by Pastor Paul Dugan
Try beginning your prayer with praise, using this three-part rhythm.
Part I: Become present to the presence of God.
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. (Ps 90:14)
Pause in silence before him. Slowly inhale, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Slowly exhale, and release any burdens you are carrying into this time of prayer. Repeat this breathing prayer until you have brought your whole self - your thoughts, emotions, imagination, desires, and your body- (“as-is”) into the presence of God.
Part II: Slowly read Psalm 95 (NIV) out loud:
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
3 For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
Today, if only you would hear his voice,
8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested me;
they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
Part III: Use your own words to pray Psalm 95 back to God:
“Lord God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I praise you, for who you are…
“I praise you for what you have done. Specifically, I thank you for…
The psalms were originally written as lyrics. They have been sung by the people of God throughout the history of Israel and the church. Take time to listen to a version of Psalm 95 set to music…
Psalm 95. Performed by Sons of Korah. sonsofkorah.com
For links to individual guides for more than one hundred different psalms click here.
For more on the Psalms:
Here is an introduction to the Book of Psalms.
For a list of psalms by literary style (genre) click here.
For an introduction to the narrative arc of the psalms, see Spirituality of the Psalms, by Walter Brueggemann.