Video Transcript

Edmund: Maybe you’ve kept a journal at one point in your life. Can you imagine reading your parents’ journal? Like when they were younger or maybe when they’re your age now? Or maybe from the time before you were born, in particular? Just to get a better sense of them?

That actually happened to me. I found a little journal (this isn’t it) up in my attic when I was a kid. And it had a little lock on the front, and I started messing with it. And I would kinda carry it around because it just looked like this vintage, old book. And I remember my Mom saw me messing with this little book and said “What is that?” And I said “I don’t know. I found it up in the attic,” right as I got the lock on the front unlocked. And I opened it up, and my Mom goes “GIVE ME THAT.” And she reaches out and grabs it, and realizes that it’s her journal from when I think she was in high school or college.

I remember that moment really stuck with me because I was like “Man, these were the intimate, private thoughts of my mother.” She didn’t mean for these to ever be read. 

And that’s got me thinking ever since then, what if Jesus had a private journal? What if we could read His intimate, private thoughts? Or even just His prayers? What if we could overhear prayers; the conversations that Jesus is having with the Father in private? Is there some way that we could get a sense of how Jesus talks to the Father? 

So today, let’s talk about a book of the Bible that is kinda like this; a book in the Bible you’re probably not appreciating as much as you should, and a book that can really change your heart and your prayer life. 

Man, I love coming here early in the morning. This is a botanical garden that I love walking around and just kinda spending some time early in the morning writing and journaling and praying and talking to God.

So, the Psalms are a book in the Bible—the Old Testament—attributed to King David. And it’s a collection of songs and prayers and poems written to God. It’s really a conversation between a person and the Lord. But these aren’t just simple “God, I love you” songs or prayers. 

And what’s really cool is that the Psalms are considered a “school of prayer.” I have a quote here from Pope Benedict. He said in Verbum Domini (2010), which means “The Word of the Lord:” “In the Psalms we find expressed every possible human feeling set masterfully in the sight of God; joy and pain, distress and hope, fear and trepidation: here all find expression. [They] express our turning to God in intercessory prayer (cf. Ex 33:12-16), in exultant songs of victory (cf. Ex 15) or in sorrow at the difficulties experienced in carrying out our mission (cf. Jer 20:7-18). In this way our word to God becomes God’s word.”

What’s really cool is learning to pray with the Psalms is us learning how to talk to God; to share our highs and lows, our ups and downs, in our spiritual journey. Really, by reading and praying the Psalms, we’re using God’s Word to learn how to speak to God in prayer. 

The Catechism says this about the Psalms, in paragraph 2596: “The Psalms constitute the masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament. They present two inseparable qualities: the personal, and the communal. They extend to all dimensions of history, recalling God’s promises already fulfilled and looking for the coming of the Messiah.”

This is why I like coming here to pray. Because I just think about King David out in the wilderness thinking about God and looking around at creation and just wanting to talk to Him. And writing down His conversation; writing down what he wanted to tell God. 

And what’s really kinda cool is the life of the Church is permeated with the Psalms. You’ll hear them throughout Mass. We sing them, we pray them, we respond with them, and we listen as the Priest recites prayers that are inspired by the Psalms. There’s even the Divine Office; the Liturgy of the Hours, which has the Psalms all throughout it. 

Jesus would have grown up hearing the Psalms. They were used in prayers and in worship, and many people in Jesus’ time would committed a bunch of the Psalms to memory. And there’s a bunch of places where I didn’t even realize this. For example, Jesus references Psalm 35:19 and Psalm 69:4 when He says: “They hated me without cause,” when Jesus was speaking about the world’s hatred towards Him. And Jesus quotes Psalm 110:1 when He discusses His identity as the Messiah: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.'” 

And then get this: even on the cross—I didn’t know this for the longest time—Jesus’ words on the cross come straight from the Psalms. So Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And I remember thinking “That sounds pretty troubling.” But when you know that that comes straight from Psalm 22:1 and you read the rest of Psalm 22, you know that Jesus is quoting from a prayer that expresses a feeling of complete abandonment during the worst suffering imaginable. 

But ultimately, the Psalm ends by the author expressing this resolve to be obedient and faithful, even until the end. And it does end with this hopeful prayer. It says: “I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you. The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.” And even Jesus’ final words, where He says “Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit” come directly from Psalm 31:6.

So the Psalms contain the full range of human emotions in prayer. They also contain the 5 forms of prayer as described in the Catechism. You’ll remember these as Blessing & Adoration, Petition, Intercession, Thanksgiving, and Praise. And to prove it to you, I’m just going to read a little snippet from the Psalms for each of those. 

So for Blessing and Adoration, in Psalm 104: “Bless the LORD, my soul! LORD, my God, you are great indeed! 

For Petition, in Psalm 51: “A clean heart create for me, God; renew within me a steadfast spirit.”

For Intercession, an example is Psalm 20: “The LORD answer you in time of distress; the name of the God of Jacob defend you!”

For Thanksgiving: “Praise the LORD, for he is good; his mercy endures forever”  (Psalm 136).

And for Praise: “Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy sanctuary; give praise in the mighty dome of heaven” (Psalm 150).

The Psalms are the inspired word of God. So take time to pray with the Psalms, and allow them to train your heart as you learn to pray as Jesus prays. In this way, we can allow God to transform our hearts and our minds. Because God gradually revealed an invitation to a covenant relationship, and we can enter this covenant relationship through prayer.