David: The Psalms as a School of Prayer

Today's Reading

Read Psalm 51:1-12. This is David's prayer of confession after his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah. "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions." He pleads for cleansing, for a new heart, for the joy of salvation to be restored. Then read Psalm 63:1-8, a psalm written when David was in the wilderness of Judah. "O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water."

Reflection

David is called "the sweet psalmist of Israel" (2 Samuel 23:1), and his psalms have shaped Christian and Jewish prayer for three thousand years. The Psalms are not polished theological essays. They are prayers -- raw, honest, beautiful, and sometimes disturbing. They cover every human emotion: joy, grief, anger, trust, confusion, worship, despair, and hope.

Keller argues that the Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible and therefore a school of prayer. They teach us what prayer according to God's Word looks like. If you do not know how to pray, the Psalms give you the words. If you do not know what to feel, the Psalms give you permission to feel everything.

Psalm 51 is the great prayer of confession. David has sinned grievously, and he holds nothing back. He does not minimize or excuse. "Against you, you only, have I sinned" (51:4). He knows that what he needs is not merely forgiveness but transformation: "Create in me a clean heart, O God" (51:10). The word "create" (bara) is the same word used in Genesis 1. David needs a new creation inside himself. Only God can do that.

Psalm 63 is the great prayer of desire. David is in the wilderness, physically thirsty, and his physical thirst becomes a metaphor for his spiritual longing. "My soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you." This is not duty. This is desire. David wants God the way a parched man wants water.

Spurgeon counseled that if you want to learn to pray, go to David. He will teach you to praise, to confess, to cry out in the darkness, and to trust when all is lost. The Psalms cover every condition of the human heart. There is no emotion so dark, so shameful, or so exalted that it cannot be brought before God in prayer.

Going Deeper

The discipline of praying the Psalms -- taking their words and making them your own -- is one of the oldest and most fruitful practices in Christian history. Today, choose one of the two psalms you read and pray it back to God, line by line. Where David says "I," put yourself in his place. Let the psalmist teach you to pray.