2 More Reasons We Don’t Have to Pray Exactly Like the Psalmists

Next Monday, we’ll move on to learning how to pray like the psalmists. This week, however, we’ll conclude what we started last Monday by noting two more reasons we don’t have to pray exactly like the Psalmists. Also, you may want to check out the index for the entire series of posts.

Last week we learned we don’t have to pray exactly like the Psalmists because…

1. The Psalms are part of the Old Covenant and Not Part of Our Covenant with God.

2. The Psalm were not written as the universal guide for all praying, but were written in a culturally appropriate genre.

There are two more reasons we do not have to pray exactly like the psalmists.

3. When Jesus was asked to teach His disciples how to pray, He didn’t refer to the Psalms.

In Luke 11:1-13, Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray. While some of the principles He demonstrated can also be learned from the Psalms, He did not once go to the Psalms as the guide for how we are to pray. Rather, He provided a model for prayer and then stated some principles about persistence and about how God wants to bless us.

I have to believe if the Psalms were the guide we have to follow about praying, Jesus would have used them directly and set them up as our standard. But He didn’t.

Having said that, I do note that Jesus did use the Psalms in prayer. While on the cross He prayed the Psalms twice. In Matthew 27:46, Jesus prayed Psalm 22:1: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” In Luke 23:46, Jesus prayed Psalm 31:5: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” 

I conclude that we do not have to pray exactly like the psalmists. However, if we want to pray like Jesus, we can certainly learn from the psalmists.

4. Even the Old Covenant Hebrews Didn’t Pray Like the Psalmists.

WHAT?!

I know that shocks you; let me repeat it. Even the Old Covenant Hebrews didn’t pray like the Psalmists. Oh, no doubt, at times the Hebrews incorporated the Psalms in their prayers. I’m sure many of the psalms are liturgical in nature. That is, they were actually incorporated into their formal worship. For instance, it makes perfect sense to see Psalm 24:1-10 as part of their public worship as they opened the gates of the temple every morning. The Psalms of Ascent seemed to have been used as the Jews pilgrimaged their way to Jerusalem.

I recognize the Jews did pray the psalms. What I mean is when Jews hit their knees in prayer on a daily basis as they faced the hardships of life and needed God’s help, they didn’t pray in Hebrew poetry anymore than we would. Don’t be surprised at this. Have you read Job? For 35 chapters these 5 friends argue about what was happening to Job. Do any of us actually believe they argued in Hebrew poetry? Of course not. We understand this was a stylized account of what happened.

I suggest that is exactly what we see in the Psalms. They are not the natural prayers the normal Hebrews would offer. Rather, they were stylized accounts of what happened surrounding prayers. Certainly, they were adopted in later prayers. However, for example, David didn’t just naturally spout off the Hebrew poetry of Psalm 57:1-11 or Psalm 142:1-7 while he was hiding in a cave, fearing for his life.

When we just think about this for a moment, we can all naturally recognize this. However, I can actually show you a specific instance that demonstrates it. Isaiah 38 shows the prayer of an ancient Hebrew and then the psalm he wrote later about the circumstance.

King Hezekiah was going to die. God had told him through Isaiah to get his affairs in order, his time was up. In Isaiah 38:3 we see Hezekiah’s prayer: “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” That doesn’t sound very psalmish. Rather, it sounds very prosaic, straightforward, normal. In fact, it sounds an awful lot like a simple prayer we might offer today. There is no poetic form, no parallelism, no chiasm, no imagery. 

However, in Isaiah 38:10-20 we see the psalm Hezekiah wrote to memorialize this circumstance. I have no doubt at later times Jews probably used this psalm in their prayers, but this psalm wasn’t just the natural prayer offered up. I am sure if we could see behind the scenes of all the psalms, we would find similar stories. 

Even we might write a poetic prayer that we used repeatedly, but that is not the natural way we pray. We might find some poetic prayers, even the psalms, and adopt their language in our prayers or even recite them in prayer. However, that is not how we pray naturally. The psalmists didn’t do that either. We don’t have to feel guilty if our natural and normal prayers don’t soar to the poetic heights of the psalms.

Wrapping Up the Springboard

We are going to learn a great deal about praying from the psalmists. However, I thought it was important to set our minds at ease. We don’t ever have to pray just like the psalmists. We don’t have to feel guilty if we don’t naturally pray like they did. We can simply be free to study the psalms as long as we like and grow as much as they’ll let us without feeling overwhelmed. 

I’m looking forward to this study and hope you are as well. Come back next Monday for our next installment. We’re going to learn if we want to pray like the psalmists, we have to believe in the God they did and we’ll start learning what they believed about God.