Skip to content

Course 20 · Lesson 3.2

The Psalms as the prayer of the church

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 20 outline

Module 1: Spiritual Formation and the Doctrines Behind Prayer

  1. What spiritual formation means in Scripture and tradition
  2. How the Trinity, the Incarnation and grace shape Christian prayer
  3. A map of the prayer traditions: Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant
  4. Ways and stages of growth: purgation, illumination and union, and their critics

Module 2: The Desert and Early Monasticism

  1. Anthony, Athanasius and the beginning of the desert movement
  2. The sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers: how to read them
  3. John Cassian and the eight thoughts that trouble the mind
  4. From the hermit to the community: Pachomius, Basil and Benedict

Module 3: Praying with Scripture and with the Church

  1. Lectio divina: its history and the four movements
  2. The Psalms as the prayer of the church
  3. The Divine Office and the Liturgy of the Hours: hours, texts and structure
  4. Using the daily office alone, and the Protestant daily prayer tradition

Module 4: Hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer

  1. Stillness and the prayer of the heart in the early Eastern church
  2. The Jesus Prayer: its words, its sources and its history
  3. Gregory Palamas and the fourteenth century controversy over light and energies
  4. Practice and cautions: the role of a guide and the warnings of the tradition

Module 5: Fasting, Discernment and Spiritual Direction

  1. Fasting in Scripture and in the three traditions
  2. Asceticism: its purpose, its dangers and its abuses
  3. The discernment of spirits from Antony and Cassian to Ignatius of Loyola
  4. Spiritual direction: the elder, the confessor, the pastor and the mentor

Module 6: Contemplation and Action

  1. Mary and Martha: how the church has read the two lives
  2. Prayer that issues in service: Benedict, Brother Lawrence and the Reformers on vocation
  3. When practice goes wrong: pride, quietism and spiritual experience without doctrine

Module 7: Building a Rule of Life

  1. What a rule of life is, and what the word rule meant for Benedict
  2. Choosing practices: Scripture, prayer, fasting, rest and service
  3. Dryness, failure and starting again
  4. Reviewing and adjusting a rule over time

All courses

Program / Course 20: Spiritual Theology / Lesson 3.2

What you will learn

  • Describe the Psalter as a collection and its types of psalm.
  • Explain how Jesus and the early church used the Psalms and read them as speaking of Christ.
  • Describe how Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions have placed the Psalms at the center of worship.
  • Think carefully about the hard psalms, including laments and prayers against enemies.

The big idea

The book of Psalms is the most used prayer book of the Jewish and Christian traditions. It contains praise, thanksgiving, lament, confession, trust, royal songs and wisdom poems. Jesus quoted it, the New Testament cites it more than any other Old Testament book, and the church has sung or recited it in worship from the earliest centuries. Christians have read the Psalms as the words of Israel, as the words of Christ and as the words of the church and the believer. The traditions differ in how they use the Psalter, but all treat it as a school of prayer.

Key terms

Psalter
The book of Psalms, or a copy of it arranged for use in worship.
Lament
A psalm of complaint and plea, such as Psalm 13 or Psalm 88, in which the speaker brings distress before God.
Imprecatory psalm
A psalm that calls down judgment on enemies, such as parts of Psalms 69, 109 and 137.
Messianic psalm
A psalm that the New Testament or later Christian reading applies to the Messiah, such as Psalms 2, 22 and 110.
Septuagint
The ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, widely used by early Christians. Its numbering of the Psalms differs from the Hebrew.
Antiphon
A short verse sung or said before and after a psalm, giving it a particular direction or season.
Metrical psalm
A psalm paraphrased into rhymed, metered verse to be sung by a congregation.

Background

The Hebrew name of the book means praises, though it contains much else. It has 150 psalms in most Christian Bibles, divided in Jewish tradition into five books. Many carry headings that mention David, though scholars debate the meaning of the headings and the date of the psalms. The psalms were used in the temple and synagogue before Christ, and the Jewish tradition of reciting and singing them continues.

