Soulfood

The Psalms of the Day for the fourteenth day of the month are 14, 44, 74, 104, and 134.

Psalm 14 teaches us to pray with humility, asking God to search out the foolish ways within our hearts. All of us think and act foolishly – so as we pray this psalm, we ask YHWH to grant us understanding of our corruption and knowledge of our evil doings, that we may by His Spirit be brought to repentance unto life. When salvation comes from Zion, we want to be those who are rejoicing, not those who are terrified. And we also pray for our unbelieving family members, friends, and neighbors to be delivered from ignorance and deception and be brought into the number of God’s righteous generation. Lord, have mercy!

By Psalm 44 we pray with thanksgiving to God for all the prayers He has answered. We praise Him for His mighty acts in the history of the church and in our own lives. We ask for humility to trust in Him and ask forgiveness for the times when we trusted in our own strength to save us. We lament the areas of our lives where things are not as they should be, and ask YHWH to deliver us for the sake of Jesus, who presents us before the Father as faithful, innocent, and righteous. We ask Him to do as He has been promised and redeem us for the sake of His steadfast love (hesed)!

Psalm 74 is a lament by which we ask YHWH to have mercy on us and deliver us (collectively!) from all His and our foes. As we lament, we come to the end of ourselves and then remember Who we are – children of the Most High God! – and to Whom we belong – body and soul, in life and death, to our faithful savior, Jesus Christ. The 2nd half of the psalm helps us to remember that YHWH will never leave us or forsake us, but will always deliver us by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who reigns on high as the King of Kings. Hallelujah!

Psalm 104 is a psalm of praise which can be prayed word for word (though it is on the long side!) with names of those we are praying for interspersed throughout. It recounts God’s faithfulness to every generation in every place in all the universe. We can pick a stanza or two and focus on praising the Father of lights, from Whom comes every good and perfect gift. Or we can pray the whole psalm with wonder and thanksgiving at the manifold works of our glorious God!

And Psalm 134 invites us to take time to bless YHWH, simply meditating on the One who lives in the holy place, even YHWH, the covenant-keeping God Who made heaven and earth. Bless the LORD!