Our God and Savior, help us! That will bring glory to your name. Save us and forgive our sins for the good of your name. Don't give the other nations a reason to say, "Where is their God? Can't he help them?" Psalm 79:9-10
Asaph from the house of Levi was one of the choir leaders in the temple as assigned in 2 Chronicles 6: 31-32; "These are the men whom David put in charge of the service of song in the house of the Lord after the ark rested there. They ministered with song before the tabernacle of the tent of meeting until Solomon built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they performed their service according to their order." He is the author of this petitionary prayer in Psalm 79.
Jerusalem had been reduced to ashes in the take-over of the Babylonian Empire in the year 587 BC. Asaph wrote the song/prayer in a petition for God's help. Notice his appeal. He uses God as a motivator of Himself, saying basically, "If you help us, God, it will bring glory to your name. It will not bring glory if other nations say that our God is gone and unable to help."
Asaph's prayer is beautiful and very old, but our prayers haven't changed much through time. We appeal to God from every angle, even explaining the benefits of God answering in the way we want. We may tell in detail the entire problem, which God already knows. We give God our stratagem to resolve the issue, making sure to explain why He should answer in the way we deem best. After all, we think we know best. We even flatter God by saying that our remedy would bring glorification to His name. We want to cover all bases, so we may also throw in a request for forgiveness. Desperately begging for help, We, like infants, are oblivious of our attempts to manipulate God.
We are such little children in every aspect, and God looks on us with such love and great compassion. We will never fully understand the ways of God and why small children starve in third world countries or people suffer from various maladies. We can't seem to grasp why so many people are homeless, addicted to drugs, or why wicked people get by with their heinous crimes. We can, however, cling to a God who can give us peace about things that disturb us, hope for a better future, strength to endure every hardship, and such a tremendous redeeming love who joyfully accepts our childlike petitionary prayers.
Our prayers may be childlike, Lord, but you told us that we are to become like children. We seek you today for help concerning ________, and we leave it in your hands. Amen
Comments
Post a Comment