So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You areGod, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them…” Acts 4.24

Life Together
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)
“…the psalms teach us to pray as a fellowship. The Body of Christ is praying, and as an individual one acknowledges that his prayer is only a minute fragment of the whole prayer of the Church. He learns to pray the prayer of the Body of Christ. And that lifts him above his personal concerns and allows him to pray selflessly.”

Imagine you’re in a stadium filled with thousands and thousands of believers. Suddenly, someone with a microphone says, “Beloved, let us sing to the Lord.” Whereupon he begins, “Amazing grace, how sweet…” How long do you think it would take the multitudes to join in? Not very long. We all know and love this glorious hymn. Apparently, this is the kind of stature the psalms had in the early Christian community. When, in a time of urgency and uncertainty, one of their number began to pray Psalm 146.6, they all joined their voices together. And as another led into Psalm 2 (Acts 4.25), they moved into that psalm, voices together as well. Praying the psalms together, whether by taking turns, reciting a psalm verbatim or antiphonally, or by using the psalm, as in Acts 4, to spring into something contemporary and urgent, can help to build unity of life into the Body of Christ.

Have you ever thought of your prayers as contributing to the worldwide voice of prayer going up to the Lord each day? Do you think praying the psalms might give you more confidence that this is so?

Praying the psalms for revival
If you want to see how the psalms can be used in seeking the Lord for revival, order our book, Restore Us!In this book, not only do we explain why praying for revival is important, we also provide 12 psalms specially set up for use in seeking the Lord for revival. Order your copy by clicking here.

Voices Together
Every day John Nunnikhoven leads us in praying Scripture through his daily column, Voices Together. To subscribe, go to the website and update your subscriptions. John’s two volumes Voices Together 1 and 2 are devoted to leading you in learning to pray all the psalms. They’re available in our online bookstore.

Our heavenly Father supports The Fellowship of Ailbe through the generous and faithful gifts of those who benefit from and believe in our work. Does the Lord want to use you in this way? Please look to Him in prayer over this question. You can contribute to The Fellowship of Ailbe by using the Contribute button at our website, or by sending your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 19 Tyler Drive, Essex Junction, VT 05452. Thank you.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.