Today, while at the gym of all places, the idea came to me to practice a new kind of Lenten discipline. To be honest, I have not often practiced the idea of “giving something up” for Lent. But inspired by recent preaching, I’m proposing instead to do something for Lent: lift up one Psalm each day until Easter, and use it as a focus for prayer. This is an easy thing: the Psalms are prayers, prayers of all kinds. I’ll add a post here for each Psalm with a few brief thoughts along with a link to the NRSV text of the psalm on Bible Gateway. That site has dozens of other English (and Spanish) versions, so you can likely find your favorite version there.
By my reckoning, there are 42 days until Easter, so we should be able to cover about one-third of the psalter. During each week we’ll cover a variety of Psalms, but on Sundays, we’ll honor an ancient tradition of the Church that proclaims each Sunday in Lent to be a “little Easter”. On these days we’ll lift up a song of praise.
So welcome on this journey through Lent! I hope you find it a blessing.
To see all posts in this series, click on “Lenten Psalms” below.
Thank you Eric. I began reading the Psalms on Ash Wednesday and have been entering key verses that spoke to me in a journal each morning and praying with them as my guide. It’s my first time doing this. Usually I go the chocolate route and it is not so effective in drawing me nearer to God.
Sounds great, Leslie! Glad we’re on the same page. 😉
I’ve been thinking about Psalm 73 this week:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2073&version=NIV
Psalm 73:
This psalm acknowledges the struggles and doubts that can arise, but ultimately affirms God’s strength and goodness as the ultimate source of comfort and hope.