Are the Psalms prayer? Many of the Psalms are characterised by their direct, personal address to God. A large number of these Psalms are Davidic, and are concerned initially, at least, with the trials of God's anointed. However, it is not always easy to work out whether they are personal prayers or community songs or laments cast as personal prayers or personal prayers which have become community songs!

However five of the Psalms are dearly identified in their superscription as 'A Prayer'. The superscription of Psalm 17, for example, reads "a prayer of David" (similarly Psalm 86 [also David], 90 [Moses], 102 [the prayer of an afflicted one], 142 [David again]). At least some of the Psalms then are straightforward prayers. It's also clear that many, many other Psalms obviously "call on the name of Yahweh", which I have previously argued is the essence of biblical prayer. So, for example, although neither Psalms 1 nor 2 is directly addressed to God, Psalms 3-8 are. This pattern continues throughout the Psalter. It is also noticeable even in Psalms which are essentially declarative (e.g. Psalm 19) or pronouncing blessing (e.g. Psalm 20). But in the Psalms, prayer is never far away.

Second, whose prayers are these? Dietrich Bonhoeffer suggested that the way to read the Psalter is to understand that the Psalms are not, in the first place, our Psalms. They are first the prayers of David the (suffering) Messiah. Presumably they were then picked up and prayed (or sung) by Israel as "the people of the (suffering) Messiah". These prayers then find their fullest meaning when they are prayed by the suffering Messiah, Jesus Christ.

So can we pray the prayers as Christians? Yes we can — in the same sense that we are enabled by Jesus to share in His prayers to His Father. His death and resurrection enables those who follow in His steps to pray these "Messianic" prayers in a derivative sense. To pray the Psalms, then, demands significant care and thought.

Third, how does the Psalter contribute to a biblical theology of prayer? The Psalter is often spoken in terms like "the prayer book of the Bible", and as validating all kinds of expression to God ("we can bring our deepest emotions to God — He can handle them!"). There is, of course, some truth in this. But we must not rush to such conclusions without dealing faithfully with the text which is in front of us.

Where any given Davidic psalm is a prayer, it is first and foremost his prayer. On close examination, both David's experiences and the way in which he reacts to these experiences are not intended to capture the generalities on life on planet earth for human beings — this is the intense reality of life as God's Messiah, the one who stands at the centre of God's plans on earth, and as a result is the focus of attention of God's enemies. To attempt to pray the Psalms without recognising this is a sure road to self-aggrandisement!

But this is not the end of the story. Within the Psalter itself there is also a progression to prayers prayed by the people of the Messiah, crying to God to do what He has promised both the Patriarchs and His anointed King. In that sense, then, the prayers of the Messiah become the prayers of the people of the Messiah.

The Psalter's "teaching" on prayer then is both more complex than is often realised, but also more integrated with the rest of the Old Testament's teaching on prayer than one might think. The essential understanding of prayer in the Psalms is reflected by the way in which the king/Messiah prays — it is calling on Yahweh to deliver on His promises.

This basic conception of prayer spills over into the prayers of the people of the Messiah, who continue to cry for God to work by sending the ultimate Davidic King, establishing His kingdom and drawing the nations to Him.