Tag Archives: Prayer

2 Kings 20 Hezekiah’s Healing and the Babylonian Envoys

2 Kings 20: 1-11

¹ In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.” ² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, ³ “Remember now, O LORD, I implore you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart and have done what is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly. ⁴ Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him, ⁵ “Turn back and say to Hezekiah prince of my people: Thus says the LORD, the God of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; indeed, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD. ⁶ I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.” ⁷ Then Isaiah said, “Bring a lump of figs. Let them take it and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover.”
⁸ Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?” ⁹ Isaiah said, “This is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he has promised: Shall the shadow advance ten intervals, or shall it retreat ten intervals?” ¹⁰ Hezekiah answered, “It is normal for the shadow to lengthen ten intervals; rather, let the shadow retreat ten intervals.” ¹¹ The prophet Isaiah cried to the LORD, and he brought the shadow back the ten intervals, by which the sun had declined on the dial of Ahaz.

Even though these final two stories are placed after the siege of Jerusalem by Assyria they probably occurred earlier in the timeline, and the timeline given within the story indicates this as well. Chapter eighteen indicates that Hezekiah reigned for twenty-nine years, and within this story his life is extended by fifteen years which places these events in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign. This is significant because the fourteenth year of his reign (701 BCE) is when Jerusalem is besieged by Assyria (see 2 Kings 18:13) and although the illness and recovery could happen in the immediate aftermath of the siege the indication that “I will deliver you and this city out of the hands of the king of Assyria” probably indicates an impending threat to the city. The recovery of the king and the fate of the city are bound together with King Hezekiah being the model of the faithful king.

This is the fourth story in the narrative of 1&2 Kings where a king has asked the prophet if they will recover. In each of the previous stories: the wife of Jeroboam inquiring of Ahijah about her son (1 Kings 14: 1-18), King Ahaziah (who sends messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub and is given his sentence by Elijah in 2 Kings 1), and Ben-hadad (who the prophet Elisha delivers both the positive message of healing and the prophecy that leads to the kings murder by Hazael in 2 Kings 8: 7-15) the person asking ultimately dies. This fourth story the initial message is that the illness is fatal, and the king should put his affairs in order. King Hezekiah turns away from the prophet and tearfully and prayerfully prays to God.

Hezekiah’s prayer as recorded echoes the language of the prayers of the book of Psalms, where the prayer of the individual lifts up how they have walked in faithfulness and call upon God to respond to their obedience. The prayer of the faithful king changes God’s mind on the future for the king and by extension for the city. Brueggemann when writing about Isaiah’s description[1] of the king’s prayer can write:

The prayer of the king has changed the inclination of Yahweh. Prayer is not simply a subjective act of emotional posturing and submissiveness. It impinges upon God. The divine assurance takes place through four verbs: I have heard, I have seen, I will add, I will deliver…not unlike the series of verbs in Exodus 2:24-25 and 3:7. (Brueggemann, Isaiah 1-39: Westminster Bible Commentary, 1998, pp. 303-304)

The response of the LORD through the prophet Isaiah is rapid, before the prophet leaves the palace grounds, and the king is promised restoration within three days and an additional fifteen years of life. The king asks for a sign and Isaiah offers that the LORD can move the sun to alter the time on a sundial, where the LORD will ultimately move the sundial back ten intervals. Unlike his father King Ahaz who was offered a sign by Isaiah and refused it (Isaiah 7) King Hezekiah asks for a sign, and it is granted. There are some similarities to the requests of Joshua request for more daylight in his battle against the Amorites (Joshua 10: 1-15) or Gideon’s request for a sign with the fleece (Judges 6:36-40), and in each story the LORD is not offended by the request for the sign and indeed grants it.

Hezekiah’s boil is treated with a poultice of figs, and although we do not know the nature of Hezekiah’s disease, the treatment and the promise of God work together to affect the healing of the king and to enable him to reign for an additional fifteen years. Unlike King Azariah (aka Uzziah) whose leprosy prevented him from continuing to reign (2 Kings 15:5), Hezekiah’s time as king is doubled by God’s intervention in response to the king’s tears and prayers. Although the editor of 2 Kings, like Isaiah and Chronicles, probably wanted to place the story of Jerusalem’s survival as the focal event of King Hezekiah’s reign, this story occurring before the siege also helps to give a reason for the trust of the king in the LORD’s promise of deliverance.

2 Kings 20:12-21

¹² At that time King Merodach-baladan son of Baladan of Babylon sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. ¹³ Hezekiah welcomed them; he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses; there was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. ¹⁴ Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say? From where did they come to you?” Hezekiah answered, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” ¹⁵ He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”
¹⁶ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD: ¹⁷ Days are coming when all that is in your house and that which your ancestors have stored up until this day shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the LORD. ¹⁸ Some of your own sons who are born to you shall be taken away; they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” ¹⁹ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”

²⁰ The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah, all his power, how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? ²¹ Hezekiah slept with his ancestors, and his son Manasseh succeeded him.

The envoys from Merodach-balaban based on the historical references we have also must have occurred before the siege of Jerusalem in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah (around 701 BCE). We know the Merodach-balaban returned to power in Babylon in the aftermath of King Sargon of Assyria’s death in 705, and while Hezekiah was pulling away from Assyria’s control in Jerusalem, he asserted his independence from Assyria with Elamite support in the southeast. When King Sennacherib began to reestablish dominance, he turned initially against Babylon in 704-703 and ended Merodach-balaban’s brief resurgent reign. (Cogan, 1988, pp. 260-261)[2] If these two stories are linked in time it is likely occurring even earlier than the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, around 705-703 BCE. Chronicles indicates that the envoys are sent because of the manipulation of time as a sign to Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:31), but this is also probably more than mere curiosity about an astrological event. Merodach-balaban and Hezekiah have a common purpose in resisting Assyria and the visit of the envoys likely has political implications.

Hezekiah welcomes these gift-bearing emissaries as honored guests and shows off the wealth of his storehouses, the temple, and the king’s house.[3] Isaiah, who appears to have easy access to the monarch, asks about the visitors and what they have seen and then gives an oracle that in the future Babylon will be responsible for the removal of the wealth of Jerusalem as well as the descendants of Hezekiah.

Mordechai Cogan and Hayim Tadmor note that the language of the prophecy in verses seventeen to nineteen is closely related to the language of Jeremiah and not like the language of Isaiah, (Cogan, 1988, p. 259) but this would require the parallel language in Isaiah 39 to also be written by Jeremiah.[4] Ultimately, we know that the prophet Micah who was active during the time of King Hezekiah prophesies that Jerusalem will ultimately be destroyed, although Micah does not indicate Babylon as the vessel. (Micah 3:12) Micah’s prophecy reemerges in the story of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 26:18) to justify Jeremiah’s words against the city and king. It may seem strange for Babylon to enter the scene when it will shortly seem like a minor threat, but likely these words of Isaiah become central to the retelling of the final five chapters of the book which end with Isaiah’s words being fulfilled.

As a king, Hezekiah must navigate between the prophetic expectations of faithfulness exclusively to the LORD the God of Israel and the political and diplomatic requirements of running a kingdom. What may have been an act of alliance making and friendship to Hezekiah looks like an act of foolishness to Isaiah. Political matters can shift quickly, and today’s allies may be tomorrow’s adversaries, but the narrator of the book of Kings wants us to remember that God is where the kings of Judah derive their power, security, and peace.

King Hezekiah’s response and thoughts which the narrator convey have been read combining a pious response and an inner thought unconcerned about future generations. The response of Hezekiah echoes the words of his prayer earlier in the chapter as Alex Israel notes:

“The word of the Lord…is good (tov)…If there will be peace (shalom) and security (emet) in my days.” The terms tov, shalom, and emet, echo from his earlier prayer: “Remember…how I have walked before You in faithfulness (emet) and with a whole (shalem) heart, and have done what is good (tov) in your eyes” (II Kings 20:2) (Israel, 2019, p. 313)

Although it is easy to read his private thoughts as unconcerned about the future generations, there is a pious reading like the words of the priest Eli in 1 Samuel 3:18, “It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him.” Ultimately the future rests in the LORD’s hands and the hands of future generations. Earlier in the chapter we have seen how a faithful king’s prayer can change the future with the LORD.

