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…
Come and pray. . . The Jerusalem Talmud, Berakhot 4:4 (8b) Pray – The Jerusalem Talmud, the shorter of the two great collections of rabbinic material, includes the following instruction: “One who is called upon to lead services is not told, ‘Come and pray,’ but ‘Come and kerav – offer our sacrifices, seek out our…
It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NASB Teach us to pray – Before we read the refracted brilliance of Heschel’s remarks about prayer, we should…
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NIV Teach us – The disciples were Jewish, through and through. They had been praying in the synagogue and in their homes since they were…
Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer nor His lovingkindness from me. Psalm 66:20 NASB Has not turned away – As we discovered yesterday, the biblical standard is holiness. Absolute holiness. There is no “bell curve” of righteousness. There is no appeasement policy. There is no “life” insurance because you once made some…
