May 25, 2009
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ADONAI, hear my prayer!
Psalms 102:1-28 Prayer of a sufferer overcome by weakness and pouring out his complaint before ADONAI: ADONAI, hear my prayer! Let my cry for help reach you! (2) Don’t hide your face from me when I am in such distress! Turn your ear toward me; when I call, be quick to reply! (3) For my days are vanishing like smoke, my bones are burning like a furnace. (4) I am stricken and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food. (5) Because of my loud groaning, I am just skin and bones. (6) I am like a great owl in the desert, I’ve become like an owl in the ruins. (7) I lie awake and become like a bird alone on the roof. (8) My enemies taunt me all day long; mad with rage, they make my name a curse. (9) For I have been eating ashes like bread and mingling tears with my drink (10) because of your furious anger, since you picked me up just to toss me aside. (11) My days decline like an evening shadow; I am drying up like grass. (12) But you, ADONAI, are enthroned forever; your renown will endure through all generations. (13) You will arise and take pity on Tziyon, for the time has come to have mercy on her; the time determined has come. (14) For your servants love her very stones; they take pity even on her dust. (15) The nations will fear the name of ADONAI and all the kings on earth your glory, (16) when ADONAI has rebuilt Tziyon, and shows himself in his glory, (17) when he has heeded the plea of the poor and not despised their prayer. (18) May this be put on record for a future generation; may a people yet to be created praise ADONAI. (19) For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven ADONAI surveys the earth (20) to listen to the sighing of the prisoner, to set free those who are sentenced to death, (21) to proclaim the name of ADONAI in Tziyon and his praise in Yerushalayim (22) when peoples and kingdoms have been gathered together to serve ADONAI. (23) He has broken my strength in midcourse, he has cut short my days. (24) I plead, “God, your years last through all generations; so don’t take me away when my life is half over! (25) In the beginning, you laid the foundations of the earth; heaven is the work of your hands. (26) They will vanish, but you will remain; like clothing, they will all grow old; yes, you will change them like clothing, and they will pass away. (27) But you remain the same, and your years will never end. (28) The children of your servants will live securely and their descendants be established in your presence.”
When we cry out to G-d we want Him to respond immediately. But, when G-d calls for us to take a step of faith, we tend to drag our feet. And when we do something that is wrong, we want G-d to be patient with us.
We have this notion that if we follow the Lord we won’t have any more troubles in life. Wrong. Sometimes when we go through difficulty, we think there must be something wrong with us. Not necessarily. It could be that you’re just normal. We all go through trouble. That’s why we can relate to this psalm.
The answer to trouble is prayer
James 5:13-18 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. {14} Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: {15} And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. {16} Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. {17} Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. {18} And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
Everything around us is going to change. G-d isn’t.
If you’re looking for stability by being in a job you can count on, you’ll be disappointed.
If you’re looking for stability by counting on the people around you, you’ll be disappointed. Even those around you who are good companions, those who are faithful, can change. They can move away. They can die. They can fall away.
We want things to stay the same. We like to have stability and a feeling of security.
But things change. The only place you’ll find stability and security is by clinging to G-d
Comments (4)
I love this! My principal always tells me this stuff! (Christian school of course, they wont dare even say the Lord’s name in a public school!) Knowing that God doesn’t change really does help me during rough times, it’s a comforting thought. I love your posts.
There are more verses in Brit Chadasha about suffering for Adonai than salvation. People get so cought up in the personal “salvation” than they do about the one who saves. Many people come to Adonai because they need something, they get it, forget all about the one who gave it. But the giver wants us to pray without ceasing weather or not we get just what we want.
It is important to know that our only security is in Yeshua HaMeshiach.
amen. the only one who is completely trustworthy all the time is Jesus.
Oh I do love psalms, they are so comforting to read and give one hope in very difficult times. Knowing that there is always an ever-loving, alert Creator watching over you and guarding you is a great source of comfort.
Your commentary on the Psalms are beautiful and very true.
Personally I have found out that the only one who can help you when you have no hope and are in a very difficuly situation is our Dearest most compassionate Lor-d. I had a personal experience of my little son’s illness and hospitalization which was a truly difficult time for me and my family, and as you said my only true solution was to pray. Pray with all my heart, repent from any wrongs I had committe and ask Him to have mercy on a humbled weak creature who had lost her hope in any worldly power and who knew that the only source of salvation was Him.
And yes I received His help,….but I know that trouble may sprout again anytime in the future and I ask Him to have mercy on me and take into consideration my very limited ability to bear hardship, at the same time asking to be granted with patience and endurance in any form of hardship that may come my way.
By the way, untill recently I thought that Psalms could only be found in the Bible, but I found a great series of Islamic Psalms called sahifa-sajjadiya which I find very meaningful and calming every time I read, they are on a variety of subjects and the conversations with the Lo-d are sometimes astonishing!( in the sense that the author of the Psalms is extremely knowledgeable in the relation bet. Man and his Creator and when he asks for something–be it mercy, love, pardon, help in hardships,etc…– he turns his wishes into such beautiful and deep phrases which is truly amazing.)
Eli