The reign of Hezekiah is closed with the customary relation of his entire reign which highlights his power and specifically the creation of a reliable water supply for the city. We noted the king’s works to fortify the city and to bring water into the city in our notes on chapter eighteen, and they have been historically documented with the discovery of the inscription on the Siloam pool. Hezekiah’s reign is consequential both for the development of a Zion theology where the city of Jerusalem, the temple, and the Davidic king are under God’s protection as demonstrated by the deliverance of Jerusalem from Assyria, but 2 Kings includes the prophetic critique of this belief. Hezekiah is a good king in the eyes of 2 Kings and Isaiah, although Micah indicates that the reforms of the king do not ultimately impact the nobility, priesthood, and the people, much as Jeremiah will indicate under Josiah. This also is emphasized with the rapid return under Manasseh to the ‘abominable practices of the nations’ and turn aside from Hezekiah’s faithfulness.

[1] This story is echoed in Isaiah 38, although the ordering of the story is slightly different and it includes a long song of thanksgiving in response to the healing.

[2] Merodach-balaban initially reigns in 710 BCE but is removed by Sargon and flees, he returns to power briefly five years later when Sargon dies in battle.

[3] Another indication that this is before the siege of Jerusalem when Hezekiah takes the wealth of the temple and the king’s house to attempt to pay tribute to King Sennacherib.

[4] Cogan and Tadmor’s commentary comes from a period that focused more on source criticism and looked for evidence of multiple sources behind a text. I find those arguments interesting but ultimately, I come from more of a canonical school where I look to comment on the text as we have received it. There is a tradition where Jeremiah is the one responsible for assembling the book of Kings and the Deuteronomic History in general.

2 Kings 19 The Deliverance of Jerusalem from Assyria

2 Kings 19: 1-7

¹ When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD. ² And he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. ³ They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. ⁴ It may be that the LORD your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.” ⁵ When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, ⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master: Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. ⁷ I myself will put a spirit in him so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”

The narration of 2 Kings 19 speaks in unison with Isaiah 37 as the prophetic voice brings a note of hope into this critical moment in the life of Jerusalem. The threats of Rabshakeh, and by extension King Sennacherib of Assyria, are now relayed to King Hezekiah and then to the LORD the God of Israel. The hope of the land now rests in the hope the prophet’s intercession with living God will cause this God to act on behalf of the city. King Hezekiah, a king who did right in the sight of the LORD as his ancestor David had done, and the Prophet Isaiah stand with the LORD the God of Israel against the arrayed forces of the empire of Assyria that call from beyond the walls of the city.

The perspective of the narrator of 2 Kings is that the LORD the God of Israel is trustworthy and that the fall from the nation of Israel’s pinnacle under David and Solomon to the reality at the time of Hezekiah where Samaria has been captured and Jerusalem stands under threat was precipitated by the unfaithfulness of the kings and people. Yet, Hezekiah is a king who has shown faithfulness to God’s vision for the people and has been aligned with the prophet Isaiah. In contrast to the bold and idolatrous voice of Rabshakeh and Sennacherib, here Hezekiah assumes the expected posture of repentance: he tears his clothes and covers himself in sackcloth before the LORD as a sign of distress and repentance. As the prophet Isaiah says:

On that day the Lord God of hosts
called for weeping and mourning,
for baldness and putting on sackcloth, Isaiah 22:12[1]

Now the king assumes this posture of weeping and mourning on this day of distress. The king utilizes the image of a woman who comes to the point of childbirth where the child is in the birth canal and needs the mother to push the child out into the world, but the mother does not have the strength to move the child from this place of extreme pain and danger from both the child and the mother. Hezekiah and Jerusalem are powerless to bring about their own deliverance and can only rely upon the LORD to respond and rescue them.

The king and the prophet relay the mocking words of Rabshakeh and Sennacherib to the LORD in the hope that God will respond and rebuke these arrogant words and actions. Isaiah relays to the servants to Hezekiah God’s response which begins with the reassuring words, “Do not be afraid.” Hezekiah and Isaiah have trusted in God against the overwhelming and mocking might of the Assyrians, and God will not be mocked. God will put a spirit in the king, not unlike the action of the ‘lying spirits’ that Micaiah mentions that deceive King Ahab,[2] which lead him away from Jerusalem and eventually to his death.

2 Kings 19: 8-13

⁸ The Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. ⁹ When the king heard concerning King Tirhakah of Cush, “See, he has set out to fight against you,” he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “Thus shall you speak to King Hezekiah of Judah: Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹ See, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered? ¹² Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my predecessors destroyed: Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?”

¹⁴ Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; then Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, “O LORD the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. ¹⁶ Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. ¹⁷ Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands ¹⁸ and have hurled their gods into the fire, though they were no gods but the work of human hands—wood and stone—and so they were destroyed. ¹⁹ So now, O LORD our God, save us, I pray you, from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone.”

Jerusalem may be the capital of a small kingdom caught between the aggressive Assyrian empire and the movements of Egypt to the south, but the audacity of the Jewish belief is that the God of Israel is the LORD of hosts behind not only the armies of heaven but behind the movement of the armies on the face of the earth. The rumored or real movement of the armies of King Tirhakah of Cush[3] prevent a threat to the Assyrians in Judah that must be addressed and this causes both King Sennacherib to move from Lachish and the emissaries of the king of Assyria to prepare to move in support of their king. Yet, King Sennacherib does not want to allow Jerusalem to believe that it has escaped his judgment, and that any removal of the threat is temporary. The Assyrians have conquered numerous other nations and their gods, and in the eyes of Sennacherib Jerusalem, Hezekiah and the LORD are no different. In a similar way Joseph Stalin is attributed with remarking millennia later about the pope, “How many divisions hath the pope?” In the eyes of the empire of the day might makes their position right.

King Hezekiah of Jerusalem views the world differently; it is the LORD who makes things right. Hezekiah takes these words delivered by the messenger, enters the house of the LORD and spreads these words before the LORD. Hezekiah’s prayer calls on the LORD to hear, see, and respond to the mocking words of King Sennacherib. The Assyrians may have defeated the other nations and their gods, who were really no gods at all, but now they have challenged the creator of the heavens and the earth. King Hezekiah calls on God to save Jerusalem from the hands of the Assyrians and to demonstrate that the LORD the God of Israel is the only true God.

2 Kings 19: 20-34

²⁰ Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I have heard your prayer to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria. ²¹ This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him:
She despises you; she scorns you—
virgin daughter Zion;
she tosses her head—behind your back,
daughter Jerusalem.

²² Whom have you mocked and reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and haughtily lifted your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
²³ By your messengers you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, ‘With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses;
I entered its farthest retreat,
its densest forest.
²⁴ I dug wells
and drank foreign waters,
I dried up with the sole of my foot
all the streams of Egypt.’

²⁵ Have you not heard
that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what now I bring to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
crash into heaps of ruins,
²⁶ while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded;
they have become like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops
that is scorched before the east wind.

²⁷ But I know your sitting
and your going out and your coming in
and your raging against me.
²⁸ Because you have raged against me
and your arrogance has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth;
I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.

