The Psalms are our prayers because they are, first and foremost, the prayers of the Beloved Son, who embodies our exile before the Father. Jesus was a part of the exiled Jewish community living under Roman occupation; The Psalms were His prayer book. They were the communal prayers that taught Him how to speak to His Father praise and sorrow, without any masks. If the psalms are the prayers of Jesus bringing His whole self before our Father, then they — in all their grief, joy, and violent rage — must be the prayers that lead us to Him as well.
