Psalms 120 – 121
Verse 121:1 & 2 talk about prayer:
1 When I was in deep trouble, I called out to the Eternal,
and He answered my call.
2 I prayed: “Protect me, Eternal,
from lips that lie
and tongues poisoned with deceit.”
We often pray when we are in trouble, but how often do we pray when we are doing well? I have recently, but only because of MAJOR trouble before with my heart, I am thankful for each day! But how about those with normal lives? People often think we either have a bad path or a good one, with peaks and valleys. Rick Warren described them as Rail Road tracks, with good and bad happening at the same time.
Prayer steers the bad rail to God and hope while the good path gets directed to God and humility. If we remove prayer from this equation we get the bad path derailing to self pity and the good path derailing to selfish pride. So while this Psalm gives us hope and encouragement to pray in rough times, we need to always remember to pray in the good ones as well. Also, notice the peaks and valleys are from lack of prayer.
Verse 121:1 asks a rhetorical question:
I look up at the vast size of the mountains—
from where will my help come in times of trouble?
What is the answer? God of course. We keep our sights on Him and things may not get magically better, but we should gather perspective over things … if not pray!!