In the 21st century, what is the point of faith?
If you're like me and my congregation, or if you are in my congregation, then like me you have a million options as to possibilities of belief, community, and faith. These days there are no social pressures to go to church or be a faithful person. No one is judging you or pressuring you to be religious. With modern society and the internet, there are all manner of options out there to find spiritual fulfillment. On Sunday mornings, there are so many things a person can do rather than go to church, and if you do want to go to church, again the possibilities are nearly endless.
So what is the point of faith? Why go to church? Why pray? I wanted to do a series of blog posts about the ways a life of faith can provide fulfillment, or give solace during times of need. This will be a first of hopefully other articles as I feel inspired. Today I want to talk about what I think is an underutilized aspect of our Christian tradition, and that is the Psalms.
The Psalms are kind of like the prayer book of the Bible. I've heard it said that the Psalms were Jesus' prayer book. They were the prayer book of the first "religious" or "monastic" Christians, those who sought to remove themselves from the world to live a life of prayer and devotion. In the religious tradition (and when I say religious at this point I am referring to the so-called "religious life" in a technical sense, those who takes special vows of devotion to become what you'd traditionally call a nun or a monk) we pray the Psalms every 30 days in their entirety...assuming we don't miss some times of prayer.
The Psalms hold a special place in my devotion and have an incredible quality to them to support our lives in the real world. There's a lot of background you can read about the Psalms. They are an anthology of hymns for a variety of purposes, many very practical, in the Israelite tradition. As far as I'm concerned today, the context for them doesn't matter.
There are multiple ways to appreciate the Psalms and I want to focus on just one today, and that is using them for your own spiritual life and for getting through the hardship and difficulty that is life in the world today. There's so much to be gained from a scholarly approach to the Psalms, to learning about their original context and authorship, learning about ancient Israelite religion and early Jewish practice. But that's not what interests me today.
Let's take Psalm 56 as an example:
Be gracious to me, O God, for people trample on me; all day long foes oppress me; my enemies trample on me all day long, for many fight against me.O Most High, when I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid; what can flesh do to me?
All day long they seek to injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife; they lurk; they watch my steps,as they hoped to take my life.  Do not deliver them for any reason; in wrath cast down the peoples, O God!
You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record? Then my enemies will retreat in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me?
My vows to you I must perform, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death and my feet from falling,so that I may walk before God in the light of life.
An insight we can gain from the religious tradition that I think we've lost, but is so powerful for us today, is a way to read the Psalms. Many of the Psalms refer to enemies, enduring oppression, and enduring suffering. There is violence described, and wishing violence on our enemies.
First, I want to free anyone reading this to pray these Psalms earnestly. The Psalms contain the entire range of human experience and emotion. Psalmists get angry with God, they rebuke God, they hold God accountable, they wish for God to bring judgment on their enemies, retribution, justice, even revenge. Pray these with earnest. There is no reason to worry that you are praying wrongly or sinning in this way. Bringing the fullness of our human experience and human emotion to God is always the safest place to bring them. God looks on us with nothing but love and compassion. If we're angry with God, always remember that God can take it.
But the insight in the religious tradition has to do with how we pray these Psalms. First, a little background on the religious tradition.
The first monastics were people that looked around at the culture of their society and saw frivolous sins, excesses, and extravagances. They sought to escape their sinful culture to devote themselves to prayer and spiritual warfare. They sought to pray endlessly in order to find union with the Divine. In doing, they described what we might call spiritual warfare. Unfortunately, I can't go into the deep dive on this I'd like to. There are a number of fascinating people from this early monastic tradition worth learning more about, for example, Evagrius Ponticus. Writers like Ponticus are today looked at by many scholars and modern psychologists as giving incredible insights into human psychology.
Think of your own struggles today. You might struggle with mental health: anxiety, depression, mood swings, irritability, bi-polar disorder, addiction, or whatever your particular struggle is. You might struggle with some temptations that you want to escape but can't. Your guilt, shame, or your past might haunt you. Whatever you struggle with internally, whatever unwanted thoughts you might endure, all of this the ancient monastics would have described as spiritual warfare, and the Psalms are a resource in the life of faith for these struggles.
all day long foes oppress me; my enemies trample on me all day long, for many fight against me.O Most High, when I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid; what can flesh do to me?
Think of "foes" and "enemies" as they internal doubts and struggles. Think of this fighting as the internal conflicts you struggle with on a daily basis. Think of things that you fear: losing a job, losing income, not providing for your family, your relationship with your partner, etc.
When we pray the Psalms when we're struggling, they remind us that we are not alone. They remind us that many other people experience the same hardships, the same difficulties, the same doubts, pains, and struggles that we do. The let us feel our feelings and direct them toward God. And they remind us of this promise to us:
This I know, that God is for me.
God is for me.
God is for you. The Psalms are just one resource in the life of faith that we can apply to our daily lives as we seek to survive this challenging and difficult world. Psalm 116 is a Psalm I've personally used when I've been at my lowest points, experiencing depression and suicidal thoughts. But there are also Psalms of jubilation and celebration.
How have you ever prayed or used the Psalms? We would love to hear your stories of faith in the comments. Leave some thoughts for us!
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