A Prayer For Us in a Time of Violence – Psalm 42
Each week we pray together with one voice.
In some churches, you will hear a “pastoral prayer,” when the pastor prays for the people, and prays for themselves. (Please feel free to pray for me anytime!) Our tradition in having a “congregational prayer” is to be praying together with one voice. One person leads the congregation with an understanding of what's happening in our world, and what we, as a group of people, are experiencing, and looking forward to sometimes with joy and sometimes with dread.
There are so many people in our wider world and in our lives as well, who have been going through tough stuff. For some it has gone on for a long time. For others it's arrived out of the blue, and they're floundering with sudden weights and repercussions. So as we pray through Psalm 42 together, I encourage you to—as I name people—pray for them in your own heart and mind. Or, if there's someone in your life who comes to mind, pray for them. Talk to God about your friend, your neighbour, your coworker, your fellow student.
Let's pray together this psalm of lament.
Father, Son and Spirit, we think of our friend in Ukraine, a woman who is a believer in Christ, but isolated and alone. Her church has been taken from her. Her family has been taken from her. She reaches out online to connect with another believer, just to know that she is not alone in the world. So, Lord, with the lonely, with those who feel abandoned, with those who feel overwhelmed by isolation, Heavenly Father, we pray:
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
Heavenly Father, we think of our brothers and sisters (believers especially, but also all of the people) of Lebanon, a nation that has struggled through complicated geopolitics over these years. A nation that has come under attack. God, we thank you that there are people in that nation who call on the name of Jesus. We thank you, Holy Spirit, that you are present in the hearts of people in Lebanon. We pray, Lord, along with those who share our faith, who call on your name, who maybe even right now are crying out to you. We think of them—our human family, and our faith family—in the nation of Lebanon as we pray:
My tears have been my food day and night,
while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
These things I remember as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
under the protection of the Mighty One
with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.
God, we think of the people in Iran, a nation that has been under heavy, powerful government for some time now. A place where your word, your hope, your name is spoken in whispers and in quiet rooms, with the door locked and within families, but never in public, and never in a gatherings as free as ours. God, we think of especially our believing brothers and sisters in Iran, but also all of the people of that nation. We think of those in prison for acts of conscience, and for acts of faith. We pray that you will give them courage, safety, strength, hope, and peace especially today as so much is uncertain. God, we pray along with our brothers and sisters in Iran:
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him,
my Saviour and my God.
And God, we think this morning of our sister in Texas—a woman who I confess I pre-judged unfairly, a looking through the filter of political headlines and social media warriors. I presumed to know who she is; God, forgive me for my judgmentalism. Let me never forget her lament: “Things here are tough.” Now we pray for her, Lord God, that as she works among her sisters—the other American Baptist women in her fold, in her church, in her nation. We pray that you will give her wisdom and courage to speak what needs to be spoken. To say the things that take courage to say. We pray that you will bless her ministry and raise her up: a voice of calm, a voice of wisdom, a voice of insight, a voice of godliness among people who need to be called back to you. Along with my sister I pray:
By day the Lord directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”
We pray now for people in our own town who are struggling with fear, with isolation, with loneliness, with lack of food, with lack of shelter, with lack of a place to go for shelter from heat and from cold. With feeling unseen. With not knowing that they are loved. God, we pray for the people in our families, in our workplaces, in our schools, in our government. We pray that you will call them back to you. That they will be unable to deny having heard your voice. That they will find themselves walking through the door of your house, perhaps not really knowing why, but meeting you there. God, we pray that as we, a church, seek to serve our community, seek to serve our world, seek to serve each other, that you will give us the strength, the courage, the wisdom, the insight to understand what you would have us do. All together, heavenly Father, as a church we pray:
Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him,
my Saviour and my God.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
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