²⁹ “And this shall be the sign for you: This year you shall eat what grows of itself and in the second year what springs from that; then in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³⁰ The surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward, ³¹ for from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out and from Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
³² “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, shoot an arrow there, come before it with a shield, or cast up a siege ramp against it. ³³ By the way that he came, by the same he shall return; he shall not come into this city, says the LORD. ³⁴ For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

The poetic response to King Hezekiah’s prayer and King Sennacherib’s mocking letter is delivered through Isaiah and the instrument of the word of the LORD. Jerusalem, personified as a woman, despises and mocks Sennacherib and Assyria, but ultimately it is not Jerusalem that has been disrespected but the Holy One of Israel. Sennacherib has misunderstood his military successes as his own action, but the poem reveals the truth understood from the biblical perspective: the LORD the God of Israel is the LORD of hosts (or armies). The LORD has allowed Sennacherib and Assyria to enjoy the success they have seen, but now they have bitten the hand that fed them. The mocking words of Sennacherib have provoked a reaction from the LORD and now a hook in the nose and a bit in the mouth symbolically shows the powerful king as an unruly animal brought under control by force. Sennacherib will have his head turned like a horse or mule to direct this recalcitrant tyrant back to Ninevah.

The sign discussing eating what grows from the ground for two years before replanting and sowing not only grain, but vineyards set a period for recovery in the aftermath of Assyria’s invasion. The invasion of a land does not only focus on cities. The agricultural land also is used by the invading army as a source of food and unutilized crops are often destroyed to deny food to the invaded population. Yet, the LORD promises there will be enough to glean from the remnant of the current years crop and the volunteer crop of the following year as the armies return to Assyria and depart not only the region around Jerusalem but the entirety of the productive land of Judea. In the third year there will be the security to plant not only annual crops like wheat and barley but also to plant vineyards and to begin to restore the productivity of the land. The expulsion of the armies of Assyria allows both the people and the land to take root and bear fruit. Both nations and people can recover and grow from the remnant of the people of Judah who are gathered in Jerusalem.

The LORD also indicates that the threat to Jerusalem will end without the activities of a siege: no arrows shot into the city, no shields and siege ramps cast up against the walls of Jerusalem. This indicates the army camped near Jerusalem will depart almost immediately before the work of the siege can begin. The LORD promises here to act both on God’s behalf, for the sake of the honor of the name of the LORD which has been insulted by Sennacherib’s words, but also for the sake of David and his faithful heir Hezekiah.

This moment when the armies of Assyria are turned away at the gates of Jerusalem will encourage a focus on the city of Jerusalem, the temple, and the Davidic line as guarantees of divine protection by the LORD. The emergence of a Zion theology, where temple and city occupy a privileged place before God will have to be deconstructed by later prophets like Jeremiah, but in this moment of a faithful king who appeals to God through the prophet Isaiah and in prayer in the temple God answers the prayer of the faithful one. Nevertheless, as Alex Israel states:

When the Temple was eventually destroyed, kings and commoner alike were astonished. They simply failed to comprehend that Jerusalem could fall. Why? Because the victory against Sennacherib had engendered the belief that Jerusalem was under divine protection, that it was invincible.

Similarly, Jeremiah (ch.7) seeks to persuade the people of Jerusalem to stop believing blindly that the Temple was fundamentally indestructible, that God would never abandon His Temple. (Israel, 2019, p. 303)

Or as Lamentations 4:12 states:

The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

Yet from the perspective of 2 Kings the faithfulness of the king and the people matter. God did not rescue Samaria from Assyria and from the perspective of 2 Kings that conquest is a judgment upon the kings and people of Samaria and their idolatrous practices. Hezekiah restores the people to proper worship of the LORD, and his faithfulness and prayer change God’s authorization of Assyria’s conquest.

2 Kings 19: 35-37

³⁵ That very night the angel of the LORD set out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; when morning dawned, they were all dead bodies. ³⁶ Then King Sennacherib of Assyria left, went home, and lived at Nineveh. ³⁷ As he was worshiping in the house of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. His son Esar-haddon succeeded him.

Many modern readers struggle with the destruction of the one hundred eighty-five thousand soldiers in the camp of Assyria. I remember during Desert Storm Sadaam Hussein claimed that Allah would strike down the American other allied soldiers who were fighting against him in this ‘holy war/Jihad’ and most modern Western observers responded to this language with scorn. Yet, as Walter Brueggemann states, “the bible hangs or falls on its attestation of the divine difference Yahweh makes in real events.” (Brueggemann, 2000, p. 517) The narrator of 2 Kings has already indicated the power of the LORD the God of hosts when the servant of Elisha has his eyes opened to see the LORD’s chariots of fire and horsemen which surround the Arameans attempting to capture the prophet. (2 Kings 6:15-23) The bible is full of imagery of God as the divine warrior or the leader of armies who saves that people. One hundred eighty-five thousand soldiers is a huge number, especially in the ancient world where populations were much smaller, but I think too many modern readers struggle with accepting that God could act like this through the angel of the LORD.

King Sennacherib retires to Ninevah, likely significantly embarrassed by inability to capture Jerusalem and the loss of soldiers. A defeated king is a vulnerable king, and while worshipping in the house of the unknown god, outside of this mention, Nisroch he is killed by two of his sons who flee and one of his other sons ascends the throne. Assyria’s reign as the empire of the day has not ended, indeed Esar-haddon would conquer Egypt, and Assyria remains a threat through the end of Hezkiah’s life (see 2 Kings 20:6) but God promises to continue to protect Jerusalem.

So much of the biblical language of prophecy is poetry, and so I’m going to close this reflection with Lord Byron’s poem “the Destruction of Sennacherib”

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;

And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,

When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,

That host with their banners at sunset were seen:

Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,

That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,

And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;

And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,

And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,

But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;

And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,

And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,

With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:

And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,

The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,

And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

From the Poetry Foundation website: The Destruction of Sennacherib | The Poetry Foundation

[1] See also the actions of the King of Ninevah in Jonah 3: 6-8 or the action of the unnamed king of Samaria during the siege of Ben-hadad of Aram in 2 Kings 6:30.

[2] 1 Kings 22:22.

[3] King Tirhakah or Taharqa was one of the Cushite or Nubian Pharoahs that came from further south in Africa. These ‘Cushite’ Pharoahs ruled over Egypt for more than a century.

Psalm 109 A Prayer For God’s Vengeance

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From Susan Harris Anger and art// A Rage to Paint https://www.susanharrisart.com/blog

Psalm 109

To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.
¹Do not be silent, O God of my praise.
²For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
³They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
⁴In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them.
⁵So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
⁶They say, “Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right.
⁷When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin.
⁸May his days be few; may another seize his position.
⁹May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
¹⁰May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
¹¹May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
¹²May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
¹³May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation.
¹⁴May the iniquity of his father be remembered before the LORD, and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
¹⁵Let them be before the LORD continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
¹⁶For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
¹⁷He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.
¹⁸He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones.
¹⁹May it be like a garment that he wraps around himself, like a belt that he wears every day.”
²⁰May that be the reward of my accusers from the LORD, of those who speak evil against my life.
²¹But you, O LORD my LORD, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.
²²For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.
²³I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust.
²⁴My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt.
²⁵I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
²⁶Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love.
²⁷Let them know that this is your hand; you, O LORD, have done it.
²⁸Let them curse, but you will bless. Let my assailants be put to shame; may your servant be glad.
²⁹May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle.
³⁰With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
³¹For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.

This process of reflecting on scripture, particularly the parts of scripture that the church rarely utilizes, has opened my eyes to a far more dynamic and honest relationship between God and God’s people. Sometimes that dynamic and honest relationship is uncomfortable for people who grew up, like me, in churches where prayer was always a calm and measured practice. Psalm 109 rarely will find its way into a church bulletin or a sermon, but this psalm of imprecation that prays for harm to come to a wicked person provides a fertile place for discussion of the relationship between ourselves, others who have wronged us, and God. Anger and the desire for vengeance are powerful emotions, and too often we as people of faith have refused to give voice to these human feelings. Yet, these feelings will find their way into our lives and into the culture around us.

In a situation where the relationships that shape our society are shattered the faithful ones cry out to God. They name the brokenness that they encounter. They name those who have wronged them. But the brokenness of the world and the person who has brought about the suffering are placed into God’s hands. The person lifting up this cry to God has no ability to determine what God will do with the prayer and the ‘wicked one.’ Here, instead of suppressing the reality of suffering and pain or taking vengeance into their own hands, the faithful one cries out in desperation to God to act on their behalf.

