The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 30:1-12 (day three)

What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness?

This psalm is just so raw. It’s like you’re reading the author’s personal journal detailing the range of emotions they’ve had before God. In verse 9, the psalmist sounds like they’re trying to persuade God to save them. He’s essentially saying, “The dirt can’t (audibly) praise you! If I die and return to dirt myself, I’m not good for anything! Save me so I can praise you!”

We know it’s generally not wise to bribe God; nor is it necessary to bribe him who loves us and wants to help us, though many of us have been this desperate in our prayers. In the psalmist’s desperation, though, he sheds light on the truth: we exist on this earth to give praise to God. Our purpose in life is simply to give him the praise that he is due, which is all of it. When we walk through life distracted by other pursuits and fail to give God praise and glory, we’re fulfilling our purpose no more than if we returned to dust.

This psalm reminds us of the ultimate purpose of our life, and it reminds us that God is worthy of that praise. He rescues from the pit; he hears our cries. May we praise him in both our mourning and our dancing.

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 30:1-12 (day three)

¹¹ You turned my lament into dancing; You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, ¹² so that I can sing to You and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise You forever.

Throughout the Bible, God uses the metaphor of new clothing to signify change in us. The Psalms and prophets are full of this imagery; Paul writes of it often in his letters; and John talks of it in Revelation. It helps us understand just how different we are when we follow God and give our lives fully to Him.

Here, David uses it to describe how God turned what was once broken into the exact opposite. David uses this imagery to describe just how far he had come with the Lord and invites others (us) to reflect on how God has changed their (our) lives. But, he doesn’t end there. In this Psalm, we are reminded that God changes us so that we can sing for joy and not be silent. We are changed so that others may know and see the goodness of the Lord and come to know Him as a result. We are rescued so that we can praise the Lord and glorify His name.

Reflect on the new set of clothes God has given you. You were given those so that you could praise His name and share His story of redemption and goodness.

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 30:1-12 (day two)

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 66:1-20 (day seven)

Blessed be God,
Who has not turned away my prayer
Nor His lovingkindness from me. Psalm 66:20

God hears. He doesn’t turn us away. Even when our prayers are selfish and our theology is imperfect, He listens. As the God of the universe, He has so much more to deal with than our insignificant first world struggles. Look up into the sky at night and you will come to the realization that we are just a tiny blip in a universe that is bigger than we can ever imagine. Yet, God cares for you. He hears every prayer. He comforts every soul that cries out “ABBA, Father.” In the midst of our insignificance, God shows us His lovingkindness and says, “You are significant to Me!”

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 66:1-20 (day six)

This week, I stumbled upon this profound quotation from Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together:

“The Psalms are the prayer book of Jesus in the truest sense of the word…Because Christ prays the prayer of the Psalms with the individual and the congregation before the heavenly throne of God, or rather because those who pray the Psalms are joining in with the prayer of Jesus Christ, their prayers reach the ears of God. Christ has become their intercessor.”

That claim is both comforting and revolutionary. It means that when we open the Psalms, we are not simply reading ancient religious poetry; we are stepping into the living prayer life of Jesus Himself.

We often read the Psalms looking for references to Christ, and rightly so. But Bonhoeffer pushes us further. The Psalms are not merely predictions about Jesus; they are the very words Jesus took on His lips.

He prayed them in the synagogue.
He sang them with His disciples.
He cried them from the cross.

So when we pray the Psalms today, we are not praying alone. We are praying with Christ.

This transforms how we think about prayer. Prayer is not first about finding the right words or reaching a certain emotional state. It is about participation, being drawn into the Son’s relationship with the Father.

 

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 66:1-20 (day five) Did you notice the shift (progression) of the pronouns in Psalm 66? Beginning as general (they, them) moving to corporate (us, our, we), and concluding as personal (I, my, me). Same faithfulness and power. Same attention and kindness. Same wisdom and character. How do you see God working in the world?  How do you see God working in our church?  How do you see God working in your heart and life?  Maybe the prompt is for us to be constantly looking and listening for God’s activity and work in the world. Maybe the prompt is to learn and trust the unchanging nature and character of God. And maybe the prompt is to pray, sing, and celebrate that this grand and glorious God gives His affection and attention to each of us (me). “This is MY story this is MY song, Praising MY savior all the day long.”  Tell Him. Praise Him.

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 66:1-20 (day four)

The Psalms teach us how to worship and how to pray. They free us to pray in ways we aren’t used to, and they give language to emotions that are hard to put into words. When we pray the words of the Psalms, we’re using prayers of old to express ourselves to God, and we find they are just as relevant and poignant now as they were then.

In Psalm 66, we find a prayer that follows the journey of the Israelites, centering on the event of the Exodus. In the Exodus, we see that an all-powerful God is willing to hear the cries of his people and intervene on their behalf. The Psalmist recognizes that God allowed them to experience hardship, but it was a hardship that refined them as God’s people. They reflect on that refinement with joy because it ultimately led them to a place of abundance.

Though we didn’t experience the Exodus firsthand, these words still lead us to worship. When have you experienced God intervening on your behalf? When have you experienced a challenging time of God refining you, allowing you to go through hard things? How did that refinement make you more Christlike? How has God led you into abundance? As we reflect on these things, we’ll find that we come to the same conclusion as the Psalmist: we should make God’s praise glorious.

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 66:1-20 (day three)

⁵ Come and see what God has done; he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.

The story of God is meant to be shared. Here, the Psalmist sets the example of inviting others in closer to know and experience the goodness of God. These words are a reminder to us that God’s people, both then and now, are the bringers of His light into this dark world so that others may come and see that the Lord is good. His message is not for us to keep it to ourselves, but to eagerly share what we know to be the wonderful thing it is to know Jesus as our savior.

Our story (no matter how grand or insignificant in our own eyes) is meant to be shared because it points to the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. You were important enough to God for Him to send Jesus to take your sin punishment. Your family members, friends, the stranger you meet on the street, the checker at the grocery store, the parent you talk to at school functions were all important enough to God for Jesus to die for them. How can we not share the awesome thing God has done for us?

Share your testimony. Share how God has saved you and transformed you. Share how He makes an impact in your life. Share the awesome deeds of your Father in Heaven so that others might know Him, too.

Who in your life this week are you going to invite closer to see what God has done?

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 66:1-20 (day two)

Come and see the works of God,
Who is awesome in His deeds toward the sons of men. v. 5

We have spent the past six weeks talking about stewardship in our series called Kingdom Generosity. I was struck as I re-read the text for today in light of that study. Much of our study was how we were to shepherd the resources given to us. This passage helped me remember that we are generous because God is generous. He has literally given everything to us – including, and, especially, Jesus. What a joy, then, to have the privilege to point people to God’s goodness. Our task is to tell others “Look how awesome God is!” Not a bad assignment.