Psalm 148:1,2,5,7,8,10 (NASB)
Hear my prayer, O Lord, Give ear to my supplications! Answer me in Your
faithfulness, in Your righteousness! And
do not enter into judgment with Your servant, For in Your sight no man living
is righteous. I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your doings; I muse
on the work of Your hands. Answer me
quickly, O Lord, my spirit fails; Do not hide Your face from me, Or I will
become like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear Your lovingkindness in
the morning; For I trust in You; Teach me the way in which I should walk; For
to You I lift up my soul. Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Let
Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
A dear friend in the midst of
dealing with illness and suffering of her husband and daughter at the same time
let me know how much Psalm 148 meant to her.
I wanted to explore its depths and learn more about what it says and
means to those who are like my friend.
David wrote both requests and
affirmations. I find 8 requests and 6
affirmations:
Requests
·
Hear my prayer, give ear to my supplications,
answer me
·
Do not judge me, even though I am not righteous,
no one is
·
Answer me quickly as my spirit often fails
·
Do not hide Your face from me as I quickly can
be discouraged
·
Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning
·
Teach me the way in which I should walk
·
Teach me to do Your will
·
Let Your good spirit lead me
Affirmations
·
God is faithful
·
God is righteous
·
I meditate on all God’s works
·
I trust in You
·
To you I lift up my soul
·
You are my God
David experienced significant
trials in his life as you can glean from reading most of the 78 psalms he wrote
(the other 72 were written by a variety of authors that David collected along
with his own). He was a man after God’s
own heart (I Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22), yet that didn’t prevent him from
enduring many trials and suffering as much or more than the average
person. David’s requests fall into two
categories---asking God to help him through his current problems and needs, but
also asking God to help him become a better person. David’s affirmations both describe the
character of God and his own strong beliefs in and about God. Note how heartfelt David’s requests were and
how humble he was in asking God to make him a better person.
It is a key learning point
from David’s prayer that when you are suffering through trials and troubles and
have great needs for answered prayer, it is perfectly acceptable to demand
answers as you cry out to God, but you also need to ask God to make you a
better person through your trials and to affirm all that God means to you. You cry out to God to help you and you also
cry out for God Himself. You seek both
relief from God and a deeper relationship with God.
As you think about previous
trials you have endured, how has your faith grown through those trials? How can your faith grow more deeply in the
trial you may be experiencing right now?
Use this psalm of David’s as your own prayer and personalize it to your
own situation. You will experience a
much deeper intimacy with the Lord and you will most definitely experience His
faithfulness. May you feel God’s richest
blessings.
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