A Prayer in Color: Psalm 42

Reflection

One of my favorite ways to combine scripture reading and prayer is through the practice of praying in color. The practice is very simple. You simply choose something to reflect on- a prayer, a passage of scripture, a piece of music, a poem- and you draw or color as you pray.

For me, it is like a combination of Lectio Divina, or Holy Reading, and coloring. I typically try to engage with the piece I am reflecting on two or three times while I am drawing.

You don’t have to be artistic to do this; you can draw stick figures, or words, or create a mind map. Just like when we pray in the “traditional” way, this exercise of “praying in color” can be whatever your heart needs most.

For today’s exercise, I would invite you to focus on the words from this week’s Psalm: Psalm 42. There are many different ways you can focus on the words, but here are the three choices for today:

1. You can read the words (printed below);

2. You can listen to them set to music on the YouTube video below; or

3. You can listen to them as they are read by Pastor Kristen.

Gather whatever materials you want to use to pray with color: paper, markers, crayons, paint- the choice is yours. 

As you listen the first time, open your heart and your ears to what God is trying to say to you this day. Then, listen again, and begin to draw or write the words on your heart. Continue to listen as many times as you need to, praying with the colors you have chosen.

Let us pray together. 

Psalm 42

Longing for God and His Help in Distress

1 As a deer longs for flowing streams,
    so my soul longs for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
    the face of God?
3 My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while people say to me continually,
    “Where is your God?”

4 These things I remember,
    as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
    and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
    a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my help 6 and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
    therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
    from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
    at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
    have gone over me.
8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I say to God, my rock,    
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
    because the enemy oppresses me?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my body,
    my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
    “Where is your God?”

11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my help and my God.

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Reverend Kristen Koger has served as the Pastor for Children and Families at FBC Decatur since June 2017. Kristen loves working with the youngest of God’s family as she helps them realize that they have some of the most important gifts to offer the family of God. In her free time, she enjoys hanging out with her dog Dietrich “Bonehoeffer,” cooking, knitting, and playing board games.