THE PSALMS AS OUR PRAYER PRAISE St Mary

THE PSALMS AS OUR PRAYER & PRAISE St Mary Bredin Church

THE PSALMS AS OUR PRAYER & PRAISE WEEK 3: HE SHALL CALL TO ME, ‘YOU ARE MY FATHER’ Aim: • To discover how Christians in the past have read the Psalms in order to speak with Christ, and to consider whether this way of making the Psalms the praise and prayer of the church may still be relevant for us today.

HE SHALL CALL TO ME, ‘YOU ARE MY FATHER’ Outline 1. Psalm 86 2. Challenge: we want to see Jesus 3. Christ and the Psalms in the New Testament 4. Christ in the Psalms in Christian tradition 5. ‘That my enemies may be put to shame’ 6. Psalm 86, again

Psalm 86 We’ll read through the Psalm together, seeking to offer prayer and praise to God as we do so. After that, a brief conversation in groups of three (if possible): • Was there a verse, phrase or word that particularly struck you as we did this? • Is there anything in the Psalm that suggests it is ‘about’ Christ?

Challenge: we want to see Jesus • Waning of metrical Psalms in the 18 th-century Evangelical Revival – wanting more focus on Jesus • More recent eclipse of songs based on Psalms in Charismatic Renewal – parallels? • Prophetic and figural interpretation: (most) Psalms only secondarily about Christ – primarily about something else • Yet many people in the past found in reading the Psalms a unique way to be united with him.

Christ and the Psalms in the New Testament • Psalms in Jesus’ teaching; kingdom of God, beatitudes, Lord’s Prayer • Jesus understands the Psalms as referring to himself, e. g. Parable of the Tenants citing Ps 118. 22 -23 • Jesus prays with and from the Psalms in his final suffering, including Pss 22, 31 and 42 • Peter at Pentecost: voice of the risen Christ in Ps 16 • Hebrews: voice of Christ in Ps 22 (Heb. 2. 11 -12) and Ps 40 ‘when he came into the world’ (Heb. 10. 5)

Christ and the Psalms in Christian Tradition • Early commentators: how many of the Psalms are ‘about’ Christ? • Where do we hear Jesus’ voice in the Psalms (alongside others)? • Origen: voice of the human Christ / voice of the divine Christ • Augustine of Hippo: Christ as head of his body, the church (representation) / Christ as his whole body (identification) • ‘It is one Saviour of His Body, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who both prays for us, and prays in us, and is prayed to by us’ • ‘We speak with Him, and He speaks with us; we speak in

‘That my enemies may be put to shame’ • Are some Psalms in whole or part ‘un-prayable’ for Christians, because of the way they call on God to act against their enemies? • Response (1): our enemies today are within (battle with sin and evil) • Response (2): our enemies today include those who persecute and oppress our brothers and sisters around the world • Response (3): our enemies are the enemies of Christ, since ‘we speak in Him, He speaks in us’ the Psalms – which includes our sinful selves.

Psalm 86, again Augustine read this Psalm as Christ’s prayer and therefore also ours. • How easy is it for us today to read it as Christ’s prayer? • How might that affect our understanding of the Psalm (as a whole, and with regard to different parts)? • Does it help us to make the Psalm our prayer and praise?

THE PSALMS AS OUR PRAYER & PRAISE WEEK 3: HE SHALL CALL TO ME, ‘YOU ARE MY FATHER’ Aim: • To discover how Christians in the past have read the Psalms in order to speak with Christ, and to consider whether this way of making the Psalms the praise and prayer of the church may still be relevant for us today.

THE PSALMS AS OUR PRAYER & PRAISE WEEK 4: IN WHOSE HEART ARE THE HIGHWAYS TO ZION Aim: • To investigate ways in which Christian writers on the Psalms have described how we can be transformed in reciting them, and to ask how reading and singing them today can be one way in which we are ‘transformed by the renewing of our minds’.

THE PSALMS AS OUR PRAYER & PRAISE St Mary Bredin Church