... in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen. Through the prayers of our
holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen. Glory
to You, our God, Glory to You.
O Heavenly King,
the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, You are everywhere and fill all things,
Treasury of blessings, and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and cleanse us
from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy
Immortal, have mercy on us (three times).
Glory be to the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it is now, was in the
beginning, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.
I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me, and
heard my cry. He brought me up also from
a horrible pit, from the miry clay, set my feet on a rock, [and] established my goings. He has put a new song in my mouth, praise to
our God.
Many shall see, and fear, and shall trust in
the Lord.
Blessed [is] that man who makes the Lord his trust,
and respects not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
Many, O Lord my God, [are] Your wonderful works You have done,
and Your thoughts of us. They cannot be
reckoned up in order to You. [If] I would declare and speak [of them], they are more than can be
numbered.
Sacrifice and offering You desired not. My ears have You opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You have not
required. Then said I, “Lo, I come. In the volume of the book [it is] written of Me, ‘I
delight to do Your will, O my God.’ Yes,
Your law [is] within My heart.
I have preached righteousness in the great
congregation. Lo, I have not refrained
my lips, Lord, You know. I have not hid Your
righteousness within my heart. I have
declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation. I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your
truth from the great congregation.”
Withhold not Your tender mercies from Me, Lord. Let Your lovingkindness and
Your truth continually preserve Me: for innumerable evils have circled about me.
My iniquities have taken hold on me, so that
I am not able to look up. They are more
than the hairs of my head. Therefore, my
heart fails me.
Be pleased, Lord, to deliver
me. Lord, make haste
to help me.
Let them be ashamed and confounded together
that seek after my soul to destroy it.
Let them be driven backward and put to shame
that wish me evil.
Let them be desolate for a reward of their
shame that say to me, “Aha, aha.”
Let all those who seek You rejoice and be
glad in You.
Let such as love Your salvation say
continually, The Lord be magnified.
But I [am]
poor and needy. [Yet] the Lord thinks on me. You
[are] my help and my deliverer. Make no tarrying, O my God.[2]
[1] David
had to learn the lesson of patience in prayer.
The universe runs on Yahweh’s time, not ours. Prayer has more to do with our getting in
line with God’s will, than with our running a litany of things we think we want. We do honor Yahweh with our requests, but
more and more, these requests become attuned to the spiritual war going on all
around us. David did not understand this
very well, nor do we, when he was running for his life from Saul. The outcome is “a new song.” See Psalms 33; 96; 98; 144; 149. This new song must have to do with rejoicing
over the victory that God has given in spiritual warfare.
What will this “new song” accomplish? The conversion of many to faith in Christ will
ultimately take place.
This conversion to genuine faith results in a real significant
change in character. Cowards are made
brave. Sluggards are made workers. Respecters of persons are made lovers of
Truth.
God’s miraculous works are amazing, but none excels the change
of character that is wrought by Yahweh in the human heart as the result of
conversion.
Worship in Spirit and Truth is not about bloody sacrifices, which
are only types of heavenly realities, but about learning to do God’s will from
the heart. What is this will shaped
like? It looks a lot like the Decalogue,
the Law of God. Of course, no one ever
fulfilled the Law the way Jesus did. The
only way we can approach such obedience is by being in Jesus, as members of His
body we begin to build on the Law and with it: we are no longer under its
oppressive curse for our many failures.
Thanks be to Christ, Who has given us the victory.
Thus blessed and graced we are now freed to be heralds of the
Gospel. Our tongues have been loosed to
sing Yahweh’s praise. Let us sing loudly
and with great fervor and joy.
David still shudders in remembrance of all his narrow
scrapes. Like most of us, it is a wonder
that we are not dead. Don’t let us go,
now, Dear Lord. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son
of God, Be merciful to me, the sinner.”
A litany of prayer requests follows. The first three requests center on bringing
shame to the wicked. However, shame is
the first step in their genuine repentance, so David is praying that they will
be reconciled to Yahweh. For The Church,
David prays that the congregation will remain faithful in worship.
“Lord Jesus think
on me.”
[2] If you have been blessed or helped by any of these meditations in
Psalms, please repost, share, or use any of them as you wish.
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