The Prayer Podcast with Jan L. Burt
Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
Psalm 69 is an amazing passage and it literally teaches us how to pray with raw honesty from the depths of our despair and suffering, and it reminds us that it is okay to take our hard things to the Lord and to cry out to Him. Sometimes we think crying out to Him should look like anything but actually crying out. How’s that supposed to work? Is that piety and religiosity that is not what He wants from us? Could it be that He loves us so much that He wants us to bring it to Him, casting all our cares upon Him because He cares for us, as Peter wrote in the NT. What might happen for us, in us, and through us and how might God be honored and people less stressed out if we took the worst moments and the hardest things to Him first in prayer? Not text about it…but pray about it. Not gripe about it…but pray about it. And leave it with the Lord, in His safe and competent hands. Don’t take it back after praying on it. Let Him have when you give it to Him in prayer.
I’d like to read a few verses from the 69th psalm from the Amplified Bible today.
Verses 1-3: Save me, O God,
For the waters have threatened my life [they have come up to my neck].
2
I have sunk in deep mire, where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters, where a flood overwhelms me.
3
I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched;
My eyes fail while I wait [with confident expectation] for my God.
Vs 14-15: Rescue me from the mire and do not let me sink;
Let me be rescued from those who hate me and from the deep waters.
15
Do not let the floodwater overwhelm me,
Nor the deep waters swallow me up,
Nor the pit [of Sheol] shut its mouth over me.
Vs 20-23: Reproach and insults have broken my heart and I am so sick.
I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
And for comforters, but I found none.
21
They (self-righteous hypocrites) also gave me gall [poisonous and bitter] for my food,
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22
May their table [with all its abundance and luxury] become a snare [to them];
And when they are in peace [secure at their sacrificial feasts], may it become a trap.
23
May their eyes be dimmed so that they cannot see,
And make their loins shake continually [in terror and weakness].
Vs 29-30:But I am sorrowful and in pain;
May Your salvation, O God, set me [securely] on high.
30
I will praise the name of God with song
And magnify Him with thanksgiving.
There is a lot of emotion in this psalm. A lot of crying out to God, getting real and raw and honest with Him.
Do you relate to this at all?
The holidays are hard for a lot of people. My dad died right before Thanksgiving when I was 15 years old, and it was difficult. Add other losses to that, and November to December were not my favorites for a long time.
Having my own family, I began to rebuild this time of year, in a way, with the Lord’s help. And it’s not hard now. But I did have a moment of being honest with God about some hard things. That was helpful. He helped me. I shared with Him in prayer, being honest, and He heard me, helped me, changed me.
My prayer for you is that this Thanksgiving and moving onward toward Christmas will be a season where God heals you, helps you, blesses you, comforts you, holds you close, changes you, and sets your feet on solid ground. As I just spoke those words, I was praying them over you. And I am expecting God to hear me and to answer. Lord bless you and be near to you this holiday season.
I’ll see you back here next time, and thanks so much for joining me. Bye bye.
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