Deus Misereatur

Praying the Bible by Donald S. Whitney My rating: 5 of 5 stars Donald S. Whitney, professor of biblical spirituality and associate dean at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and accomplished author on the subject of the spiritual disciplines, has handed off to Christians a wonderfully simple approach to prayer. This 106 page hardback, "Praying the Bible" puts in readers hands and hearts an uncomplicated, usable way to turn boring old prayers about the same boring old things filled with boring old phrases into fresh and fleet seasons of prayer. Whitney lays out a straightforward method for prayer: " when you pray, pray through a passage of Scripture, particularly a psalm " (27). It's that plain! "By this means his words become the wings of your prayers" (32). And the benefit of this approach is that "the Spirit of God will use the Word of God to help the people of God pray increasingly according to the will of ...

At three set points of the first half of the day, from 5.15 AM until about 1 PM, I have three devotional/prayer times. In all three the Psalms figure large; I use them sequentially at all three times. Also, during Terce (mid-morning prayers) I always use the Psalms from either the 1928 Book of Common Prayer , or from the King James Version – because I love the older, poetic language. It was during the mid-morning prayers that I came to Psalm 94. Whatever the reason, this Psalm resonated with me in a very enlivened way. It has nothing to do with the American elections and their results, but, rather, with our world, with the agony of so many and the abuse by so many: Fellow Christians in countless countries and conditions pressed down upon by war, poverty, brigandry and governmental atrocities; hordes of men, women and children confiscated and confined, to be used up (in slavery and for sex), and once used up, discarded into the rubbish bin of history (sometimes literally thrown aw...