms are there not just for God to speak to us, but for us to speak to God. They are to serve as our prayers. Deitrich Bonhoeffer in his litte book on the Psalms -- Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible -- in that same spirit says, "if we wish to pray with confidence and gladness, then the words of Holy Scripture will have to be the solid basis of our prayer. For here we know that Jesus Christ, the Word of God, teaches us to pray. The words which come from God become, then, the steps on which we find our way to God."

I grew up being taught that the best words we can offer to God are the honest words from our hearts. No one ever suggested that the words of the psalmist were the place to begin. Bonhoeffer adds that if we really believe that scripture is the word of God, why wouldn't we want to use those words when we pray?

Lewis' favorite was Psalm 19. It's a great exercise to let that Psalm be your prayer in the next few days.

What do you think?