Ellen Davis’s chapter on the cursing psalms in Getting Involved with God: Rediscovering the Old Testament (Davis, 2001, pp. 23-29) has shaped a lot of my thinking about the imprecatory (or cursing) psalms in general and this psalm in particular. The language of the bible shapes should shape our practices of faith, and the psalms and the prophets can give us language to articulate our honest feelings in our conversations with God. These may not be the more attractive offerings of thanksgiving or praise, but these words and feelings we also commit to God’s steadfast love. Ellen Davis shared the advice she received from a professor to take the imprecatory psalms into the chapel at a time when it was unoccupied and pray them at full voice. The experience helped her to move beyond her hurt and begin the needed journey to forgiveness. She remarks afterwards,

For the cursing psalms confront us with one of our most persistent idolatries, to which neither Israel nor the church has ever been immune: the belief that God has as little use for our enemies as we do, the desire to reduce God to an extension of our own embattled and wounded egos. (Davis, 2001, p. 26)

God cares for both the faithful and the wicked. Yet, that does not mean that the crimes of the wicked are not noticed by God. Psalm 109 anticipates a God who both hears this petition and acts upon it. The wicked and deceitful seem to have no problem using their words to shatter or their lies to cause harm to both the individual and the community. There are times when the innocent are surrounded by words of hate or attacked without justification. There are situations where love is repaid with hate and good with evil. As I was working through this psalm, I was reading Elie Wiesel’s Night where he shares his experience of being a young Jewish boy whose hope and faith were broken in Auschwitz in 1944 and Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping which continues the fictional Hunger Games series where children are put into a fatal game for the entertainment of the powerful. Both the historical and the fictional may be extreme examples of a world where wickedness has triumphed over kindness, but the origin story of the people of Israel is the story of a God who rescued them from oppression and slavery. It is a story of a God who heard their cries and acted for their rescue from that a world without steadfast love.

One of the keys to hearing this psalm occurs in verse six. Most English translations being the verse with “They say” which places the most extreme portions of the psalm in the mouths of the adversary. Yet, there is no textual support in Hebrew for the words “they say.” (Bellinger, 2014, p. 473) Even if these words are put into the mouth of the adversary, the psalmist still wishes for these words that the adversary pulls around themselves like a cloak may become the garment they wear every day and soak into their body like water or oil all the way to the bones. Whether you read these words as being spoken by or toward the adversary, this brokenhearted prayer ascends to God bearing the hurt and brokenness of the psalmist’s world asking for God to intervene on the psalmist’s behalf and answer the psalmist’s pain.

The Hebrew word hesed, often translated steadfast love when coming from God or kindness (as in verse 12 and 16) when coming from other people, is a key idea throughout the Old Testament. Hesed is tied to the covenant between God and God’s people, as well as the covenant between the people of God. Central to the accusation of this individual is their failure to show hesed.

For he did not remember to show kindness (hesed), but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death. Verse 16.

Hesed is the glue that holds the Hebrew society together. It is both the proper relationship between God and God’s people but also the proper relationship among the people. When hesed is not present, the poor, needy, and brokenhearted die. The implications of a person living in disregard for the standards of society may be fatal. This could apply to a nobleman in Jerusalem who takes advantage of the vulnerable or a businessperson or politician who uses their influence in a way that impacts the physical and emotional health of others. The bible’s way of thinking assumes a common obligation between humanity and creation to care for one another. I once heard Rolf Jacobson remark that the Ten Commandments and the law in general were about, “my neighbor’s best life.”

The words directed at the wicked adversary are sharp. That a wicked person would be appointed against him, someone to accuse him on his right hand, when he is tried to be found guilty (Hebrew wicked), and that his prayers would be sin (either missing the mark or something refused by God). That his life would be short and another would claim his position, that even his wife and children would bear the repercussions of his fall. The adversary created a world without hesed (kindness) for the psalmist and now may the world fail to show him hesed. That the sins of his ancestors would be remembered and yet his memory fade. In Hebrew I don’t think there could be a stronger curse than to encounter a world devoid of hesed.

One verse of this psalm has entered the political dynamics of the United States. I first encountered a bumper sticker with Psalm 109:8, “May his days be few, may another seize his position” referring to Barak Obama. The psalm is used to appear to be prayerful and cursing at the same time. Psalm 109:8 may have been utilized before Barak Obama, but I have seen it used to piously point to Donald Trump and Joe Biden since. It is unlikely that most people who have worn this psalm proudly on a shirt, button, or on their car read the entirety of the psalm, but unfortunately in the polarized and angry political climate the vengeful desires against not only those in power but their entire family would probably be embraced by many. Verse eight is also the only verse of this psalm that appears in the New Testament, in Acts 1:20, when Peter makes the case for replacing Judas. Yet, the use in the New Testament bears no desire for vengeance on Judas, merely understands the psalm as authorizing the search for a new disciple to fill the twelfth position after Judas’s death.

How do we use this rarely utilized psalm. My first reflection comes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his The Prayerbook of the Bible:

So the psalm of vengeance leads to the cross of Jesus and to the love of God that forgives enemies. I cannot forgive the enemies of God by myself, only the crucified Christ can; and I can forgive through him. So the carrying out of vengeance becomes grace for all in Jesus Christ. (DBWE 5:175)

Bonhoeffer takes the traditional Lutheran law-gospel hermeneutic where the psalm of vengeance (as law) pushes us to the love of God in Christ (gospel). As Ellen Davis mentioned earlier our inability to see anything redeemable in our enemies does not preclude God from acting in mercy and grace towards them. But Ellen Davis also has a wise if uncomfortable way of utilizing these psalms of cursing:

If you have the courage (and it will take some), try turning the psalm a full 180 degrees, until it is directed at yourself, and ask: Is there anyone in the community of God’s people who might want to say this to God about me—or maybe, about us? (Davis, 2001, p. 28)

We may not feel oppressed. We may not have anything we need to forgive in another, but perhaps there is someone who we have wronged. Whose futures have we, intentionally or unintentionally, harmed? Whose wives and children have learned to curse our names as individuals or as a group? Whose reputations have we destroyed? In her own way she encourages this use of the psalm as law which highlights the places where we also have not shown hesed.

Yet even a psalm of cursing ends with thanks to the God who defends the needy and saves from those who would condemn. Ultimately hesed, so important to this psalm and the Old Testament in general, is one of the defining characteristics of God. God is both the model of what hesed looks like, but also the one who intervenes when hesed is not found. This psalm has demonstrated all the differences between the world of oppression the psalmist lives in and the world God intends for God’s people. It resonates with the Lord’s prayer which calls out to God for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Psalm 88 Only Darkness Knows Me

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Marc Chagall, Solitude (1933)

Psalm 88

<A Song. A Psalm of the Korahites. To the leader: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.>
¹O LORD, God of my salvation, when, at night, I cry out in your presence,
² let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry.
³ For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
⁴ I am counted among those who go down to the Pit; I am like those who have no help,
⁵ like those forsaken among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.
⁶ You have put me in the depths of the Pit, in the regions dark and deep.
⁷ Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
⁸ You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a thing of horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
⁹ my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call on you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you.
¹⁰ Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise you? Selah
¹¹ Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
¹² Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness?
¹³ But I, O LORD, cry out to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
¹⁴ O LORD, why do you cast me off? Why do you hide your face from me?
¹⁵ Wretched and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am desperate.
¹⁶ Your wrath has swept over me; your dread assaults destroy me.
¹⁷ They surround me like a flood all day long; from all sides they close in on me.
¹⁸ You have caused friend and neighbor to shun me; my companions are in darkness.

