The Value of the Psalter During Lent

The Psalter, which is a fancy title for the Psalms, is immensely valuable to the Christian at all times; however, during Lent it takes on a whole new value. Since many of the psalms are penitential in nature, it is excellent to read through the entire Psalter during the season of Lent. Psalm 6 is an excellent example of a penitential psalm:

⁴ Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;
    save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of you;
    in Sheol who will give you praise?

⁶ I am weary with my moaning;
    every night I flood my bed with tears;
    I drench my couch with my weeping.
⁷ My eye wastes away because of grief;
    it grows weak because of all my foes.

We often think of giving up practices during Lent, and this is a fine practice; however, it is even better to pick up good habits during the season of Lent. Instead of simply giving up some pleasure, one could devote himself to a good habit such as praying Matins or Vespers every day during Lent. But while we are speaking of the Psalter, it would be an awesome Lenten practice to pick up reading the Psalter daily. In fact to read the entire Psalter during Lent, one would need to only read four Psalms each day.

I highly recommend picking up the habit of reading the Psalter during Lent, and Luther’s immense praise for the Psalter ought to further inspire one to read the Psalter:

The Psalter ought to be a dear and beloved book, if only because it promises Christ’s death and resurrection so clearly and so depicts His kingdom and the condition and nature of all of Christendom that we may call it a little Bible. Most beautifully and briefly it embraces everything in the entire Bible; it is made into a fine enchiridion, or handbook. Therefore, it seems to me that the Holy Spirit wanted to take the trouble of compiling a short Bible and a book of examples of all Christendom or of all saints, with this purpose in mind that whoever could not read the whole Bible would here have practically an entire summary of it comprised in one book… (Reading the Psalms with Luther)

Gerhard on the Remembrance of the Sins of Our Youth

Gerhard offers an excellent meditation on the sins committed during one’s youth:

O HOLY G OD , just Judge, do not remember the faults of my youth (Psalm 25:7). Do not recall any more the sins of my past (Jeremiah 31:34). The root of evil desire produced so much poison fruit in my childhood. The evil of original sin produced so many actual sins. The thoughts of my heart are depraved and perverse from earliest childhood, even from tender infancy (Genesis 6:5). If I were a day- old infant, in Your sight I would still not be innocent (Job 14:4). The faults and failures that weigh on me are as many as the days of my life; in fact, they are many more because even a righteous person falls seven times in a day (Proverbs 24:16). If a righteous person falls seven times in a day, I believe that I, hopeless and unrighteous, have fallen seventy times seven times in a day.

Life increased and the web of sins increased. However much You kindly added to the length of my life, my defective and corrupt nature added an equal amount to the weight of my sins. I look back at my life and find the most foul and filthy cloak of sins. When I compare the course of my life to the light of Your precepts, I find only darkness and blindness. My youth should have been picked like a tender young flower, worn as a crown of virtue, and offered to You as a fragrant scent. The best of my years should have belonged to You, the Creator of nature. But the filth of sins polluted that flower of my youth in the foulest way. The stinking filth of transgressions fouled it terribly and miserably. Of all our years, the earliest are the most apt time for us to serve God. However, I used most of mine to serve the devil. The memory of many sins committed in my promiscuous and uncontrolled youth weighs heavy on my mind. Worse yet, many more of these sins escape my memory. Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults (Psalm 19:12).

For the disobedience of my youth, I offer to You, holy Father, the obedience of Your Son. I offer to You the perfect innocence of the one who became obedient to You, even to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). Even as a boy of twelve, Christ showed a holy obedience to You and followed Your will with great willingness (Luke 2:42). This obedience, O just Judge, I offer as the price and satisfaction for the great disobedience of my youth.

AMEN.

Meditations on Divine Mercy, Gerhard, Johann. Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis. 34

Gerhard in the Season of Lent

Gerhard’s meditations on sin make excellent devotionals during this time of lent, and so I hope to put several of them up as I pray them myself. Here is is his meditation on original sin:

O HOLY G OD , just Judge, I know that I am conceived and born in sin (Psalm 51:7). I know that I was formed from unclean seed in my mother’s womb (Job 14:4). The poison of sin has so corrupted and spoiled my entire nature that no power of my soul is free from its infection. The holy gift of the divine image entrusted to me by the first parent of our race has perished in me. I now have no ability to initiate a saving recognition, fear, trust, and love of You. I have no ability to obey Your commandments. My will is turned away from the Law. The law of sin in my members is opposed to the law of my mind so my entire nature is corrupt and perverted (Romans 7:23). I am wretched and miserable. I feel the assault of sin clinging tenaciously to every part of me. I feel the yoke of perverse desire weighing heavily on me. Although I have been regenerated and renewed in the washing of Baptism through the Spirit of grace (Titus 3:5), I am not totally free from the yoke and captivity of sin. That bitter root lurking in me always strives to shoot forth (Hebrews 12:15). The law of sin that rages in my flesh fights to capture me. I am full of doubts and distrust. I desire my own honor. From my heart come depraved thoughts that defile me in Your sight (Matthew 15:19). From a poisoned spring flow poison streams.

O Lord, do not enter into judgment with Your servant (Psalm 143:2). Instead, be gracious to me according to Your great mercy (Psalm 51:3). The depth of my wretchedness calls out for help to the depth of Your mercy (Psalm 42:8). I place before You the holy conception of Your Son in place of my foul, unclean nature. He was born for me, and He also was conceived for me (Isaiah 9:6). Your Son was made sanctification and righteousness for me (1 Corinthians 1:30), and He also was made my purification and purity. Because of Your Son and through Your Son, have mercy on me, O Most High. Do not place the hidden, evil corruption of my nature in the light of Your face (Psalm 90:8). Look to Your beloved Son, my mediator. May His most holy and unpolluted conception be the remedy for my miserable conception.

AMEN.