I’ve been memorizing this psalm for the past week or so. Memorizing isn’t as easy as it used to be when I was a kid. I remember Sunday night service in church when I was young. The pastor called the kids to sit up front and challenged us to memorize John 14:1-6. I can’t remember my age, but it wasn’t as simple as committing to memory John 3:16.
I can still quote those verses today and when I ponder them, I am reminded of some pretty great and precious promises.
But as an adult, unless I put the words to music (which I didn’t), it’s a lot harder to keep the words in my mind. So I put a cadence to them – not a musical one, but a rhythm of sorts – to help me. I’m kind of stuck on verse 10, but the first 7 I’ve got down pretty well.
What’s interesting about this psalm is that David starts out praying about himself, telling God how he gives his life over to the Lord, how he trusts Him and asks God to lead and guide him.
Then he shifts to teacher mode, as though he isn’t praying about his own needs anymore but talking to others about God. He declares that the Lord is good and does what is right…and continues on for a few verses that way. Then he moves back to praying in earnest about his own needs, then teaches again, then returns to the struggles he is facing, the burdens of his heart for the rest of the psalm until the very last verse.
Do you pray that way? I do. Not that I’ve used this psalm as a guide all of my life, but I think we all tend to focus on what deeply distresses us. Just like David did.
It’s not that we don’t care to love and pray for others, and Jesus gave us a great example in that, but at a heart level, we do tend to know our own needs better than anyone else, right? So we pray about them – IF we pray about them.
We really ought to pray about them. And that’s not a guilt trip. That’s just real truth. Jesus told us to pray. And God wants us to pray about all kinds of things.
This week our church had a prayer meeting – remember those? – for our nation. God tells us to pray for our leaders in government, in all walks of life, and for our neighbor and our relationships and those who need Him and ourselves…actually we’re supposed to pray about EVERYTHING.
There is nothing outside of the parameters of our need to pray. God cares about even the smallest details. I mean think about it. The One who calls the stars by name – and they can’t even talk to Him like we can – knows the most intimate details of every single person He created. So I figure, if He already knows us – why do we hold back from telling Him what is on our hearts?
He’s waiting to show us the path we should follow. He’s carved out a plan for every person on the planet–created works in advance for us to do. But He won’t force us to do them. We’ll be a lot happier if we do! Because the One who made us designed us to be super special and wonderfully blessed and given gifts unique to us.
So my encouragement to each one of us? Ask God to show you the path that you should follow. He knows exactly what it looks like and it won’t be the same for you as it is for me. But it will be perfect for you! And you will love Him all the more for it.
And while we’re praying – please pray for Florida and all those in the path of Hurricane Matthew. God certainly cares about each one of them too.
Be blessed tonight! ~Selah
#liveloveprayhopetrust #praypraypray #thepathofthelordisgood #prayforflorida
