A Psalm and A Prayer

Responsive Readings from the Psalms and Prayers
for Public Worship and Private Devotions

L.G. Parkhurst, Jr.
Teaching the Truth in Love

International Bible Lessons Commentaries and Lessons

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Responsive Psalms have been used in worship for hundreds of years by Jews and Christians, and I hope you will find these responsive readings from the psalms and these prayers helpful to you. Copy and Paste these Psalms and the Prayers for use in a bulletin for public worship.

These Responsive Readings from the Psalms and the prayers are freely provided for private devotions and use in a public service of worship, a Sunday school class, or with other groups. In a worship bulletin, these Psalms and Prayers easily fit in the left hand side of the bulletin (with the right size font and type), and I have abridged the Psalms, or shortened or lengthened prayers, to fit easily in a church bulletin.

In some cases, the psalms are so long that I have created several short "psalms and prayer" from them, as in the case of Psalm 119.You do not need to give credit for the use of these psalms and prayers in your worship service bulletin. Some teachers have found these Psalms and Prayers useful before they begin their class or Bible study.

If you conduct your worship service without a bulletin, Psalms and Prayers can easily be projected on a screen for congregational use. If you choose not to read the Psalms responsively or put them in a bulletin, you can easily read the abridged Psalm and prayer provided here as a short Call to Worship instead of responsively (omitting the Leader and People, and reading the Psalm straight through as printed here) and then use the prayer as an opening prayer.

Each prayer ends with “Our Father. . .” so you can remind worshipers to continue to pray the Lord's Prayer and conclude the prayer with the Lord's Prayer, if you choose.

Even though the format for A Psalm and A Prayer is in the form of a Responsive Reading, you can easily read A Psalm and A Prayer as a brief devotional before praying the prayer that goes with the reading. I have edited and omitted parts of the Psalms to best suit my own worship services, so you may want to read the Psalm in your own Bible and compile and edit the Psalm in the best way to suit your own worship service and style.

These Responsive Readings are often freely adapted and condensed from the Psalms using the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.