Spiritual formatioin Archives

Answering God

Answering God, Eugene H. Peterson. Harper One (ISBN: 9780060665128) 1991.

Summary: Contends that the Psalms, explored here, are necessary instruction in prayer, understood as answering the God who addresses us.

It is not uncommon, when the questioned “How do I pray?” to say something like, “Just talk to God, expressing honestly what is on your heart.” Eugene H. Peterson, while not saying this is wrong, believes there is a lot more to prayer and praying. First of all, he proposes that praying is a tool. He believes that it is at the center of our being human. More than that, he proposes that prayer is a tool by which God works his will in us and by which we collaborate with that work. For Peterson, the Psalms are our necessary toolbox to train us in how to pray. So it has been throughout church history.

Peterson makes one more startling claim. We think prayer is about talking to God. Rather, he believes the Psalms are about answering God. Instead of our seeking God, God comes to us and speaks amidst our sin, our despair, or even our gratitude. The Psalms coach us in answering God, leading us into true conversation with God.

Before taking us through several Psalms that answer God in various ways, Peterson addresses some basic realities about the Psalms. They are not only texts, they are prayers written as poetry. As such, they take us into the depths of both God and ourselves, giving voice to the inchoate. They are not primarily about understanding ourselves. Rather, they are about addressing the one God who has everything to do with our lives. Furthermore, they are embedded in a canon of sixty-six books, part of a larger story of the People of God. Finally, although we often pray on our own, these are prayers of a community. When we pray these, we are praying with others, across the world and across the centuries.

Peterson begins at the beginning, with the “pre-prayers” of Psalms 1 and 2. Psalm 1 emphasizes meditation on Torah as the roots of our life, our prayers. Psalm 2 then leads us into adoration of the Lord and his Anointed, his Messiah, contrasted with the rulers of this world. Then as he unfolds Psalm 3, Peterson focuses on language. He contends language takes three forms, I being the language of intimacy and relationship, II the language of information, and III, the language of motivation. The Psalms are about Language I. Psalm 3 illustrates this with its cry against enemies, its expression of trust, its cry for salvation. No abstractions here but rather the language of urgent and intimate relationship.

In the following chapter, Peterson reminds us of how Psalms are set in a story–the David story, the bigger story of Israel, and ultimately a story of which we are a part. Both poetry and life have rhythms. Peterson observes for us the rhythms of evening and morning in Psalms 4 and 5. Psalm 4 begins the day in the evening and our rest in God’s care, followed by Psalm 5, with our rising in the morning to God’s work for us in the day. Then Peterson jumps to Psalm 18, observing how God teaches us to pray by metaphor. God is strength, rock, fortress, deliverer, shield, horn, and stronghold. Prayer is not gnostic. God is described but not idolized in material terms, not in spiritual abstractions.

As noted earlier, the Psalms imply a praying community. Peterson notes the liturgical notations in many Psalms. When we pray in community, we recognize that the one who summoned us is in charge. The Psalms are liturgy, but this hardly means bland as we speak the sharp-edged expressions of desperation, repentance, longing, and wonder. Then Peterson turns to the most sharp-edged psalm many of us would excise if we could, Psalm 137, with its dashing of little ones against rocks. The focus is on enemies, and Peterson argues we need to pray our hatred of our enemies before we get to the place of loving them. So this is a Psalm we desperately need.

The Psalms are about memory. We remember our creation, our implication in sin, the country of salvation. Hence, the Psalms give coherence to the disparate aspects of our lives. Finally, the Psalms end in an effusion of praise. We are thus reminded that the end of prayer, the end of life, and indeed, our destiny is the praise of God.

Thus, Peterson sums up the Psalms in ten words: Text, Way, Language, Story, Rhythm, Metaphor, Liturgy, Enemies, Memory, and End. I found that in the concision of these words and the chapters a clear scaffold on which to hang my praying of the Psalms. Peterson not only makes sense of the Psalms without a psalm-by-psalm commentary. He also gives us a primer on Christian prayer, both its purpose, and our primary instructional text. And in introducing the Psalms as the church’s prayer book, he invites us to rise from our merely personal and often idiosyncratic prayers, to pray with both ancient Israel and the church across the centuries.

Cover image of "Creating a Life with God" by Daniel Wolpert

Creating a Life with God (20th Anniversary Revised edition), Daniel Wolpert. Upper Room Books (ISBN: 9780835820394) 2023

Summary: Prayer practices for relationship with God, in silence and solitude, with mind and body, alone and in community.

When Daniel Wolpert is asked, “What do you do for a living?” he answers, “I am a student of the spiritual life.” This book represents forty years of study, twenty since the first edition of its publication. Originally written for leaders of youth ministries, the book serves as a wonderful introduction to a dozen prayer practices that have enriched the lives of Christians for centuries. Two new chapters address praying in an environmental apocalypse and how prayer may be socially transformative.

Each of the chapters begins with a “traveling companion,” a Christian individual or group closely identified with that practice. The companions range from the desert fathers and mothers and Saint Benedict through Saint Francis, the Beguines, and Howard Thurman. The chapters begin with an introduction to the history of the practice and proceed to practical instruction. An appendix offers further step by step instructions for each practice. Wolpert gives suggestions for use of the practice both individually and in groups.

Wolpert begins with a “gateway” practice of silence and solitude. Then he focuses on a series of “mental” practices: lectio divina, the Jesus prayer, apophatic prayer, the examen, creativity and prayer, and journaling. Next, he discusses bodily practices including body prayer and walking. For body prayer, he uses the example of Heloise and Abelard, offered as an example of negative views of the body. He commends breath prayer and body sculpture prayers where a scripture is read and a word focused upon that is then acted upon with a bodily pose.. Walking is very slow, deliberate walking with each step taken toward God. He also discusses the use of labyrinths.

The final chapters take prayer into the world. Wolpert explores praying in nature, prayer and our stuff, and prayer in community. I appreciated the way he addressed “climate anxiety,” which may apply to other anxieties of our age. Specifically, he encourages the prayer of asking and listening for what we may do. We needn’t expect that the answer will solve a crisis, but lead us to simply partner with God. Likewise, in praying for social transformation, he bids us to embrace the way of Jesus rather than “Christian religion” that has harmed many

This introduction to prayer practices is not “dumbed down” but reflects a “simplicity on the other side of complexity.” Wolpert emphasizes that we not attempt to teach what we have not practiced. It is evident that he has spent a life in these practices, informed by spiritual examples who have preceded him. There is something for those at every stage of the journey, because all of us are “creating a life with God,” or at least longing to.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Speakeasy for review.