Soulfood

The Psalms of the Day for the 2nd day of the month are 2, 32, 62, 92, and 122.

We pray Psalm 2 with and for those who are persecuted and oppressed. But if you want to know how to pray Psalm 2, don’t take my word for it – read Acts 4:24b-30, when the church prayed after Peter and John were brought before the Sanhedrin and forbidden to preach the gospel.

“Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of earth set themselves, and rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and his Anointed’” for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your bondservants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Psalm 32 is a psalm to instruct us to give thanks to God for his mercy when we confess our sins to Him. By it we are encouraged to acknowledge our iniquity and our wickedness, and seek forgiveness and pardon by faith in Jesus Christ. We are then brought to rejoicing that God has forgiven us in Jesus, and we pray for our unbelieving friends, family members, and neighbors that they would not be stubborn but would trust in YHWH and be compassed by his mercy!

In Psalm 62 we take our complaints to the God Who hears our cries and is our salvation. We pray for wisdom to stay silent before others when we are slandered or falsely accused, but to God we empty our hearts and ask Him to do what He has promised and deliver us. We pray that we would not put our trust in vanities, but would remember the truth spoken by God. We ask Him to judge us according to the work of Christ, and not as we deserve, so that in Jesus we partake of the power of God.

Psalm 92 gives us words to praise YHWH for His mighty works that bring gladness. God has done great works in all our lives – and as we remember them, we give thanks using the language of Psalm 92. And we give thanks that we have not been left in foolish ignorance, but have been given to know the glory of God most high and to flourish in the house of God. We ask that by His Spirit we will bear fruit even to old age and declare that our Rock is righteous to all generations!

In Psalm 122 we give thanks for the church, where we are gathered together from every tongue and tribe and people and nation with all the saints from ages past to all eternity. We give thanks with David for the congregation of God’s people and we pray for peace within the body of Christ. Amen and amen!