Jim Peters

Prayers of Desperation!

Posted on 27. Mar, 2010 by Jim Peters in Hearing God - Jim's Daily D

Psalm 83:1-10

A Worship Song Written by Asaph

¹ God, don’t stay silent.

Mighty God, don’t rest!

² Look! Your enemies are roaring;

And those who hate you have raised themselves up[1].

³ They are clever in planning against your people;

They plot[2] together against the ones you treasure.

⁴ They said, “Let’s go and cut their nation down;

Israel’s name won’t be remembered any more.

⁵ They plotted together with one mind;

They made a legally binding promise against you:

⁶ Edom and the Ishmaelites’ tents;

Moab and the Hagrites,

⁷ Gebal, Ammon and Amalek,

Philistia and (those who) live in Tyre,

⁸ Assyria has also joined them;

They have become Lot’s descendants’ strength.

[Stop and think about that!][3]

⁹ Deal with them as you did with Midian,

And as you did with Sisera and Jabin in the Kishon Valley;

¹⁰ (They) were destroyed at Endor (which means the “Dor fountain”,

(And they) became like poo on the ground.

[1] “lifted up heads” [2] “conspire” [3] The word used here is “Selah”.  It is most probably a musical term indicating the end of a verse and can be translated as “Pause.”  It is also a possibility that it could indicate for the reader to stop and think about what has just been read.

Application

I used to only think of the psalms for their beauty and the way they praised God.  However, the more I study them, the more I see that a significant proportion were prayers of desperation and curses against Israel’s enemies.

Here again, a combined enemy attack was imminent and the psalmist is crying out to make sure that God is aware of the impending disaster.  He tells God to say something and that it’s not the right time for God to be looking for a bit of peace and quiet when his people are in such a bad state.

I am becoming more and more convinced that these people, like me, lacked any real faith in God to save them.  They cried out in desperation because they didn’t believe that God was doing his job.  These weren’t prayers of the faithful but a last ditch attempt to get God (who could rescue if he wanted to – but wasn’t likely to) to listen.

I need to believe that God is with me, that he intends good for me, that he is in control, that circumstances don’t affect me one little bit, that I have nothing to fear even in the face of the worst danger.  God is God.  Once more I am reminded that he has promised good to me.  He has promised to grant me my heart’s desires because I seek him with all my heart.  There is nothing more important for me to do than to cry out to him, but with great faith.

Prayer

Father, I need your Spirit to not only live in me but to revive my faith and renew my hope.  I don’t want faith to just be a word but an everyday experience of your faithfulness.  Please change me and give me a positive expectation of good in everything that I face, think, say or do.

Lord, there is no one else like you and you are the one who provides in every way.  Thank you that I will enjoy every single day that you have for me and that your enemies won’t take even one day from my life.  Thank you that I will live with you forever and will see you face to face.  Thank you that I will fold in the power of your love and in the comfort of your approval.

IJN Amen

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