Praying the Psalms
The psalms uniquely offer us a language for talking to God, for encountering him on the pages of Scripture, and for calling out to him in the midst of our everyday moments. As we read these verses back to God—whether individually or corporately—we are extending ourselves to him, we are creating intimacy with him, and we are allowing him to shape and mold our hearts to be more like his own. The book of Psalms—and all of Scripture—invites us to encounter the God of the universe. That is why God’s Word is so special and why we should treasure it so deeply!
In this last episode of our Psalms series, we’re chatting with Caroline Cobb about God’s big story that we see in Psalms. Caroline is passionate about rehearsing and responding to God’s story as we go about our everyday lives, and you will hear her heart clearly throughout this episode. We pray this episode—and the whole Psalms series!—prompts you to abide deeply with the Lord and to trust his character and his heart as revealed in Scripture. It has been a gift to come to know and love God more as we study God in Psalms this summer.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Could you tell the listeners a little bit about you—who you are, a bit about your family, and any projects you’ve worked on or are currently working on?
In your previous episode on the podcast (Big Story of the Bible) and in your other work you’ve done, you’ve talked about how your heart behind all of your work is to help others rehearse and remember the big story of Scripture. I’d love to know when/how you became passionate about the big story of the Bible motivating and driving your work, and how you seek to do that now.
You were reading through the Psalms to create your Psalms album (May 2023) during a particularly stormy season of your own personal life (you talk about this a bit in your article you wrote for us). Would you share with us what your personal interaction/experience is with the Psalms, specifically how the Psalms helped you grieve and walk through difficult seasons of life?
Just out of my own curiosity, why did you choose to write songs on the chapters of the Psalms that you did?
I think there’s something so beautiful about the fact that you put these words and themes of the Psalms to song, because the Psalms were the songbook of God’s people! The Psalms are different than every other book of Scripture—written poetically and lyrically. As an artist reading through and interpreting this book of poetry and song, what do you think this poetic form of writing/literature in the Bible offers to believers?
You talk about seeing Christ in all the Scriptures. This summer on the podcast and in the reading plan we’ve been journeying through the Psalms by genre. Where do we see Christ in the Psalms?
How might we take what we’ve gained from reading the Psalms this summer and allow it to open our eyes to see Jesus on every page of Scripture?
How can we pray the Psalms personally? Or use them as a prompt/pattern for prayer?
How can we engage with the Psalms communally?
What is your favorite psalm and why? / Which psalm has had the greatest impact on you personally?
Would you pray for us, for the listeners, as we end this podcast series and reading plan?
NOTES & QUOTES
“The fun thing about the Bible is that you really can't plumb the depths or dry up the well of all the songs that could be written from Scripture.”
“The psalms would give me words when I really didn't have words, when I didn't know what I even needed or wanted to say to God, and they reminded me of his character.”
“The Psalms were good for me because they gave me language when I really had nothing that I knew to say”
“We are not simply to read psalms; we are to be immersed in them so that they profoundly shape how we relate to God…. they are written to be prayed, recited and sung—to be done, not merely to be read.” - Tim & Kathy Keller, The Songs of Jesus
“Sometimes we're tempted to come at God academically, and it's good to understand God's Word. It's good to inductively study God's Word—I do that myself. But if we just stop there and don't talk to God or allow him to engage us at a gut level, then we're missing out.”
“It's really important for us to immerse ourselves and to practice singing to God and praying to God his truth and his word. And that's what Psalms give us language for. And that's what they are prompting us to do.”
“God wants our hearts. He wants our whole selves, not just our minds.”
“That's why I love Psalms, because it's telling us to talk to God with our whole selves and all of our emotions and to allow him to shape every part of us. And so we need to take the invitation and do it, to be intimate with the Lord in that way.”
“Jesus is the only one who can pray some of the Psalms perfectly.”
“God in his overflowing abundance created the world and created us in his image. And then we tragically, horrifically, unnaturally walked away from his presence and chose to build our own kingdoms and go our own way. And ever since we were banished from the garden in Adam and Eve he has been writing this beautiful rescue story that was all through the Old Testament, foreshadowing what Christ would do. And then when Christ came, he was the perfect Passover lamb. He was the perfect Moses. He was the perfect suffering servant in Isaiah, the Son of man in Daniel's dream, the perfect King, better than David. And when he came, he was this culmination of God's rescue mission. His life was perfect, he lived it perfectly, and yet he has credited that to our account. He died on a cross for our sins and rose again and then ascended to heaven as the King, and his kingdom is already broken in and yet we're also still waiting for him to come back and bring fulfillment to that kingdom.”
“We're living in this middle place where we know what Christ has done and we know the kingdom we belong to, but we are living in this darkness before the dawn, if you will. And so I think the Psalms are a place where we can find how to talk to God in that in-between. and how to long for him to come back and fulfill what he's promised to do and to bring us into the new heavens and the new earth.”
“Some of the psalms give us a taste of what we're going to be doing in eternity when we're with God face to face. And that's something we're excited about and setting our eyes on and getting ready for every day.”
“The Bible is like one big hyperlinked thing. If you start to read the Bible you will see how it is connected to the rest of the whole.”
“We could never plumb the depths of how interconnected God's Word is. And yes, it's beautiful even just as a literary work, but it's really beautiful because God is in it. And you get to know the God of the universe in it.”
“There's a lot to be said for how the psalms point us to Christ. When we pray the psalms, we don't just pray from an Old Testament perspective, but we pray with the New Testament perspective that in Christ, this is even more beautiful of a prayer. In Christ, we know that he's fulfilled all of this in a more beautiful way.”
“A lot of times you're like, ‘I don't know where to start, Lord.’ If you don't know where to start, just look at a psalm and start.”
“If we were to get together with a friend and be like, ‘Let's pray,’ it'd be great to just pull out a psalm that relates to what we're going through and pray it.”
“I love how Psalms invites us to be real with God, but also remind us to always face his direction. So even if you’re feeling angry, don't turn your back on the Lord, but rather face in a Godward direction and pour out your soul to him and he wraps you up like a mother with her child.”
God, we thank you that you have given us Psalms to show us how to pray and how to talk to you and that you have given us Psalms as an invitation to come close, even as you come close to us in Christ and through your Spirit. And so we ask that you would give us a heart that longs for your Word. It's sweeter than honey and it's better than gold. Give us a heart that longs to be in your presence. We want you, we want the living God to come inhabit our hearts and change us. We ask for more of you, we ask for more hunger for you and for your ways. We ask that you would give us a vision of our destination, that we get to be with you one day forever, face to face, and that you would strengthen us for the journey, even as you walk beside us as our shepherd and lead us all the way home.
RESOURCES
Psalms Spotify Playlist curated by Caroline Cobb
In the Lord I Take Refuge: 150 Daily Devotions Through the Psalms
The Treasury of David by Charles Spurgeon
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
How does seeing Christ in Psalms excite you to look for him in all of Scripture? How might you take what you’ve gained from reading Psalms this summer and allow it to open your eyes to see Jesus on every page of Scripture?
What psalms have stood out to you most as you’ve read through them this summer? Perhaps write a few down to use as prompts for prayer. Perhaps select a few to try to store in your memory.
How might you take what you’ve learned in Psalms this summer and share it with someone? Maybe inviting someone in to read Psalms again with you? Maybe memorizing a psalm to use as you pray for friends?
What might you do or implement based on what you learned in this week’s episode?
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IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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