Lent Prayer, Week 6: Psalm 118
Throughout Lent, our core team will be practicing consistent rhythms of prayer through a movement that invites participation in personal devotional time, with small groups of prayer partners, and together as one body in our weekly gatherings and prayer meetings. This is the last of six weeks of prayer as we move toward the celebration of Easter. The ”Reflection” component and much of the overall movement has been adapted from Practicing the Way’s four-week Prayer practice, available for free on their site. We invite you to join us as we pray together this week through the words of Psalm 118. If you would like to join one of our prayer partner groups, attend an upcoming core team gathering, or learn more about how we practice our faith in prayer, contact us at info@thegardensa.org today.
The most wonderful truth a person can know is: “The LORD is for me.”
The way in which believers face every threat and crisis and need is colored by the knowledge that God has not given us over to death.
JAMES L. MAYS
We whose life is hid with Christ in God ought to meditate on this psalm all the days of our lives.
JOHN CALVIN
RHYTHM
For the last week of our prayer practice, we’re going to follow our Lectio Divina prayers with a greater emphasis on abiding with God in His presence through stillness and listening. The Practicing the Way guide notes something powerful about prayer:
The further we progress in prayer, the more we desire to speak to God, to listen to God, and to just be with God. As a general rule, you can gauge the intimacy of a relationship by how comfortable you are being alone together in silence… As you grow closer over time, there are still words and activity, but you also come to deeply enjoy just being with each other.
Silence can be difficult, but it is a vital component of prayer. Distraction vies for our attention, often as an opportunity for the enemy to capture our hearts or stifle our abiding with God. But we don’t have to lose that battle. Regular engagement with silence and stillness builds a muscle that our culture often brings to atrophy. Though the pace and spectacle of modern life feels new, the truth is that the temptations to distraction have always plagued believers. Mercifully, God’s invitation to know Him through being with Him has always remained, and believers throughout the history of the Church have taken Him up on that invitation through prayers of contemplation. This is more than merely thinking about God. It is giving our thoughts and feelings – our inner being – to Him in prayer, as surrender and offering, as a gift of trust and a plea for Him to move and work in all the spaces our busy lives and wandering minds often obscure.
One easy way to engage contemplative prayer is through the work of “breath prayers.” The phrase can bring images to mind of Buddhist monks in meditation, but this is not a practice owned by another religion. Breath prayers are really our opportunity to sit with truth – the truth – in a way we otherwise would not. For Christians, this looks like taking the word of God in scripture and letting it take hold of our hearts. We repeat it, we turn it over in our minds, we memorize it, and we let it shape us in prayer and throughout the day. This practice will likely be new to you, but I would encourage you to let the living word to you today and transform you from the inside-out, as you spend time away from distraction and engage in a unique opportunity to simply be with God today.
Like previous weeks, plan on setting aside at least twelve to fifteen minutes to start each new day this week. Find a space that feels inviting and open and uncluttered, inside or outside. Put away distractions as best you can. Consider what has hindered prayer the last few weeks and make necessary changes to prepare. Find a place to sit that helps bring your body and mind to attention, meaning maybe avoid the couch or a reclining chair. Finally, as all settles, take a minute or two to breathe deeply and rest with God. Open your time with this prayer from Thomas à Kempis:
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Incline my ear to your words, and let your speech come to me as dew upon the grass. If I hear your voice, let me not be condemned for hearing the word and not following it, for knowing it and not loving it, for believing it and not living it. Speak then, Lord, for your servant listens, for you have the words of eternal life. Speak to me to comfort my soul and to change my whole life; in turn, may it give you praise.
Amen.
To begin, read through Psalm 118 with patience and appreciation. Encounter the word of God and listen deeply. There is much in this psalm, so resist the temptation to try and conquer it in one sitting through intellectual effort and instead consider what phrase from it God is speaking to you as you pray. This psalm invites thanksgiving, trust, confession, hope, and joy. In which space is God meeting you today?
From here, take that phrase and turn it to prayer, either quoting directly or adapting. It should fit in a “breath,” as something you can take with you throughout the day, praying without ceasing the confession and receiving of God’s truth in your life. As you pray today, simply focus here. Lift it to God. Wait with Him. Let this truth be your weapon against distraction in prayer, and throughout the day and week, let it be your weapon against temptation and sin, against the words and the work of the enemy, against despair and distrust.
This is contemplative prayer. It should not be intimidating, but inviting. It does require of us concentration and effort, but it is not performance. It is openness, to God in the joy and unfathomable privilege of sitting in His presence and knowing He has something to say to us.
To end your time, pray this prayer, adapted from the words of Saint Augustine:
O God, full of compassion, I commit and commend myself to you, in whom I am, and live, and know. Be the goal of my pilgrimage, and my rest by the way. Let my soul take refuge from the crowding turmoil of worldly thought beneath the shadow of your wings. Let my heart, this sea of restless waves, find peace in you, O God.
Amen.
REFLECTION
Throughout the week, reflect on your experience. Prayer is primarily about listening. God initiates the experience, and we take Him up on the awesome invitation to hear His voice.
Sometimes God speaks in different ways. He might remind you of a Bible verse or passage. He might bring someone or something specific to mind. He might bring a picture to mind. If you are new to the experience of prayer, keep in mind that when the Lord speaks to us it is always consistent with what the Bible reveals about His ways and character, and that often when He speaks, we know it's His voice because of how contrary to our flesh and weakness His words sound.
Write down what comes to mind and heart as you pray this week. What has God told you, through His word and in your heart? What has he reminded you about? What has he challenged in you? Who or what has He drawn you to?
Before you meet with your prayer partners this week, prepare for the meeting by answering the following questions about your time practicing this discipline:
Where did I feel resistance?
Where did I feel delight?
Where did I most experience God's nearness?
In addition to these prompts, come prepared to discuss your Lenten fast experience this week by answering the following questions:
How has fasting this week challenged you in cultivating the fruit of love and faithfulness?
How has fasting helped you in cultivating the fruit of love and faithfulness?
Finally, with your prayer partners this week, take time to exchange prayer requests and to intercede for one another in lifting these requests to God. Close by encouraging one another as you surrender to Christ for the work of sanctification in the days ahead of your next meeting.
Find more curated resources, links, devotionals, and more to help you as pray this week under the Resources tab above.
