ABSTRACT
In the psalms, prayer arising out of pain and distress is more often expressed in direct conversation with God. Few prayers in public worship are genuinely conversational. Some of them fall into the trap of becoming a list of wants or needs that we expect God to fill. Other prayers become sermons in guise, reminding the congregation of the way of God in the world and of the proper response to that way. While God is presumed to be one of the major conversation partners in most psalms, there are some in which God is quoted, either directly or indirectly. God is silent in many psalms, yet the psalmist believes that can be changed and feels justified in trusting that the Lord will, or should, answer his/her prayer. The psalms encourage us to bring all our experiences before God. They teach us that nothing is inadmissible in God's presence in our understanding of prayer as a genuine conversation with God.
