Soulfood

The psalms of the day for the twenty-fourth day of each month are 24, 54, 84, 114, and 144. How can we use them to pray for one another?

 

Psalm 24 is a declaration of God’s glory and sovereignty – so we can pray for one another that we will continually hold in our minds that God is King, and give Him the glory that is His due as we go about our days. For those of us who are struggling with depression or discouragement, we pray that we would be able to rejoice in our glorious king in the midst of difficult circumstances or conflict. We can never dwell too long on the reality of God’s sovereignty or glory in a world that often feels purposeless or broken, and praying Psalm 24 directs our thoughts towards both! (If you’ve been attending MCPC long enough, you can’t read this psalm without hearing Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary soaring through your mind!)

 

We pray Psalm 54 with confidence that YHWH hears us and answers us when we call to Him. We may be anxious or worried about the evil we see all around us as our government continues to promote policies that lead to death and destruction in the lives of our friends and neighbors – so we pray for those who are deceived, that they would turn and live their lives before the face of YHWH, offering right worship to Him. We pray to be strengthened by the Spirit to be those who turn to YHWH for help, and also that we would be helpful to one another in upholding each other’s souls. And we pray with confidence that He delivers us from all our troubles by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ!

 

Psalm 84 is another familiar song for longtime MCPCer’s. It is a prayer of thanksgiving and rejoicing in the reality that we are those whom God has chosen to dwell with Him. In praying this psalm we express to God our desire to be where He is – indeed, where Christ is, seated at the Father’s right hand, interceding for us as the Spirit expresses for us the desires for which we don’t have words! And by faith, we – being united to Christ – dwell in the heavenly places now! But we also long with fainting hearts to see, not with eyes of faith, but with our glorified bodies, the place wherein God dwells. And so we confess that our faith is weak, and too often we content ourselves to dwell in tents of sin as we forget who we are and to whom we belong – but as we confess, we pray for renewed grace to trust in the Lord of hosts and the promise that we will be with Him in glory. And we pray for one another asking for YHWH, Who gives grace and glory, to give us all good things as we walk uprightly before Him, for Jesus’s sake. 

 

Psalm 114 is a prayer of remembrance of all God has done for us. As we pray this psalm we give thanks for the mighty works He has done in our lives, delivering us from all manner of evil and sickness and foes. As we consider the words of this psalm, we are encouraged to call to our minds YHWH’s faithfulness to us and respond with thanksgiving. What has God done in Your life? In the lives of your friends and neighbors? Remember, and give thanks!

 

By Psalm 144 we ask God to help us fight well and for the right things. If we fight for ourselves, who are a vanity that vanishes like a shadow, what good is that? We pray that YHWH would set our hearts by His Spirit on the good, the true, and the beautiful, and not on vanities that the worldly boast about. We pray that we would be delivered from vanities by Jesus Christ, in whom we have a sure hope! And we pray for our young people, the saints who come after us, that they would be nurtured by the life-giving Spirit and strengthened to build on the strong foundation of Jesus Christ. Finally, we ask that our community would be a place of fruitful labor, rest, and rejoicing – one blessed as will always be for those whose God is YHWH. Lord, come quickly!