"Be Gracious to Me, O God" - 22 May 2022

 


[This particular congregational prayer walks through all of Psalm 56]

Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me (Psalm 56:1-4)?  Lord, our oppressors are the world, the flesh, and the devil. May our trust in you raise us up above fear and dread. Sometimes it feels like our own bodies and life circumstances are our worst enemies, walloping us with maladies, heart disease, mental darkness, disorientation, heart aches and heart breaks. We pray for those going through the thick and thin of it right now (…). Bring them through it all with faith, hope, love, and the smile of your face. Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you!

All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life. For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God (Psalm 56:5-7)! For those people-groups, organizations and institutions inside our nation, and those parties outside our country who seek to overthrow prudence, justice, fortitude, self-control, faith, hope and love by promoting gluttony, lust, greed, anger, envy, sloth and vainglory, bring their endeavors to nothing. Break their power to do harm and to maim. Siphon off that which fuels their fury. And bring them to know you are the Lord, and that you have made Jesus head over all, so that they may now, not on the day of Judgment, confess that Jesus is Lord and bow the knee to him. Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you!

You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me (Psalm 56:8-11)? Here, Lord, we pray for your church in all four corners of this big, wide world; to include not only Heritage, but also Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist, New Bethel Baptist, New Heights Baptist, and New Hope Baptist Church. May your word be our praise, and you be our delight. You who are good, whose steadfast love endures forever, take us in hand to guide our aims, to keep us walking in the ancient paths, and in the good way (Jeremiah 6:16). Help us to sow for ourselves righteousness, reap steadfast love, to break up our fallow ground that you may come and rain righteousness on us: for you are our judge, you are our lawgiver, you are our king. You will save us (Hosea 10:12; Isaiah 33:22)! Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you! 

I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life (Psalm 56:12-13). Father, be with our young adults heading onward, outward, and upward. Help them to always remember whose they are, who they are and why they are. Oh, Lord God, help them to daily recall that you are exalted, for you dwell on high; that you will fill Zion with justice and righteousness; you will be the stability of their times; abundance of salvation; wisdom, and knowledge; and that the fear of the LORD will always be their treasure (Isaiah 33:5-6). Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you! And now we pray as we have been taught, saying, Our Father…

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“The Shift” - 2023 Movie. A Review

Image
  What do you get when you cross a dark dystopian storyline with sci-fi, alternative dimensions, theological and philosophical questions, and the biblical book of Job? You get The Shift , written and directed by Brock Heasley, produced by Ken Carpenter, and distributed by Angel Studios. This roughly one hour and 45 minute tale swirls around Kevin (Kristoffer Polaha) as he moves from one realm of life, with it’s happiness and heartbreak, to another dimension that is a dismal existence clearly governed by The Benefactor (masterfully played by Neal McDonough). A viewer will be asking questions all the way through, and picking up clues and answers that pull the story together bit-by-bit. The story bumps up against an infinite set of alternative possibilities, of time, space, and versions of one’s self that will likely stoke a viewer’s imagination. But the heart of the narrative - besides love, grief, loss, trust/distrust - is around the place of evil, specifically, personal or human evil.
Read more

"On Getting Out of Bed" by Alan Noble. A Review

Image
  When it comes to family members or friends going through a significant mental crisis, or suffering, we often can feel like we’re fumbling about to help them. Sometimes, we can become like Job’s friends, whom he had to call “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2). But very recently Alan Noble, assistant professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee Oklahoma, and cofounder and editor-in-chief of “Christ and Pop Culture” penned a deeply beautiful 120-page hardback that addresses mental affliction. “On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living” is written for those who struggle with mental affliction, but also pastors, teachers, parents, and loved ones, to “help them understand their loved one’s suffering. It is for anyone who ever struggles to get out of bed” (3). I finished this book earlier this week, and kept finding myself saying, “Finally! Someone gets it!” Eight chapters fill up this handy manual. They run through several subjects, like not sounding like Job’s f
Read more

Community?

Image
  (This is from my letter to my congregation I sent out today, 30 August 2023) As one of my elders was leading us through Carl Trueman’s Strange New World in our adult class , I appreciated Trueman’s emphasis on community. And our discussions, especially the last two Sundays, were very fruitful as we thought out loud together about this subject. Therefore, I thought I would share something from David Brooks, an Op-ed columnist that leans into this discussion.   Brooks published a book in 2019 titled, “The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life”. In that work he was taking a gentle punch at destructive trends he has been seeing, and giving some helpful correctives. And so, he notes that “Individualism, taken too far, leads to tribalism” (34). He then shows how the loneliness and spiritual emptiness of individualism taken too far have become more prevalent in our time and the ways that they lead to very dark social consequences. These darker social consequences foster the need t
Read more