A Review of Rick Stedman’s “Praying the Psalms”
An Answer to Your Prayers
I was really curious to read a book on prayer. I’ve been asking a lot of questions about prayer of my church. You see, I was brought up in the Catholic tradition of praying on one’s knees, but, in more recent years, I have found myself, yes, praying in bed. It turns out, that’s not a bad thing. And there’s more than one way to “pray”, including by taking part in some of those labyrinth walks I’ve done this year. And it may just be that reading and reviewing theological books may be a form of prayer, too. Basically, anything that brings you in communion with God can be a prayer, even if that’s just sitting with the window open and listening to nature.
I was really doubly curious to read a book on the Psalms. The Psalms have always baffled me to their intent and purpose. I’ve also found them very hard to read because they can shift in tone on a dime. And some of the references in the Psalms clearly sail over my modern head. So, when this book came up on NetGalley, I flocked to it. I wanted to see what Rick Stedman, formerly the pastor of a megachurch that grew to 5,000 members (a number he recounts with pride in the book many times, if only to assuage himself of the inevitable church split that followed), had to say about it. I’m glad I picked this up. It was worth the read.
Praying the Psalms is a rather complex book and one hard to describe. It is part memoir. It is also part workbook to scribble in (which made it difficult to read on my Kindle at times). It is part theological study. It is also partially academic in tone, which may be the most surprising thing considering that it is a book devoted to religious readers. It meanders and ambles at times, and this was the least successful aspect of the book for me, but when Praying the Psalms is on point, it can be powerful in its revelations.
The book, granted, only looks at the first 10 Psalms in depth, leaving the reader to pray the remaining 140 on their own. Still, there are patterns to the Psalms, and Stedman spends a lot of time unpacking them to show us that God is a being who has emotions too, and that reading the Psalms — and, better yet, praying them out loud — can bring us in closer connection to God and other people. Stedman explains how some of the Psalms can be unflinchingly violent — my church would just edit those bits out — but that’s because it is not a sin (also a word my church avoids) to merely speak of dashing one’s teeth out, as one of the Psalms does. Lament and anger, it turns out, always gives way to praise, which is why, in the powerful last chapter, Stedman shows us that even though we have a lot of “why?” questions to ask of God that may or may not be answered, exalting the love of God is bound to bring joy and peace to even the most aching hearts. The Psalms all do that.
This is the kind of book that workshops were made for, and it is my best that Stedman might have a way of making a pretty penny in his retirement by offering a few. I did find it a little hard on my Kindle to take part in the activities, some of which wasn’t anyone’s fault, really — the galley copy is a galley copy, and it sometimes had weird formatting. I would say, though, that if you’re thinking of buying the book to do so in physical form, as it’d be easier to dog ear and pencil pages as your needs feel fit. That might be why I think I would have preferred to have worked through the Psalms in a group setting rather than on my own — it was just too hard to think with the Kindle, and I don’t like marking books up.
The book passes the test in terms of not being really offensive to those of a liberal faith, like me. It’s obvious that Stedman is an evangelical, but he doesn’t spend much time trumpeting his faith as being better. There are a few digressions that bring the book down, including a shot at horror literature. Now, I can respect and appreciate that Stedman thinks that viewing images of gore is unholy and perpetuating in an act of evil, and I don’t necessarily disagree with him. However, there are some really smart horror movies out there — George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead might be really disgusting for its time, but has plenty to say about the perils of consumerist culture, and, believe it or not, many an academic essay has been written on the film. To write off a whole genre in pursuit of Godliness, which even Stedman acknowledges is impossible to attain, seemed a little off to me.
Still, if you can overlook Stedman’s swipes at atheists (which are about as flat as Richard Dawkins attempts to deflate Christianity and all religions) and dislike of horror movies, and the lack of focus these “attacks” bring to the book, Praying the Psalms was and is a highly instructive read. It made me understand the Psalter a little better, and made me realize that emotions are used in the Bible in complicated ways. I found reading the book to bring me great peace, and I was saddened when it was done. However, this is the third book in a trilogy on praying, so I, at least, have two other books to thumb through now that I’m done. Praying the Psalms is highly illuminating. If prayer means anything to you, then by all means read with pleasure and with your hands in a folded position.
Rick Stedman’s Praying the Psalms: Growing Emotionally Closer to God and Those You Love was published by Harvest House Publishers on October 1, 2016.
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Zachary Houle is a resident of Ottawa, Canada, and was the recipient of a $4,000 arts grant from the City of Ottawa for emerging artists. He has been a Pushcart Prize nominee, too. He also is a music critic, with music writing publishing credits in SPIN magazine and the Ottawa Citizen, among others. He is a member of First United Church in Ottawa, Canada, and has been so for the past two years. Houle is interested in anything having to do with deepening his newfound faith in God, so, if you’re an author, feel free to get in touch. Contact: zacharyhoule@rogers.com.
