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“They are wrongheaded because our heat needs to be prayed, not suppressed… but if it is not admitted, it can quickly and easily metamorphose into evil that provokes it…”

“The psalmists are angry people.”

“ The enemies that Jesus loved and prayed for killed him.”

“Left to ourselves, we are never more selfish than when we pray. With God as the Great Sympathizer, the Great Giver, the Great Promiser we go to our knees & indulge every impulse for gratification. But the psalms that teach us to pray… embed all our prayers in liturgy. Liturgy defends us against the commonest diseases of prayer: the tyranny of our emotions, the isolation of our pride.”

The Psalms instruct, train, immerse us in the answering speech which is our part in the exchange of words by which are being in the image of God and redemption by the blood of Christ is formed internally into maturity.”

“…since it is clear that the prophets and Solomon ascribe to God not only might but also choice and determination.”

Chapter 2 is incredible!

“But God’s word has this aimed, intentional, personal nature… they are torah and we are the target… These are words we take in – words designed for shaping new life in us, feeding the energies of salvation”

“Meditation is mastication.”

“We get ourselves ready to pray by looking at a tree, a transplant tree, and seeing ourselves in it.”

“How does [culture] heal itself? Boy, mythologist and poet, had an answer: through story and ritual.”

“The antidote to this is to dig down to those foundations and begin the work of repair. We are going to have to learn to be adults again… We are,in short, going to have to grow up… It is myth work… But there is nothing else for it; no other path is going to get us home.”

“The extravagant claim is that the Psalms are necessary… If we wish to develop in the life of faith, to mature in our humanity, and to glorify God, with our entire heart, mind, soul, and strength, the psalms are necessary.”

“At the center of the whole enterprise of being human, prayers are the primary technology. Prayers or tools that God uses to work his will what are you watching into our bodies and souls. Prayers or tools that we use to collaborate in his work with us.”

“When we forget the proper direction in which to aim our prayers, we will end up aiming them at the ultimate idol: our own image, reflected back to us in our little black screens.”

Chapter 8 is a good and encouraging marriage chapter.