Psalms 88 and 89 stand together at the end of book three of the book of Psalms and take us into the darkest despair of the entire book. (Nancy de Claisse-Walford, 2014, p. 668) Both prayers are appeals for help that have no resolution within the psalm and while Psalm 89 is a prayer grieving the destruction of Judah and the loss of the promises to the line of David, Psalm 88 is the prayer of an individual who is either metaphorically or physically at the point where, “Death is so near and so real that it becomes the subject of the lament.” (Mays, 1994, p. 282) This is not the type of prayer that was taught in Sunday school, nor is this psalm used in the worship of most churches. Its vision of the world is darker than many churches are comfortable with but it also speaks honestly to the experience of deep darkness that many both inside and outside the church experience. The daring language of the psalm, which is willing to declare that God is responsible for their dire circumstance, turns on the head the vision of Psalm 56:4 or Romans 8:31 as it wonders, “if God is against me, who can be for me?” The psalmist’s words break forth from the dark night of the soul where their abandonment by God and their companions leaves only darkness to know them.

The psalm is attributed to Heman the Ezrahite. It is possible that the intent is to attribute the psalm to Heman who is listed as one of the wise men who Solomon surpasses in 1 Kings 4:31 or Heman the singer, one of the Kohathites appointed by David in 1 Chronicles 6:33. It is also possible that it is the same individual referred to in both 1 Kings and 1 Chronicles (singers/psalmists would be considered wise in Hebrew society) but it is also likely that the Heman referred to in the psalm is a different person unmentioned elsewhere in scripture. Regardless of the authorship of the psalm, it speaks in the brutally honest language of the Hebrew Scriptures that many contemporary Christians have little exposure to.

The psalm begins in a pious cry out to God, crying out to God for God’s attention to the prayers of the one dependent on God’s salvation. The prayer uses three different words for ‘crying out’ to God in verse 1, 9b and 13 (NIB IV: 1027) exhausting the language of prayer as they desperately seek an answer from the God who is both their only hope of salvation and the source of their troubles. The psalm begins with language that would is the traditional language of prayer learned in worship. Yet, once the prayer begins the dam holding back the psalmist’s words breaks and their desperation and abandonment cannot be contained. The pain of the psalmist rushes forth from the shattered walls of convention and flows into an irresistibly honest prayer that emerges from the space of death, darkness, and despair.

The stakes of this prayer are incredibly high for the psalmist. The very center of their life[1] is threatened. The psalmist deploys an incredible number of words for death: Sheol, the Pit, like the dead, slain, grave, those you remember no more, cut off from your hands, in the regions dark and deep, shades (Hebrew Rephaim), Abaddon, darkness, the land of forgetfulness. Almost every line has the presence of death within this prayer. This deployment is especially striking when compared to the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures which rarely talk about death and the afterlife. In verses three to five the mentions of death indicate the serious nature of the psalmist’s petitions but the jarring realization comes in verse six when the psalmist turns their invective to God and declares that God is the one responsible for the psalmist’s situation. God may be the psalmist’s salvation but God is also, in this psalm, the psalmist’s oppressor.

The psalmist girds up their loins and stands before God in accusation declaring that God has put them at death’s door, that God’s wrath is actively overwhelming the psalmist in waves, and God has caused the alienation of the psalmist from their companions. Many Christians are not familiar with this type of accusatory language directed at God and are surprised at the directness of this psalm or Jeremiah’s accusations of God.[2] As mentioned in my comments on Psalm 86 there is a relationship between the servant and their Lord, and here the servant boldly claims that their Lord has violated their relationship. Where the servant needed protection, their Lord has overwhelmed them with wrath. Where the servant looks for a compassionate answer, the answer[3] they receive is unbearable. The actions of God have alienated the servant from both God and their companions making them, like Job, one despised and one cursed by God.

The psalmist’s eyes growing dim is not a statement of eyesight, but indicates that their vitality is failing. Physically and mentally, they are dying and yet they continue to cry out to God. They cry out from a place of “abandonment and lostness…so great that it saturates the soul so there is room for nothing else.” (Nancy de Claisse-Walford, 2014, p. 671) But it is heartbreaking that for the psalmist it is God who has cast them into this space of darkness and death and then turns away from their cries. In a series of six rhetorical questions: Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise you? Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness? Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? The answer to each of these rhetorical questions in the vision of the psalmist is no! As mentioned above the Hebrew scriptures rarely talk about death and the afterlife and there is no conception of heaven and hell as destinations for the people of God in the psalms. Psalm 88 deploys this shocking set of questions to the God of life to get their either unresponsive or oppressive God to relent and deliver their servant from death or the relationship will be broken and God will be the unfaithful one who broke it. In the Psalms when the concept of death, Sheol, the Pit, or Abaddon are mentioned it is assumed that there is no longer any communication between the deceased and God.[4] The only freedom this psalm offers the psalmist is the freedom of the dead where God either does not remember or has actively cut off God’s servant. (Nancy de Claisse-Walford, 2014, p. 671) Yet the psalmist cries out to their Lord as a servant desiring to continue to serve their God in the land of the living.

The psalmist cries out one final time in verse thirteen. Their prayers come before God and even boldly confront[5] God asking God to relent. God’s anger has left the psalmist in the space of darkness and death. There is no escape for the servant from the anxiety filled and deathly state of the servant’s life. There is no answer as the psalm reaches its final gasp, there is only the cry of the servant thrown “against a dark and terrifying void” (Nancy de Claisse-Walford, 2014, p. 669) The final word of the psalm is darkness.[6] The sad final phrase is obscured by the NRSV’s translation. The NIV’s “darkness is my closest friend” or Beth Tanner’s “only darkness knows me” (Nancy de Claisse-Walford, 2014, p. 670) better captures the isolation and abandonment that the psalm closes with. We may rebel against a psalm where death and darkness have the final word, but the book of Psalms reminds us that there are times where the faithful ones of God may find themselves in the God forsaken place where God seems silent, absent, or angry; where relationships prove themselves unfaithful, and where the agonizing prayer breaks forth to God from the death’s door where no light seems to be able to penetrate the darkness of the faithful one’s world.

Nobody would choose to walk into the place of depression and suffering where death and darkness seem to be their only companion, but even people of faith may find themselves in these spaces that appear devoid of God’s steadfast love and compassion. Depression can make the world feel like a place where darkness is the sufferer’s only companion and death may cry out to them. Even faithful people can suffer from bouts of depression so deep that suicide and death seem closer than God. God does not condemn these words of the psalmist as faithless, instead they are placed within the scriptures of God’s people. From a Christian perspective we may answer the rhetorical questions of Psalm 68 differently than the psalmist: from a Christian perspective, to quote Paul, “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:8) Yet, this psalm invites us to walk into the swampland of the soul, pitch a tent, and get to know the lay of the land. It invites us to dwell in the God forsaken place of the crucifixion without immediately jumping forward to the surprise of the resurrection. Sometimes resurrection takes time, sometimes prayers end in darkness as they await a response from God, and sometimes faithful ones walk through the valley of the shadow of death. This uncomfortable psalm invites us into an honest relationship with God that demonstrates a confrontational or defiant calling upon God to act in compassion and love rather than abandonment or wrath. We may not like that darkness has the last word and we may want a happy ending to occur within eighteen verses, but sometimes we dwell in darkness and hope for a light which we cannot see but our faith longs for.

[1] The NRSV’s ‘soul’ in verse 3 is the Hebrew nephesh which occurs frequently in the psalms but the modern idea of ‘soul’ comes from Greek thought instead of Hebrew thought. The Hebrew nephesh is closer to ‘life itself’ or ‘the essence of life.’

[2] For example: Jeremiah 15: 17-18, 20: 7-10. Particularly in Jeremiah 20 our English translations often soften the shocking language or Jeremiah.

[3] The Hebrew word translated ‘waves’ also can means ‘answer.’

[4] See for example Psalm 6:5, Psalm 30:9. The contrary point will be argued by Psalm 139:8 where even if the psalmist makes their bed in Sheol, God is present there.

[5] The Hebrew verb qdm can mean either come before or confront.