Numbering is a practical point. The Greek and Latin tradition combines Psalms 9 and 10 and divides others differently, so that numbers in the Septuagint and Vulgate are often one lower than in Hebrew and most Protestant Bibles. Catholic and Orthodox liturgical books have traditionally used the Greek numbering, while modern Catholic translations now often give both. A reader consulting different books should expect the numbers to differ by one in the middle of the book.

The New Testament cites the Psalms constantly. Jesus quotes Psalm 22 on the cross, and Psalm 110 in his dispute about the Messiah. The early church believed that the Psalms spoke of him, and also that they gave believers a form of prayer. This lesson looks at the theology of that use. Course 25 handles how to pray the Psalms in a daily rule.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: A school of prayer

Athanasius of Alexandria, in a letter to a man named Marcellinus on the interpretation of the Psalms, wrote that most of Scripture speaks to the reader, but the Psalms speak in the reader’s own voice and seem to mirror the movements of the soul. That image, of the Psalter as a mirror, was repeated for centuries.

The Psalms teach a reader how to speak to God honestly. Fear, joy, anger, repentance, and trust are all found there. A person who might hesitate to bring a complaint to God finds that Scripture itself gives the words.

Step 2: Whose voice is it?

Christian readers have heard several voices in the Psalms. First, the voice of Israel and of the psalmist, in the setting of ancient worship. Second, the voice of Christ: the New Testament puts Psalm 22:1 on Jesus’s lips on the cross (Matthew 27:46) and applies Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 to him. Augustine, in his long commentaries on the Psalms, often hears Christ speaking in them, sometimes as the head and sometimes with his body, the church. Third, the voice of the church and of each believer.

These readings are meant to work together. A Christian praying Psalm 51 can pray it as a confession of their own, and also as part of a church that prays through Christ.

Step 3: The Psalms in the church’s worship

From early times the Psalms were sung in the church’s gatherings. Monastic life gave them a more structured place. Benedict’s Rule arranges the whole Psalter over a week and says that monks in earlier times recited it in a single day, which he thought too much (chapter 18). Orthodox practice divides the Psalter into twenty sections called kathismata, read in the services over the week and more often in Lent.

In the Reformation, Luther called the Psalter a little Bible, and Calvin called it an anatomy of all the parts of the soul. In Geneva, metrical psalms were composed so congregations could sing them, and Reformed churches in Scotland and elsewhere have long made psalm-singing central. Some Reformed churches still sing only psalms, a view called exclusive psalmody, while most other Protestant churches sing hymns as well.

Step 4: The hard psalms

Some psalms are difficult. Psalm 137 ends with a wish to dash the infants of Babylon against the rock. Psalm 109 calls for severe punishment of an enemy. Readers have taken several approaches. Some say these psalms express real rage honestly before God and place vengeance in his hands, and that their use does not authorize violence. Some read the enemies as spiritual foes, as Augustine often did. Some, such as C. S. Lewis, have said that they show a moral failure on the human side that Christians must not copy.

Several lectionaries omit or bracket the most severe verses, and others retain them. The traditions disagree on this, and a student should read the debate with care.

Step 5: What the Psalms teach about prayer

Praying the Psalms teaches that prayer includes more than petition. It includes praise for who God is, lament over what is wrong and remembrance of what God has done. It teaches that prayer is not private only: many psalms speak for a whole people, and they were sung in company. And it teaches that honesty and faith are not opposites, since the same psalm can cry out in abandonment and end in trust.

  1. Which psalm do I turn to most, and what does that say about me?
  2. Which kinds of psalm do I avoid, and why?
  3. How do I feel about praying words that were not mine?
  4. What changes when I hear Christ praying a psalm?
  5. How should I handle a psalm I cannot honestly pray?
  6. What would I lose if I knew only psalms of praise?

Examples

A lament that ends in trust

Psalm 13 begins with how long, O Lord, will you forget me, and ends with a statement of trust in God’s mercy. A person in a hard season may find that praying the whole psalm, including the ending they do not yet feel, gives them a direction.

Psalm 22 on the cross

The Gospels of Matthew and Mark report that Jesus cried the first line of Psalm 22 on the cross. Many Christian readers have taken this to mean that he prayed the whole psalm, which moves from abandonment toward praise. Scholars note that this reading is an inference, since the Gospels give only the opening words.

