The Church's Prayer Book

I would like to suggest that not only was it a regular practice of Jesus to be in the Psalms, but consider this…Jesus lived the Psalms.  

• He cleansed the temple, and the disciples understood that in light of Psalm 69,
• He entered Jerusalem in triumph, and it was in view of Psalm 118:26,
• He defended the crowd’s praise, and He did so with Psalm 8:2,
• He interpreted the betrayal of Judas and He did so in light of Psalm 41:9,
• He would have sung Psalm 118 at the end of the Passover meal,
• He lived out Psalm 22 on the cross, but He did more than that…He prayed it.  “My God, my God,” He was praying Psalm 22 and meditating on it even as He hung on the cross.
• He prayed for their forgiveness in light of the prophecy of Is 53:12,
• When He committed His spirit to the Father, He did it with the words of Psalm 31:5.  
• When He said He was thirsty, He said it in light of Psalm 69:21.
• When He rose from the dead Luke tells us that He said, “Everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

The Psalms were Jesus’ prayer book, and they were the prayer book of the New Testament Church.  

In Acts 4 Peter and John were standing before the Council for their preaching, they threatened them and then released them.  In verse 23 they reported what happened to the church, and then in verses 24-25 we find they prayed Psalm 2:1-2.  They saw the situation in light of Psalm 2 and prayed it.        

I could go on, but I wanted you to see that Jesus and the Apostles did the same thing.  So, why would we NOT use their prayer book as our own?  I've written on how to pray the Psalms, but turn to one this morning and read it, meditate on it, and pray it as you are doing both things.