[6] The final word of the psalm is the Hebrew hoshek (darkness).

Psalm 86 A Servant’s Plea For Their Lord’s Deliverance

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Love is Not a Victory March by Marie -Esther@deviantart.com

Psalm 86

<A Prayer of David.>
¹ Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
² Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God;
³ be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all day long.
⁴ Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
⁵ For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.
⁶ Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; listen to my cry of supplication.
⁷ In the day of my trouble I call on you, for you will answer me.
⁸ There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.
⁹ All the nations you have made shall come and bow down before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.
¹⁰ For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God.
¹¹ Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name.
¹² I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.
¹³ For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.
¹⁴ O God, the insolent rise up against me; a band of ruffians seeks my life, and they do not set you before them.
¹⁵ But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
¹⁶ Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant; save the child of your serving girl.
¹⁷ Show me a sign of your favor, so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame, because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

Psalm 72 (and Book II of the Psalter) ends with the note that “The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended.” The notation at the beginning of Psalm 86 has led many writers to assume this is a psalm which comes from a later time which does use several themes that are a part of the psalms of David. Whether David or a later author composed this prayer asking for God’s help in their crisis, it does use well known words and themes to articulate their dependence and trust in God. This prayer uses the language of faith learned in the worshipping community to provide the words needed to speak to God and appeal for God’s intervention.

The prayer comes from a poor and needy servant of God who needs their Lord to hear their words and preserve their life.[1] Throughout the psalm the speaker is ‘your servant’ (Hebrew ‘ebed) and God is frequently referred to as Lord (Hebrew ‘adon).[2] Servant and lord are paired roles in the culture of Israel. As James Mays explains:

An ‘ebed was a person who belonged to an ‘adon, who lived and worked in the sphere of the purposes and decisions of the ‘adon and who had the right to the support and protection of the ‘adon. (Mays, 1994, p. 279)

The servant and lord dynamic in the psalm is inherited where the psalmist is the ‘child of your serving girl. ´ The dependance on their God as a faithful Lord is something that the psalmist learned from his family and has been a part of their life from the very beginning.

The characteristics of God are the characteristics of God that Israel has always relied upon. The LORD is a God of forgiveness and steadfast love (hesed), is merciful and gracious, and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (hesed) which alludes back to the thirteen attributes of God which originates in Exodus 34: 6-7. God is also incomparable with any other gods and the psalmist trusts that in time the nations will also see and prostrate themselves before the LORD. The psalmist trusts that the God of Israel can and will help God’s faithful servant in their time of need.

The servant is ‘devoted’[3] to their Lord, while those who oppose them are insolent and a band of ruffians. The language of the servant’s plea indicates that they are facing an existential threat with enemies who threaten their life. Their deep need is matched by their deep trust in their faithful Lord who will protect and deliver them. Their life depends upon God’s steadfast love for the servant of the Lord. The sign the psalmist desires is to see their deliverance from their present danger and to see their enemies put to shame. Yet, the psalmist also asks for their Lord to grant them “an undivided heart to revere your name “. The servant desires to be shaped to be more faithful to their Lord.

The language learned in the congregation shapes the language of our prayers that we speak in the time of need. The faithful speaker does not need to find novel phrases to communicate their needs to their Lord. The language of prayer is the familiar language articulated in scripture and shared in the community of the faithful. The speaker leans into the familiar characteristics of God and into the experience they learned in both their family and the household of faith to speak to God in their moments of crisis. The experience of the faithful one and the memory of the community of the faithful give them the confidence that their Lord will incline the ear to hear the cry of the faithful servant and will deliver them in their time of need.

[1] The word used for ‘life’ in verse 2 and ‘soul’ in verse 4 is the Hebrew nephesh. The Hebrew idea of ‘nephesh’ is not the Greek idea of soul, but ‘self’ or ‘life.’

[2] When LORD is in all capital letters in the Hebrew Scriptures it refers to the Divine Name (YHWH-which the reader is given indications in the Hebrew text to say as Adonai (translated Lord). This psalm uses both LORD and Lord (‘adon or Adonai) to highlight the servant/master (lord) relationship.

[3] Hebrew hasid which is related to hesed. The speaker is living in faithfulness to the covenant God made with God’s people and in dependence on God upholding God’s hesed (steadfast love) towards the servant.

Psalm 56 Trusting God in the Midst of Trouble

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Archaeological finds at Gath (Tell es-Safi) By Ori~ – Own work, Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8945813

Psalm 56

<To the leader: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. Of David. A Miktam, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.>
1 Be gracious to me, O God, for people trample on me; all day long foes oppress me;
2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many fight against me. O Most High[1],
3 when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid; what can flesh do to me?
5 All day long they seek to injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They stir up strife, they lurk, they watch my steps. As they hoped to have my life,
7 so repay them for their crime; in wrath cast down the peoples, O God!
8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record?
9 Then my enemies will retreat in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise,
11 in God I trust; I am not afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me?
12 My vows to you I must perform, O God; I will render thank offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of life.

In God we trust was adopted in 1956 as the official motto of the United States and was placed on all government currency the following year. Yet, these official words of a community trusting in God have not prevented the people of the United States from being afraid. For the psalmist the statement, “In God I trust” is a statement which moves them from being afraid to a defiant stance of faithful endurance in the midst of suffering. The God of the psalmist is trustworthy and sees the strife of the righteous ones. Their tears have not been shed in vain, their suffering and strife are not meaningless because God has treasured them, and God will deliver them from their turmoil.

The superscription of the Psalm places it within the same time period as Psalm 52 but focuses on the brief narrative of David in Gath in 1 Samuel 21: 10-15. David has fled King Saul and goes to the King of Gath to attempt to find safety. The servants of the King of Gath wonder if they have a valuable hostage they can use, but David feigns madness, and the King of Gath sends him away. David finds himself unwelcome both in Israel and among the enemies of Israel. He is on the run and trying to survive. This time of uncertainty makes sense as a framework for this Psalm which focuses on trusting God in the midst of fear and the militaristic language of this poem could apply to David and his followers, but this psalm, like the rest of the psalms, can find meaning beyond the context of their superscription.

Like the previous psalm, there are several words that have caused troubles for translators and have produced multiple readings of individual verses, but the overall direction of the psalm is not in doubt. The complaint of the psalmist which is voiced in verse 1-2 and 5-6 revisits the common theme of this portion of the psalter, a righteous one oppressed by a group who cause them trouble. The militaristic language reflected in the complaint where the righteous one finds themselves trampled by warriors who oppose them. These ones opposing the righteous one is set against them. They are creating strife, watching their words and movements, seeking to injure their cause, and aligning their thoughts against them for evil. The righteous one finds themselves in a struggle against others in a time where they cannot rely upon other people.

This psalm pivots on the words ‘afraid’ and ‘trust.’ Both words appear three times in parallel with each other

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. (3)
In God I trust; I am not afraid; (4)
in God I trust; I am not afraid. (11)

In this psalm, their trust in God is what moves them from fear to not being afraid. The trustworthiness of the LORD their God transforms their fear into fearlessness. The one sustaining them is God, the ones who oppose the righteous are mere mortals. As Paul would later echo, “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31) The poet trusts that God is one who sees their situation and will deliver their soul from death. Their God not only knows about their sufferings but can measure the physical manifestations of that suffering. Their tossings are counted, their tears are bottled and recorded, and God will not continue to allow these offering of pain to go unanswered. The God of the people of Israel is one who has “observed the misery of my people…I have heard their cry…Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them.” (Exodus 3:7-8) This God who the psalmist trusts will not allow their suffering to go unanswered.

The psalm ends on a confident note: they trust in God, they will perform their vows obediently, they will offer up offerings of gratitude, and they will walk before God. The psalmist may not be delivered by the end of the psalm, but they stand in the confidence that God will act, and they will be able to enter a future with gratitude for how God has delivered them. Their opponents may remain, but their fear is gone. They stand in a defiant trust in their God who hears their cries and delivers them, so what can a mere mortal do to them.

