1 Lord, listen closely to me and answer me,
because I am poor and in need.
2 Guard my life because I am faithful.
Save your servant who trusts in you—you! My God!
3 Have mercy on me, Lord,
because I cry out to you all day long.
4 Make your servant’s life happy again
because, my Lord, I offer my life to you,
5 because, my Lord, you are good and forgiving,
full of faithful love for all those who cry out to you.
6 Listen closely to my prayer, Lord;
pay close attention to the sound of my requests for mercy.
7 Whenever I am in trouble, I cry out to you,
because you will answer me.
8 My Lord! There is no one like you among the gods!
There is nothing that can compare to your works!
9 All the nations that you’ve made will come
and bow down before you, Lord;
they will glorify your name,
10 because you are awesome
and a wonder-worker.
You are God. Just you.
11 Teach me your way, Lord,
so that I can walk in your truth.
Make my heart focused
only on honoring your name.
Reflection
Our reading today was supposed to end at verse 10, but I felt adding verse 11 was an important reminder for us to focus on God. The theme that caught my attention with these verses was how it seems like David is trying to bargain with God or plead his case to God. It feels that David is trying to remind God about how David has been faithful. David mixes in some praise, but it seems heavy on the reasons why God should help him and make his life happy and easy.
How do we go through life? Do we think that because we are Christians and follow God that our lives should be without issues? We know that isn’t true. None of us is immune from problems – big and small.
I have heard that God gives some big problems to those who are most faithful – like the story of Job, but I have a hard time believing that God looks for ways to build us up by knocking us down.
Have you had one of those days that Kelsey talked to the kids about on Sunday – when bad thing after bad thing happens? I had a friend who had a brain tumor, and he used to send out things to think about via email and one day he sent a “note from God” about how things that go badly can end up being a blessing. One of the examples was “so you were late for work, but did you know that if you were running on time, the car that ran the red light would have hit you, so you can be thankful that God made you late” and similar things. We certainly don’t know what might have happened, and we certainly don’t know what is happening in other people’s lives, when we get angry about people taking too much time to pick out their drink at the coffee shop or when the cashier is chatting with the customer in front of us and we are in a hurry. The thing that made us angry may very well have saved a person’s life that day by someone just taking the time to be kind. The person that almost hit us may be distracted because they are on their way to the hospital because their loved one is dying. We just don’t know what problems others may have.
We do know that we can put our trust in God for our problems though. We also know that sometimes things aren’t “fixed” the way we would want, but we can have faith that God is there with us and will take us to the “other side” of what we are dealing with. God wants us to rely on our faith, and we don’t have to remind God why we should be taken care of. God loves us and cares for us – not because of what we have done for God, but just because we are children of God!
by Janet Waryck
For Pondering and Prayer
Have you ever bargained with God about a problem – either promising to do something or reminding God of things you have done so you deserve help? What happened in that situation? Remember that God is with us and wants us to go to God with our needs. God knows all of our situations but encourages us, as in Matthew 11:28, to “come with our struggles and heavy loads to God and God will give us rest.”
Prayer: God who knows all of our struggles and all of the things we have done in your name, help us to come to you – not to make deals but to surrender ourselves to you and to your help when we have struggles. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
