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A journey through Lent - 2016
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Day Fourteen - The Appeal.
We live in a broken world, so too does our psalmist in his psalm today. He appeals to God to punish those who accuse him.
The psalms are difficult passages of scripture as often they call for the wrath and punishment of God to fall on those who stand against us and God.
This is uncomfortable for us as we are perhaps sheltered from the deep injustices of war, genocide, people trafficking, opression and discrimination that others in the world suffer.
Yet in our heart of hearts can we truly say that we have never, at some point, chosen to repay evil for evil.
Unlike us, instead of lashing out against the injustice himself he takes it to God and appeals to him to act on his behalf.
He chooses to allow a just and holy God to deal with those who have wronged him.
How hard that is for us. When someone says something hateful to us we want to retaliate with hateful words of our own, when someone does us an injustice, we not only want retribution, we want to see the perpetrator suffer as a result.
We know in our heart of hearts that "two wrongs don't make a right" but sometimes the doing is so much harder than the saying!
Throughout the scriptures we see that God hates injustice. We may be reassured by that but are we not, at times and perhaps more than we would care to admit, unjust ourselves?
Should we not be subject to the same judgement as others? Of course we should be and are. It is only through Jesus that we can be reconciled with God despite our failings and faults.
We absolutely require Jesus, the sinless Christ, to speak on our behalf.
Because of his death and resurrection, We can bring our prayers for ourselves and others to God. For he looks at us through Jesus who always and ever speaks on our behalf.
Bible Passage: - Psalm 109:21-31 (NIV)
But you, Sovereign Lord,
help me for your name's sake;
out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.
For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me.
I fade away like an evening shadow;
I am shaken off like a locust.
My knees give way from fasting;
my body is thin and gaunt.
I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
when they see me, they shake their heads.
Help me, Lord my God;
save me according to your unfailing love.
Let them know that it is your hand,
that you, Lord, have done it.
While they curse, may you bless;
may those who attack me be put to shame,
but may your servant rejoice.
May my accusers be clothed with disgrace
and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.
With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord;
in the great throng of worshippers I will praise him.
For he stands at the right hand of the needy,
to save their lives from those who would condemn them.
Contemplation Saying.
"My heart is wounded within me"
Contemplative Prayer.
Think of the saying in order to understand context and meaning,
Feel the meaning of the saying with and in your heart,
Pray, using the saying, for yourself or others. With only a name and without explaining the reasons or pre-defining any answers.
Listen for God's voice in the quiet of your prayers.
Pray using your own prayers or one of those which have been prepared below.
Hymn: Singing the Faith 693 - "Beauty for Brokeness"
Let us pray together.
Twitter Prayer
Loving God, we thank you that you hear our prayers in your compassion and mercy.
Facebook Prayer
Loving Father, we praise you for Jesus. That through his life, death and resurrection we are able to have a peronal relationship with you, our Holy God.
We thank you that you hear our prayers in your compassion and mercy.
Help us to bring our fears, anger and frustrations to you.
Help us to turn the other cheek, to give back love for hate, peace for anger, forgiveness for retribution. In your strength we pray. Amen.
Full Prayer
Loving Father, we praise you for Jesus. That through his life, death and resurrection we are able to have a peronal relationship with you, our Holy God.
We thank you that you hear our prayers in your compassion and mercy.
Help us to bring our fears, anger and frustrations to you, instead of seeking our own retribution, when we feel we have been wronged in any way.
Help us to turn the other cheek, to give back love for hate, peace for anger, forgiveness for retribution.
Through our Lord Jesus, we place our weakness into his strength and pray in the power of his name, Amen.
Lord, we offer you the injustice in the world.
Places where there is war and conflict, we pray you will bring your peace.
Inspire the leaders of the world to seek a just resolution to conflict.
Places where there is hunger, near or far, we pray you will enable the world to share the good gifts you have given to us all.
Places where there are homeless and refugees, we pray you will inspire us to offer aid and shelter.
Lord we pray we may not be afraid of those displaced into our midst. That our politicians will not use them as pawns of fear to promote their own aims. May we be aware of the injustice of this scaremongering and speak out against it.
Places where to be different, in language, culture, religion, race or gender, brings dicrimination and oppression. We pray that we may hear your words that we should love one another as you have loved us.
Lord we thank you for all who work to restore your world, whether they acknowledge you or not, in the love they show they follow in your footsteps.
We pray for these giant issues. We place them into your loving presence and pray that we may be open to your voice directing our own response to each of these and the many other wrongs of the world. Amen.