PRAYING THE PSALMS (Praying Scriptures 2)
In the last blog I talked about bringing life and variety into your prayers by praying the Bible back to God. I gave a short example from Psalm 23 but I’d like to build on that. I hope you have been trying to do this during the past week.
in Acts 4, after Peter and John were arrested and threatened by the Jewish authorities for preaching Christ. Acts 4:23 says, “When they were released, they went to their friends [that is, the church] and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, ‘Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. . .’” These are words taken from Psalm 146:6. They quoted God’s Word back to Him, using Scripture to express their worship.
Acts 4:25 continues: “The Lord, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?’” This is from Psalm 2:1-2. They used the Old Testament to frame and express their thoughts to God. So can we, and we have the New Testament as well. When they were looking for words to praise God, they quoted His Word back to Him. After praying this, the place was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit so they could continue to speak God’s Word with boldness (Acts 4:31). These are new believers, but they knew the Bible and used its words to convey their prayers to God.
We may think of worship as singing or some emotional response, but worship also involves prayer and meditation based on God’s Word as we reflect on Him and His goodness. Basically, worship is attributing worth to God, and the Bible contains may great examples of that.
Another good passage to use is Psalm 145. Read each verse aloud, then paraphrase it and personalize it in a prayer back to God. For example, Psalm 145:8 reads: “The Lord is gracious and compassionate; Slow to anger and great in mercy.” Pray that back to God by personalizing it: “Lord, You are gracious and compassionate. Thank You for being slow to anger and great in mercy when it comes to Your love toward me. I know I can bring anything to You.”
By personalizing the Word to your own life and situations and keeping God’s attributes and the truth of Who He is intact in your prayer, you are applying Scripture to your everyday life. That is what it means to pray Scripture over your situation and to use it as a weapon in spiritual attack.
You may not know God’s Word well enough to find a verse for every situation, but there are resources you can use. My book, “Topical Index of Bible Verses,” will refer you to Bible verses for any need or situation you face. You can go to https://www.christiantrainingonline.org/our-ministries/india/books/ and scroll down to “Topical Index of Bible Verses.” or email me (jerry@schmoyer.net) and I’ll send you a PDF of it. Or you can do a Google search for the topics or subject you are praying about.
Psalm 145:1 I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever.
Spend some time now making praying Psalm 145:1 (above) back to God. Tomorrow use verse 2.
cto Rev. Dr. JERRY SCHMOYER
Christian Training Organization
Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org
(India Outreach, Spiritual Warfare, Family Ministries, Counseling, World View)
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