Praying the Psalms

 

Read Psalms 123-125

 

“Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,” verse 3 of Psalm 123 sings and prays.  Where do you need mercy this day?  Perhaps you long for mercy, relief, and release, in physical pain or emotional lethargy or spiritual drought or relational ruptures that no amount of duct tape can put back together.  Where do you long for the mercy of God to sit with you this day?

“If God hadn’t been for us, when everyone went against us, we would have been swallowed alive by their violent anger.”  Where do you sense God’s strength sustaining you?  Maybe God’s strength does not instantly and immediately make everything magically better, but gives you courage to keep on keeping on?  I think of that great Spiritual, “We’ve come a long way, Lord.” 

 

We’ve come a long way, Lord,
a mighty long way.
We’ve come a long way, Lord,
a mighty long way.
We’ve borne our burdens in the heat of the day,
but we know the Lord has made the way.
We’ve come a long way, Lord,
a mighty long way.

 

The long way may not be measured in miles, but in millimeters.  The long way is not about distance, but Divine connection.  Where is God’s presence holding and enfolding you with the mercy you prayed for above?

 

As I sit with Psalm 125, there is an echo of Psalm 1, this deep desire to return to a world where everything makes sense and everyone plays according to God’s prayerful pleas for harmony.  This need not be foolishness, rather Psalm 125 invites faithfulness to keep opening us to “dream God’s dream” ~ not my agenda ~ but what is God’s realm that we pray to inhabit and how do I practice that today? 

 

May the Psalms continue to sing to your soul and be lived in your life this day.  Amen.