Praying the Psalms

It was eleven years ago that I started City Called Heaven. I began with lectionary reflections for Lent 2008.

Now we are at the threshold of another Lent, and I am happy to announce the launch of a new blog, www.prayingthepsalms.org.

It was in my early days as a chaplain that I started to rely on the Book of Psalms as a resource for prayer and faith. It speaks of God and to God in varied voices, and is distinctive in its ability to give voice to deep emotions: joy, despair, confidence, pain, rage, hope, pleas for rescue and complaints at injustice.

Prayingthepsalms.org will offer brief reflections on individual psalms, giving priority and focus to those used in the Revised Common Lectionary for the 3-year cycle of church readings. I do this in part to aid preachers, who tend to neglect the psalms as a resource for preaching. Yet the congregation reads a psalm each Sunday. And those words can speak directly to the heart.

Live today are 63 articles, representing just over half of the 104 psalms used in the Revised Common Lectionary. This includes all the psalms for the imminent season of Lent and for Holy Week and Easter. For church use, click on the "LECTIONARY PSALMS" tab to find the psalms linked by liturgical date. "PSALM INDEX" gives a list of all psalms for which an article is written.

My hope is that you will find it helpful as a way to engage with the psalms themselves. These words, spoken and sung and prayed for thousands of years are not dry on the page. They are a testimony to the spiritual struggles of faithful ancestors, and signposts helping mark the way along our present journey.

May God sustain you always.

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