We’ve now made our way through the entire psalter as a faith family. Over the years, we’ve meditated on and prayed these words for one another, from first to last. And now we begin again.
Throughout Jewish and Christian history, the psalms have been prayed in this manner: beginning to end to beginning again. It’s through this cycle that we recognize the movement from rooted and fruitful relationship to “the place where every breath is praise.” A move that takes us through every twist and turn which we humans experience. From heavenly visions to hellish oblivion, through awe and wonder at the beauty of God’s creation and his image-bears to an acute awareness of the depth of our and others' destructive abilities, the psalms pray with us into the deepest darkness until true sight is recovered.
By traveling this road over and over, year after year, season after season, we find ourselves, wherever we are, in the presence of Jesus who traveled this road before us, and travels it still with us. Whether in awe or agony, exaltation or lament, Jesus prayed these same psalms. And as much as they are prophetic words for his coming, they are also prophetic insights into his experience of humanity that he shares with us. So, as the cycle begins anew for our faith family, I want to encourage you to read and pray the psalms through Jesus, as One who is praying these psalms with you. Remember the beautiful words of the writer of Hebrews:
Jesus holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, Jesus is able to save at all times, to the uttermost, those who draw near to God through him, since Jesus always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:24-25)
If you are like me, you might need some help praying the psalms through Jesus. If that is the case, I recommend paring each psalms’ meditation with its corresponding number in Malcome Guite’s collection, David’s Crown. That’s what I am doing this time around.
So today (and maybe a couple more times this week), read Psalm 1, and then let Guite’s poetic prayer help you pray through life—all of life—in Jesus, who is praying for us as we do so.
PSALM 1: Beatus vir qui non abiit
Come to the place where every breath is praise,
And God is breathing through each passing breeze.
Be planted by the waterside and raise
Your arms with Christ beneath these rooted trees,
Who lift their breathing leaves up to the skies.
Be rooted too, as still and strong as theses,
Open alike to sun and rain. Arise
From meditation by these waters. Bear
The fruit of that deep rootedness. Be wise
In the trees’ long wisdom. Learn to share
The secret of their patience. Pass the day
In their green fastness and their quiet air.
Slowly discern a life, a truth, a way,
Where simple being flowers in delight.
Then let the chaff of life just blow away.
- Jeremy P.