By Rev. Xavier L. Johnson, D.Min.
I have always loved the Psalms. One of my earliest, and fondest, memories are of learning and memorizing them on Saturday mornings at my grandmother’s bedside. The reason that I love the Psalms is probably best summed up in the words of Athanasius, the fourth-century, North African early church father. In his letter to Marcellinus, he says, “Most of Scripture speaks to us; the Psalms speak for us.” I have found Athanasius’s observation to be most especially true now.
The novel coronavirus is a global pandemic. In its wake, to quote the angel “Gabriel” in the play Green Pastures, “Everything nailed down is coming loose!”
An unseen danger now walks among us and it has altered the very fabric of society. We no longer hug or shake hands when we greet each other. Due to the need for “social distancing,” a phrase many had never previously heard, almost every state in the country is under stay-at-home orders. The economy has ground to a halt and millions are unemployed. Schools are shuttered. Sports arenas are empty. Even the pews of our sanctuaries are vacant. Zoom meetings and conference calls are the new “normal.” Indeed, “Everything nailed down is coming loose.”
During these anxious and uncertain times, many are turning to prayer and scriptures for solace and comfort. This is why the Psalms should be added to our prayer practice. Psalms are more than just the hymnal of the Hebrew Bible. It is also a prayer book. Moreover, Roland Murphy calls it, “a school of prayer.”
Denise Hopkins, a professor of Old Testament at Wesley Theological Seminary, reminds us that the Psalms are not just a collection of songs that can be turned into prayers. Rather, they are models of prayer from which we can learn and make our own. The Psalms offer us many, often contrasting, ways to approach God in prayer. They teach us how to pray at every point on the continuum of human experience and emotion.
For the uneasy essential worker who must go out every day, Psalm 121:8 offers, “The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.” For the small business owner struggling to keep her business open while greedy major corporations and chains collect millions of dollars in federal stimulus money, Psalm 37:1 offers, “Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers.” For the family bereft with grief, who has lost multiple members to COVID-19, Psalm 13:1 offers, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” These represent just a few of the models of prayer offered to us in the Psalter.
As Hopkins points out, Hebrew Bible scholar Patrick D. Miller, Jr. best captures what the Psalms have to offer us, particularly during this pandemic. Miller writes that the Psalms speak, “both for us as they express our thoughts and feelings, fears and hopes, and to us as we hear in them direction for the life of faith and something of God’s way with us.” I hope that during this pandemic, like generations of Christians before us, we would again turn to the Psalms as models for an open and honest conversation with God.
Rev. Dr. Xavier L. Johnson is Pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, Dayton, Ohio.
