Praying the Psalms: Getting Honest with God, Psalm 73 (Randy)

So often our prayers are either rote or laden with a self-serving wish list.  We treat prayer as a perfunctory exercise or a chance to ask a genie in the bottle to grant us our every wish.  At the same time, we are afraid to be really honest with God.  We bottle up our emotions or vent them on others, but we feel guilty taking them to God in prayer.  Yet that is exactly what he wants us to do: to pray honestly and work through our emotions with him.

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Praying the Psalms: The Sovereignty of God, Part 1 (Chris)

The Psalms are a guide to prayer to and to effective Christian life.  This lesson begins by exploring how the Psalms offer a unique perspective on God and human experience.  We also consider how Jesus is at the heart of each Psalm as he inspired them, prayed them himself while he was on earth, and walks beside us as we seek to harness their power.  Using Psalms 8, 13, 18, and 19, we then take an initial look at how God’s sovereignty as Creator and Giver of the Law is reflected in the Psalms.  The word for us in response is “confidence.”  The Psalms should make us confident in the ultimately positive outcome of whatever we face in life.

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Praying the Psalms: Psalm 2 (Randy)

While Psalm 1 warns us about the danger of being overly attracted to the world, Psalm 2 reminds us not to be intimidated by the world.  We all have authority figures in our lives who pressure us, from parents to government officials.  Yet we must recognize that Jesus is Lord of all, and by serving him we can both honor and respect authorities without being threatened by them.

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Praying the Psalms: Introduction to the Psalms with Psalm 1 (Randy)

The Psalms were Jesus’s prayer book.  He prayed constantly to the Father, and very often quoted the Psalms when doing so.  Today, we tend to be more perfunctory in our prayers, or focus on physical health and well being over spiritual health and well being.  With the Psalms as our guide, we can learn to pray more honestly and meaningfully to God.  In this introductory lesson, we examine Psalm 1 as the “main entrance to the mansion” of the Psalms.

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