When You Don’t Have the Words
In When You Don’t Have the Words: Praying the Psalms, Reed S. Dunn shows how the Psalms enrich our prayer lives. This book demonstrates how the Psalms are the perfect instrument to shape our spirituality and guide us to our Lord.
Dunn begins by explaining that the Psalms are not just Israel’s handbook—they are Israel’s prayer book. Each psalm is an invitation to have a particular spiritual experience with God.
Praying All the Psalms
I was most challenged to learn that praying all of the Psalms is as important as praying any of them. Instead of picking and choosing which Psalms I want to pray in my life, I now want all of them to shape and mold me. Dunn describes developing a kind of muscle memory for praying the Psalms—meaning they come to mind naturally through regular practice.
The Psalms help us live in the Spirit. This is true spirituality: being close to God, no matter where we are. Dunn calls this a kind of spiritual stability—the ability to regularly pray through things that would usually derail us. In fact, the tree in Psalm One is a picture of that very stability.
Believing God Through the Psalms
What I found most interesting was how praying the Psalms changes our experience of believing God. We believe in both the natural and the supernatural. We begin to see God as an active participant in our lives. So much of the time, I want to recognize the hidden hand of God. I now believe the Psalms are my way to get there.
The Psalms show us that God is our refuge in many ways. Praying the Psalms frees us to run to God instead of trying to fix ourselves. The Psalms help us become self-forgetful—in a good way—turning our attention Godward. They point us to the righteousness of Christ, the reality of evil, and God’s ultimate victory over it. And when God seems silent, the Psalms give us words to say when we feel separated from Him.
How God Shapes a Soul
The book ends on the note that the Psalms help us relate to and meet with God. After reading this book, I am motivated to make Psalm reading a regular part of my routine using The Kathismata Psalter. I am eager and ready to see how God shapes my soul through the Psalms.
I received a media copy of When You Don’t Have the Words and this is my honest review. Find more of my book reviews and follow Dive In, Dig Deep on Instagram - my account dedicated to Bibles and books to see the beauty of the Bible and the role of reading in the Christian life. To read all of my book reviews and to receive all of the free eBooks I find on the web, subscribe to my free newsletter.