I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, Philemon 1:4 NASB Making mention – Translated in this way, it might seem that Paul briefly speaks of these people. “Making mention” is sort of like reviewing a list, saying a sentence or two and moving on to the next item on the…
Let my prayer come before You; Incline Your ear to my cry! Psalm 88:2 NASB Let . . . come before You – The first thing you should notice is the change in syntax. In Hebrew the verb comes first. So, it reads, “Let come before You my prayer.” The action is the important thing. What…
Just some basic reminders that are particularly important to me today. “Prayer is an ontological necessity.”[1] “Prayer is disclosing or at least preventing irreversible concealing.”[2] “Prayer is pleading with God to come out of the depths.”[3] “A soul without prayer is a soul without a home.”[4] “As my prayers, so is my understanding.”[5] “The world…
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5 NASB Strength – If I asked you where this statement is found in the Bible, you would probably direct me to Matthew 22:37 where Yeshua cites this verse in response to the question about the…
Leave me, all you who practice injustice, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. The Lord has heard my pleading, the Lord receives my prayer. Psalm 6:8-9 NASB Receives – Does God really care? Perhaps just asking the question seems monstrously irreverent, but I’m pretty sure that at least a hint of this has crossed your mind once…
My enemies have taunted me all day long; those who deride me have used my name as a curse. Psalm 102:8 NASB Deride – The psalmist finally gets down to the real reason for his complaint. It took a while. All those verses about how he feels—abandoned, anxious, abused, avoided, alone—come down to this: “My enemies taunt me and…
I lie awake, I have become like a solitary bird on a housetop. Psalm 102:7 NASB Solitary – From the kitchen window of our home in Parma, we look out on the roof of the condominium next door. Nearly every day a pigeon flies to the corner of that roof and sits. I assume it is…
Do not hide Your face from me on the day of my distress; Incline Your ear to me; On the day when I call answer me quickly. Psalm 102:2 NASB Do not hide – In his book The Prophets, Abraham Heschel wrote: “To be able to pray, one must alter the course of consciousness, one must…
Hear my prayer, Lord! And let my cry for help come to You. Psalm 102:1 NASB Hear – If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear, does it make a sound? An interesting existential question. What is the relationship between a physical event and the perception of the event? If God…
Prayer of an Afflicted Man for Mercy on Himself and on Zion. A Prayer of the afflicted when he is weak and pours out his complaint before the Lord. Psalm 102 NASB Prayer – In the NASB, these two statements have no verse numbers. They are treated as introductory summaries before the text of the actual…
