Journal Ps 72 (all references are from the ESV; changes in punctuation are mine)
Scripture: “Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son! May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice! May he defend the cause of the poor of the people and give deliverance to the children of the needy and crush the oppressor…
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.” Ps 72:1-2; v4; v18
Observation: I have often wondered where more examples were on how to pray for the government.
Analysis: There are many different ways on how to pray.
More often than not, I think that most folks go to “freeform”, where the attempt is to let my heart erupt in prayer, kind of “first thought, first served.” Others have “rote” phraseology embedded, always including the same phrases in each prayer, but is evident these “phrases” are just spoken out without any particular emphasis on why? Or perhaps a monotone intonation? Maybe an incantation as if two or more acceptable prayer phrases, hung together, will bring a desired outcome?
Or there are structured prayers: structured out of holy scripture. Structured perhaps out of who, what, where, and why? Structured specifically out of doctrine, precepts, and the law? The Psalms are examples of the above.
Ps 72 is an example of praying for the governmental leadership. I will point out at the end of Ps 72 (v18), is the reminder that God alone, not man, not even anointed man as king, He alone does wondrous things.
Candidly and revealing my heart, can I even think of this government administration and wanting to pray for them being effective? To be a government that will care for the people in holiness, righteousness, and justice? I see this scripture, I have read this scripture, and yet my tongue clings to the roof in my mouth even thinking (having any kind of faith) that God will work His Will according to this particular section of Scripture.
Nevertheless, IF I am going to be a man of Faith, then I will pray as the Scriptures direct me to. But, how—how am I going to do that? Sounds simple, but…?
Maybe the best way is to…wait for it…you will be so surprised…” why didn’t I think of that” will be rolling off the tongue…
Write it out. Write your prayers. Use the Lord’s prayer or Psalms as examples and they can usually be broken down as an outline:
- Address God, either as the Father, or the Son, or the Spirit, or as the Trinity, and spend some time extolling his virtues, his character, his attributes. Maybe the things He has done…more than Salvation alone, but how He handles weather, the green things in the earth, creation itself, and so much more.
- Express gratefulness and humility before Him. Remind Him of the things He has done that I am thankful for, even if they weren’t things I wanted, but are good gifts just the same.
- Express the Gospel as it applies to the face in the mirror and His Salvation (and all the steps), even though I will never be worthy of it.
- Bring petitions.
I shoot prayers, little quickies that sort of “check off the box” of praying. They are also those prayers that thud to the ground, hardly rise to the ceiling. I wonder how you “pray unceasingly” or “pray at all times in the Spirit” and not resort sometimes to prayers that thud to the ground?
Prayer: Lord, I kind of wandered off topic. Started about praying for gummint and then veered off into praying structure, finally writing about how sometimes I pray lead balloons.
Guess that is how journaling is at times.
Sharpen me, O God. Make me a tool of your choosing and just not a tool of the world.
Amen
Ricky Two Shoes