Soulfood

The Psalms of the Day for the twenty-sixth day of each month are 26, 56, 86, 116, and 146.

Psalm 26 is the prayer of a righteous person – so how do we wretched sinners pray it with and for each other? Firstly, we pray it as a prayer of confession, asking forgiveness for our unfaithfulness, lying, hypocrisy, for assembling with evildoers and sitting with the wicked. And as we ask forgiveness, we plead that YHWH would look upon us and see Jesus, the one righteous man, who walked in his integrity and washed his hands in innocence, who redeemed us and set us on level ground in the great assembly of those who bless YHWH. And then we turn to thanksgiving, and freed from the power of sin by our confession of it to God in faith, we ask the Spirit to cause us to walk in integrity and lead us to God’s holy habitation. Let us see Your glory, oh Lord!

We pray Psalm 56 when we are feeling attacked. When we can’t see any way out of a bad situation – when we are surrounded by enemies (those who wish us harm), where do we turn? We say to God, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” How quickly we forget our trust! By praying Psalm 56, we remember that men can only hurt and destroy our bodies – but our God preserves, body and soul, all those whose hope and trust is in Jesus. If we want God to be for us, though, we must guard ourselves against being those who think evil thoughts against others. We cry mercy to the Spirit, that we would not be those who are content with strife, who lurk in wait to find a way to bring others down. It is better to suffer for righteousness’ sake than to be justified in our own eyes and yet be cast down by God in His wrath! So we ask God to keep our feet from falling, that we may walk before Him in the light of life.

By Psalm 86 we plead with YHWH to hear our cries for help and answer us. It is a psalm that can be prayed word-for-word as it moves from the opening petition to praise back to a cry for mercy to more praise to asking for wisdom and knowledge of God to more praise to a presentation of a present problem (“insolent men have risen up against me”) to yet more praise and thanksgiving, and finally to a petition for YHWH to bring comfort in the midst of suffering. Whew!

Psalm 116 is a prayer for the one who is dying. We know that all of us who die in Christ are precious in YHWH’s sight. We can pray this prayer word for word, luxuriating in the beauty of God’s care for us from the day of our conception to the day we go to our eternal rest. Death is not our end – it is the portal through which we enter into YHWH’s glory. So we live as those who have a sure hope, and pray for those who are ending their sojourning on this earth to be comforted as they prepare to be received into the arms of Jesus.

Psalm 146 is a prayer for the prisoner, the blind, the downcast, the sojourner, the widow, and the fatherless. We pray for each of these, to remember not to trust in earthly authorities but to find their help in YHWH. As we remember these, we are encouraged to do what we can for them as those who are blessed by God. And we give thanks and praise to the God Who sets prisoners free, opens the eyes of the blind, lifts up the head of the downcast, gives the sojourner eternal rest, is a husband to the widow, and a father to the fatherless. Thanks be to God!