Psalms 122 – 124
Verse 122:9 is David’s thanks for Jerusalem:
For the sake of the house of the LORD our God,
I will seek your good.
As you read through the Psalm remember this is a pray by David expressing his joy over Jerusalem. As with much of the Psalms we really should not be looking for any great spiritual truths in these writings but rather use them as examples of how we should pray to God. I don’t believe we should recite them “from the heart” for our prayer time, but instead model them after the Psalms.
The great thing with the Psalms is you can find almost any mood or need found in them. There are 150 prayers or songs to the Lord that help us gain that connection to God. We have hundreds of others throughout the Bible to help guide us to a personal relationship with God. The most famous are the Lord’s Prayer, Psalm 23 and the prayer of Jabez. Now I will say that Jabez went unnoticed until Bruce Wilkinson wrote a book about that short prayer buried in a Israel’s genealogy.
Verse 123:3 is something I believe every generation prays:
Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.
I believe everyone has the feeling at some time that this is the end of civilization as we know it. In recent times I am sure the “roaring 20’s” and the “Great Depression” were points when many said the end was near based on society. The horrors from WWI or WWII were other times when I am sure Christians were saying prepare for the end. Today I have seen educated people say our president is the anti-Christ and to prepare. What’s the truth in all this? That Jesus will pick the time and day, and NOONE will know when that is. The “warning” signs will always be there, since the world is what it is.
Verse 124:6 caught my attention:
Blessed be the LORD,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth!
Here David is thanking God for not allowing his enemies to win. The analogy of prey and being devoured is interesting since we often don’t look at ourselves that way since most of us will never face a lion as his next meal. We are “safe” from these encounters these days since most predatory animals are not comfortable in cities or suburbia. Interestingly as we encroach on their environment we hear more and more of mountain lions eating the neighbor’s dog. I personally have stood outside my home and see coyotes walking down our road in from of our house.
I think from all these we need to learn to give thanks to God and learn to do it our way. Granted it’s difficult to top Psalm 23 at a funeral. The best approach is to read and pray these models and expand on them, and not by stringing a bunch together. Rather talk and pray to God like you would your father. You don’t have a script you follow each time you talk with him, that would get BORING!