The morning Manna
will be provided at 6am. Thanks.
Studying Psalms
in the SSnet.org series Lesson 2, may the Holy Spirit be the speaker to
your heart.
The Topic today
is: “How to use the Psalms to pray your heart out to God”.
The Opening Hymn
will be 229 "Spirit of the Living God."
The Sabbath School
Quarterly, downloadable from SSnet.org in the Teacher's Edition is on pages
18-19.
The SSnet.org site
allows anyone, anywhere to read the lesson in their own language. Choose your
own language to see God speaking also to your heart.
Why do you not
click on this now?
https://www.adultbiblestudyguide.org/pdf.php?file=2024:1Q:TE:PDFs:ETQ124_02.pdf
---How to use the Psalms to pray unto God
your heart out! ---Source: Paul Dugan, Learning to sing the blues praying the psalms of lament. Online https://www.mycoastal.org/devotions/2020/5/14/learning-to-sing-the-blues-praying-the-psalms-of-lament ---Dugan said that the Psalms provides a “playlist”
for all dimensions of human experience. ---Our lesson this week says that the Psalms
provide a “prayerlist” for all dimensions of the human experience. ---Dugan says that the playlist includes a
wide variety of genres that help us gather the whole of our lives in honest and
grateful prayer before God. As it says, “helping God’s people traverse their
life journey and grow in their relationship with God.” ---The lesson says this week that the
prayerlist ---Dugan says that Psalms has changed his
life. He says that it has become medicine to his soul. He focused on the
laments. We are focusing this week on the prayers. ---There are also a wide variety of genres
of prayers. ---Dugan said that he tries to re-define
prayer for the contemporary believer. ---He read a book on Psalms in The
Message, Eugene Peterson which helps acclimate him to the raw honesty of
the psalms. ---Peterson said: “Faced with the prospect
of conversation with a holy God who speaks worlds into being, it is not
surprising that we have trouble (with prayer). We feel awkward and out of
place: “I’m not good enough for this.” ---Peterson said then the person said: “I’ll
wait until I clean up my act and prove that I am a decent person.” ---Or, Peterson said, we excuse ourselves on
the grounds that our vocabulary is inadequate: “Give me a few months—or
years!—to practice prayers that are polished enough for such a sacred meeting.
Then I won’t feel so stuttery and ill at ease.” ---What Peterson does when members says this
is to put the Psalms in a person’s hand and say, “Go home and pray these….” --- Peterson says that “A common response of
those who do what I ask is surprise—they don’t expect this kind of thing in the
Bible.” ---He then express surprise at their
surprise: “Did you think these would be the prayers of nice people?” ---He also asked “Did you think the
psalmists’ language would be polished and polite?” ---Dugan says that prayer in the Psalms are
elemental, not advanced language. ---It is simple words and simple feelings
and simple passions. ---This is why a church father said that
psalms is a kind of therapy for healing. ---In the USA, which is the largest genre of
music listened to by Christians in the Evangelical world? ---Blues. It is lament genre in the Psalms.
40% of them are lament, says Dugan. ---So suffering, pain, rejection,
loneliness, abandoned feelings, hated by enemies, scared, illnesses, and more
and more are all part of Satan’s theater here where we are in this fishtank. ---We will stay in this fishtank and die
here but going to be taken to the Big Ocean of Heaven when Christ comes! ---Dugan suggest the following for prayer: How
to craft your own psalm of lament: 1.
Describe your trouble (or your community’s
trouble) in detail to God 2.
Bring your honest questions to God:
"Lord, why….?; "How long, Lord, before you…?; "Where are
you in…? 3.
Express your honest emotions to God:
"Lord, I am feeling sad about…; "I am feeling angry…; “…afraid… 4.
Make your plea to God:
"Please, Lord…; "Remember back when you… ---Are you ready to join Christ? Can you
pray from the Psalms? Better navigate this week to an Adventist Church nearest
you at 9h30 for Sabbathschool when they discuss prayer from the Psalms. ---When? Check your navigation immediately.