A hard text in a group

A small study group reads Psalm 137 aloud and falls silent at the last verse. The leader asks what the psalm shows about grief in exile, and what Jesus’ words about enemies in Matthew 5:44 add to it. The conversation is difficult and honest. (A constructed example.)

Different perspectives

Catholic

The Catholic Church makes the Psalter the core of the Liturgy of the Hours and uses psalms in the Mass between the readings. The Catechism calls the Psalms the masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament, and says they are fulfilled in Christ. The modern Hours omit three imprecatory psalms and some verses, which remains discussed among Catholics.

Orthodox

In Orthodox worship the Psalms are sung or read through most services, and the whole Psalter is read each week in ordinary times. Orthodox Christians use the Septuagint numbering and stress the Psalms’ Christological reading, through the Fathers.

Protestant

Protestants, especially Reformed, have sung psalms in metrical form, and Lutheran and Anglican traditions use them in daily and Sunday worship. Calvin’s preface to his commentary on the Psalms describes them as an anatomy of the soul. Protestant interpreters generally give attention to the original setting of each psalm along with its use for Christ and the church.

Jewish and scholarly view

In Jewish tradition the Psalms are prayed daily, in the morning service and in the liturgy of festivals, and are read as the prayer of Israel. Scholars note that Christian readers who find Christ in the Psalms are reading them differently from their original setting and from Jewish interpretation, and that the Christian reading depends on faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

Why it matters

The Psalms are the shared prayer book of Christians across traditions, and a student who knows how to read them will understand a great deal of worship. They also train a person to pray honestly, and teach the habit of praying with others in mind. Understanding the hard psalms prevents both a naive use of them and an easy dismissal.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: The Psalms are all happy songs of praise.

Correction: About a third are laments, and many mix complaint with trust. Their honesty is part of why the church values them.

Misunderstanding: David wrote all the Psalms.

Correction: Seventy-three carry his name in their headings, but others are ascribed to Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon, Moses and some are anonymous. Scholars debate what the headings mean and when the psalms were composed.

Misunderstanding: Reading Christ into the Psalms ignores their original meaning.

Correction: Christian tradition holds both. The psalms had a setting in Israel, and the New Testament and the Fathers read them as pointing to Christ. Careful readers keep both in view and say which they are using.

Misunderstanding: Praying a psalm of vengeance means endorsing violence.

Correction: Traditions differ, but most hold that such prayers bring anger before God and entrust justice to him. Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount governs a Christian’s own conduct.

Knowledge check

What are three voices Christians hear in the Psalms?

The voice of Israel and the psalmist in their original setting, the voice of Christ, who prays or is spoken of in the psalms, and the voice of the church and the believer. Augustine often reads the voice of Christ together with his body, the church.

Why do the numbers of the Psalms sometimes differ between Bibles?

The Greek (Septuagint) and Latin numbering joins Psalms 9 and 10, and divides some others, so that many numbers are one lower than in the Hebrew numbering used in most Protestant Bibles. Catholic and Orthodox liturgical books traditionally use the Greek numbering.

What did Athanasius say the Psalms are like?

In his letter to Marcellinus he described the Psalter as a mirror, in which a reader sees the movements of their own soul and finds words for them. Other Scripture speaks to the reader, while in the Psalms the reader seems to be speaking.

Name two ways readers handle the imprecatory psalms.

Some read them as honest rage brought to God, who is trusted with justice. Others read the enemies as spiritual powers, as Augustine often did. Some, like C. S. Lewis, see a moral flaw that Christians should not imitate. Liturgies differ on whether to include them.

Think it through

  1. Which emotion do you find hardest to bring to God, and is it in the Psalms?
  2. How does hearing Christ pray a psalm change what you hear?
  3. What would a church lose if it dropped the laments?

Independent assignment

Three psalms, three voices

In your notebook, write 350 to 500 words. Choose a psalm of praise, a lament and one of the hard psalms. For each, note the main feeling, what it asks, and in whose voice you can hear it (the psalmist, Christ, the church, yourself). Then write a paragraph on what you learned about honest prayer. Do not share this with anyone.

Further study