[1] The Hebrew marom here is problematic and led to very different translations. The NIV translates “many are attacking me in their pride”. While the NRSV sees this as a designation of God, hence the translation “many fight against me O Most High. Both translations can make sense in the context of the psalm.

Video Reflection 4: On Prayer during this time of Social Distancing

Matthew 7: 7-12 Seeking God and Right Relationships

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James Tissot, The Lord’s Prayer (1896-1894)

Matthew 7: 7-12

Parallels Luke 11: 9-13, Luke 6: 31

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ⁹ Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? ¹⁰ Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? ¹¹ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

¹² “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

The vision of the Sermon on the Mount relies upon the fundamental assumption that God is trustworthy. Asking God for what the petitioner needs assumes that God is trustworthy in providing daily bread and all the petitioner needs. The rhythm of ask, seek, knock each followed by a positive answer to the action and then the second restating of everyone who asks, searches and knocks receiving, finding and having the door opened reinforces this view of God’s trustworthiness. The Father that Jesus has encouraged his disciples to pray to will give what is needed to those who ask of him.

Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures there are continual calls for the people of Israel to ask or seek the LORD their God, and the God we meet in the scriptures desires for God’s people to ask and seek. Sometimes this is stated in terms of promise, for example:

Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession Psalm 2:8

Other times, it indicates an openness to repentance, that even once the relationship seems broken that God is open to reforming the covenant if they people if they will seek God.

From there (the places where you are scattered) you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul. Deuteronomy 4: 29

Ultimately the way of wisdom is to continue to be in a relationship with God and to continue to ask, seek and knock, as in 1 Chronicles

Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his presence continually. 1 Chronicles 16: 11 (this is also Psalm 105:4)

Yet, the strongest resonance with Matthew 7 comes from Isaiah where God desires to be sought and asked but the people do not seek or ask

I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices. Isaiah 65:1-2

The Sermon on the Mount is continuing to restate important themes in different ways to attempt to communicate what righteousness looks like in practice. Followers of Jesus in Matthew 6: 5-15 are instructed in what asking God looks like in the context of prayer. Seeking first the kingdom of God[1] and God’s righteousness are now reinforced as things that the seeking one will find. God knows what the asking one needs, desires to be sought by those who are willing to ask and seek, to open the door for those who are willing to knock, to give good gifts to God’s children like earthly parents who love their children do for their own.

A right relationship with God is tied with a right relationship with others. As in Matthew 22: 37-38 where the two greatest commandments are loving God with all one’s heart, mind, soul and strength and the neighbor as oneself, so here asking and seeking God is tied to the golden rule in relation to one’s neighbor. The law and the prophets are summed up here by Jesus as doing to others as you would have them do to you. Some form of the golden rule occurs in most religious traditions including Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Confucianism. Most religious traditions have realized the wisdom of this practice of treating others as one would like to be treated. This way of living in relation to others is not dependent on how others act towards you, but instead the follower of Jesus is to act towards the other in a way that models the righteousness they would desire to receive.

[1] Even though the NRSV in Matthew 6:33 begins “But strive first for the kingdom of God” the word translated strive in Matthew 6 is translated by the NRSV as seek here obscuring the parallel language and themes in Matthew 7:7-8

Matthew 6: 5-15 Exploring Prayer, Forgiveness and Righteousness

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James Tissot, The Lord’s Prayer (1896-1894)

Matthew 6: 5-15

Parallels : Mark 11: 25-26, Luke 11: 1-4

⁵ “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ⁶ But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

⁷ “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

⁹ “Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.

¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

This second practice of righteousness is prayer, but the prayer is between the disciple and their heavenly Father and is not done to either impress the surrounding community or God with their piety or eloquence. As mentioned above, the righteousness that we are encountering in Matthew has little to do with the way we often think of religious piety. Instead it is based upon the security of the individual and the community in their covenant with their heavenly Father. The disciple’s actions may be done in secret, but the community who trusts in God’s provision and attention will be visible.

Jesus, like the law, the prophets and psalmists, viewed the relationship between the people and God as founded on their righteousness as practiced in mercy toward their neighbors and prayer is an important part of maintaining that relationship. As Samuel Ballentine when writing about prayer in the Hebrew Scriptures can state:

prayer is a principal means of keeping the community bound to God in an ongoing dialogue of faith. I suggest that the church is summoned to a ministry that both promotes and enables this dialogue. (Ballentine, 1993, p. 275)

Prayer is, in Ballentine’s language, “a service of the heart” which breaks into the mundane reality of daily life with the presence of the sacred. (Ballentine, 1993, p. 274) Prayer can happen in the public places, the synagogue and the street corners for example, and prayer led in the community has a long-standing place within the community’s worship. Yet, the community is made up of disciples who can also have the private and unseen places interrupted as the language of the heart encounters the heavenly Father who knows the needs of the heart.

Instead of prayer being fashioned around rubrics and phrases that are piled one upon another, prayer for the followers of Jesus is simple because it lifts up to God what God already knows. One is not in prayer to appease a god with one’s eloquence or to impress the divine with one’s piety, for with the heavenly Father one’s righteousness is already seen. It is not for public display and recognition, but this wise prayer recognizes and honors the already existing relationship between the disciple and their God who sees.

The Lord’s Prayer, as given in the gospels, is slightly different than most Protestant Christians learned through worship. The most notable difference is the deletion of the final phrases about “the kingdom and the power and the glory” being God’s. Ultimately this change comes from the tools available to scholars and translators that were not available when the influential King James Version, and other early English translations were produced. The King James version of the Bible used a simple majority of early texts to determine what was translated, while later translations (like the NRSV which I’m using as a basis for this reading) are able to use technologies like carbon dating to determine the age of a manuscript and privilege the oldest manuscripts. It appears that the addition of the phrases attributing glory to God appear later and are then incorporated into later copies of the gospels, perhaps reflecting an already existing practice in the early church.

The language of this prayer is familiar to most Christians, addressing God as the heavenly Father and asking God to make holy the name of God. From a scriptural perspective there is the commandment that the people of God are not to profane the name of God, but the relationship also allows the one praying or in dialogue with God to declare than an action by God would bring God’s name dishonor. For example, during the dialogue between God and Moses after the construction of the golden calf by Israel, Moses’ appeal to God not to destroy the people hangs upon this understanding:

Moses appeals to God’s own character by reminding God that God has already taken an oath (v. 13: nisba’ta lahem bak, “You have sworn to them by your own self”), the violation of which would jeopardize trust in the divine character. (Ballentine, 1993, p. 138)

The book of Psalms and Jeremiah also frequently uses this tactic in appealing to God to act in accordance with maintaining the sanctity of God’s name and honor.

The prayer continues with the prayer for the coming of the kingdom of heaven where God’s will is done on earth as well. The community and the disciple trust in God for the provision of the things they need. Like the people of Israel in the wilderness, where God provided mana, now the followers of Jesus can trust that God will provide the bread they need, even when their physical ability to provide resources is unable to sustain the crowds that gather around Jesus (see for example Matthew 14: 13-21 and Matthew 15: 32-39).

Forgiveness is lifted up within the prayer and immediately following the prayer and in both occurrences divine forgiveness and the practice of forgiving others is linked. The link with the Apocryphal book of Sirach (sometimes called the Wisdom of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus) is often noted:

Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray. (Sirach 28:2)

While Jesus and Matthew may or may not have been familiar with the book of Sirach, both are pulling on a long tradition of wisdom literature interpreting both law and righteousness to the hearer, and here the wise and righteous one forgives the neighbor in the context of prayer and in their actions. The practice of forgiving debts goes back to the practice of remitting debts every seventh year (see Deuteronomy 15: 1-18). Additionally, it is important to note that in Matthew both the practice of forgiving economic debts (see also Matthew 18: 23-35) and trespasses (wrongdoing or sin, see also Matthew 18: 21-22 where a question about forgiving sin is answered with a parable about economic justice). Both cases, economic and trespasses link the disciple’s forgiveness with their reception of divine forgiveness. This is a community where justice is practiced, but the merciful receive mercy (Matthew 5:7). Ultimately a community where reconciliation is practiced, and anger is addressed will need to be a community of forgiving disciples.

Finally, the prayer concludes with a prayer not to be brought to the time of testing and deliverance from the evil one. The disciple’s life rests in their heavenly Father’s hands and it is God who can deliver them in the times when their trust in God is tested. Following Jesus may involve suffering, but that does not mean that one prays for that suffering to enter one’s life. The presence of the evil one is assumed throughout Matthew. The devil and those who are actively or passively working for him will resist the approach of the kingdom of their heavenly Father. Ultimately God is the one who can deliver from both temptation and the evil one.

Prayer and forgiveness, along with acts of mercy (almsgiving) are all ways in which righteousness is practiced for the individual within the community of the faithful. It is a community where thoughts and prayers are also surrounded by actions of justice and personal piety involves commitment to the good of the neighbors in the community. It is a place where the kingdom of heaven approaches the community of the faithful and God’s will is done in these places where earth and heaven meet. Prayer and forgiveness are practiced as a part of the relationship between the God of the disciples and the community they share. Everything is done in the confidence of God’s provision for the needs of the community as a whole and the disciples as individuals. The heavenly Father is the one they trust to rescue them from the temptation and persecution they will encounter.

Psalm 40 Experienced Faithfulness and the Hope of Deliverance

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Extract of Herbert Boeckl’s fresco “Saint Peter’s rescue from the Lake Galilee” inside the cathedral of Maria Sall, Carinthia, Austria

Psalm 40

<To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.>
¹I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
² He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
³ He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.
⁴ Happy are those who make the LORD their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.
⁵ You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.
⁶ Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
⁷ Then I said, “Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
⁸ I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
⁹ I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD.
¹⁰ I have not hidden your saving help within my heart, I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.
¹¹ Do not, O LORD, withhold your mercy from me; let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever.
¹² For evils have encompassed me without number; my iniquities have overtaken me, until I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me.
¹³ Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me.
¹⁴ Let all those be put to shame and confusion who seek to snatch away my life; let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire my hurt.
¹⁵ Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”
¹⁶ But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the LORD!”
¹⁷ As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.

Any deliverance we may experience during our life is provisional. That doesn’t mean that the deliverance is insignificant or unimportant, merely that there will be future crises that we encounter in our lives. The experience of God’s faithfulness and the answer to one’s prayer does not grant us a life exempt from future struggles or conflict. Yet, these experiences of God’s faithfulness can give shape to the prayers that we state when we encounter a new crisis. Our history with God’s actions on our behalf teach us to trust that God does hear our prayer and respond and gives us a hope for deliverance in the future as we endure what hardships may come.

Psalm 40 moves from praise for a past time of salvation into a prayer in a moment of crisis. Some people have broken the psalm into two pieces and dealt with it as two distinct psalms, especially since verses 13-17 comprise the entirety of Psalm 70. Yet, here they are joined into one psalm and there is wisdom in the way Psalm 40 flows. The movement from the experience of faithfulness to praise to finding oneself needing to callon God’s deliverance is a movement that is frequent in the life of faith.

The psalm begins with recollection. The petitioner remembers a time when they waited on the LORD’s deliverance and their waiting was recognized. They were drawn out of a metaphorical pit and miry bog and placed in a secure place. God was their rock and a foundation which proved trustworthy to rely upon and to build their life around. Their response to this deliverance was one of praise, of singing and or testifying to others in the community what they LORD had done for them.

As the praise of the psalmist continues they can proclaim that ‘happy’ or ‘blessed’ is the one who makes the LORD their trust. Earlier the path of happiness was for those who do not follow the wicked and delight in the law of God (Psalm 1) or for those whose sin has been forgiven (Psalm 32) and now the path of happiness is for those who trust in the LORD instead of any other object of faith. Instead of trusting in their own strength or turning aside to follow other gods the faithful one finds peace and happiness in relying on their God. Their trust has been rewarded by seeing the wondrous deeds towards the faithful community in the past and they remind themselves of the blessings they have received. The path of the ‘happy’ one is a path of gratitude for the continued provision of God throughout their life and in the life of their community.

What the psalmist believes their LORD desires is a life that is lived according to the covenant rather than sacrifice and offering. Like the prophets (see for example 1 Samuel 15: 22; Isaiah 1: 12-17; Hosea 6:6 and Amos 5: 21-24), here the psalmist recounts that the LORD desires more than merely right worship. The God of the psalms is not swayed by lavish sacrifices or offerings or worship. No sacrifice meets what God truly wants for God’s people. Instead it is a life lived in trust, praise and obedience that is desired by God. While worship, sacrifice and offering are all a part of this life they are not sufficient.

Interpretations vary on the ‘scroll of the book of the law’ in verse seven. I read this as a way of talking about a life that conforms to God’s law. Perhaps the person brings in a scroll of either a narrative of the way in which God rescued them, or the psalm itself becomes the offering, or the scroll is an accounting of how the individual has lived in accordance with God’s will. As Rolf Jacobson can state

“the psalmist delights in doing what God truly does find acceptable. And what God delights in is a life that conforms itself to God’s teaching (tôrậ; see comment on Ps. 1:2)—a life so conformed to God’s teaching that the torah is alive deep (b^etôk mē’āy) a person.” (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 379)

Like Jeremiah 31: 31-34 and Ezekiel 36: 26-28 we have within this psalm a heart that has the covenant imprinted on it. Their experience of living the law, of trusting in the LORD, and knowing the benefit of the LORD’s protection and provision form the content of their witness to the community of faith. Their life and their song become tied together into a public act of worship the God who has heard them.

Yet, the faithful life is not exempted from strife and trials and within this psalm the texture changes as the psalmist is again in a place where they need to call upon the LORD’s salvation. In the past they have called, and God has answered and here again they lift their cry for God’s mercy, steadfast love and faithfulness. Evils and iniquities have somehow occluded the psalmist’s ability to see God’s action on their behalf. Those who desire their hurt may be those actively working against them or seeking to profit from their misfortune or they may simply be those who take pleasure in another person’s suffering. But the psalmist prays out of the position of trusting in God’s deliverance, a trust that has been validated in the past. They are poor and needy, they are vulnerable and yet they trust that God sees their turmoil and hears their cry. They recounted waiting patiently in the past for the LORD’s deliverance and now they are in the space of waiting again. They ask for God to act quickly to restore them to the place where once again they can testify to God’s deliverance and how God has again set their feet upon the rock instead of being caught in the pit or the miry bog.

Sign of the Rose

Searchings: Sacred and Secular

Tag Archives: Prayer

2 Kings 20 Hezekiah’s Healing and the Babylonian Envoys

2 Kings 20: 1-11

2 Kings 20:12-21

2 Kings 19 The Deliverance of Jerusalem from Assyria

2 Kings 19: 1-7

2 Kings 19: 8-13

2 Kings 19: 20-34

2 Kings 19: 35-37

Psalm 109 A Prayer For God’s Vengeance

Psalm 109

Psalm 88 Only Darkness Knows Me

Psalm 88

Psalm 86 A Servant’s Plea For Their Lord’s Deliverance

Psalm 86

Psalm 56 Trusting God in the Midst of Trouble

Psalm 56

Video Reflection 4: On Prayer during this time of Social Distancing

Matthew 7: 7-12 Seeking God and Right Relationships

Matthew 7: 7-12

Parallels Luke 11: 9-13, Luke 6: 31

Matthew 6: 5-15 Exploring Prayer, Forgiveness and Righteousness

Matthew 6: 5-15

Parallels : Mark 11: 25-26, Luke 11: 1-4

Psalm 40 Experienced Faithfulness and the Hope of Deliverance

Psalm 40