Prayer in the night

God created the world as a place of perfect blessing, but human egotism has filled it with cursing, to the pain and detriment of all. Our redemption begins with God’s blessing us and our blessing him in return.

A song of ascents.

¹ Come, bless YHWH
all you servants of YHWH
who stand by night in YHWH’s house.
² Lift your hands toward his holy place
and bless YHWH.
³ And may YHWH
who made the heavens and the earth
bless you from Zion!

This final song of ascent calls God’s servants to glorify him, melding the idea of worshipper and servant together. The worshipper focuses on the object of their worship, just as the servant stands day and night, attentive to their master’s least direction. Hands raised in devotion and receptivity, the worshipper stands in YHWH’s presence, praising him for his unfailing love and grace. This is what we were created for.

The psalmist calls on YHWH to bless his servants also. In fact, our lost world, so often marred by verbal and physical cursing, needs God’s blessing more than anything else. He chose Abraham and Sarah so he could restore every people on earth to his blessing. Later he made Zion his earthly home, coming down to bless his people. And there—in Jesus’ passion—he eventually showed humankind the full extent of his determination to bless them. In fact, such passionate self-giving alone explains why broken, self-centered people can hope for blessing from God.

Blessing God in return, we enter the circle of blessing, where he then blesses us again in a never-ending cycle, and we in turn bless those around us through the overflow of his love. He blesses us as the creator and sovereign Lord who will yet reunite heaven and earth in the fullness of his blessing. What joy!

Prayer:

Jesus, our world is full of people cursing you, each other, and themselves. Thank you for taking all our abuse in your passion, your love exhausting the curse to include us in the endless circle of blessing that you are. Help me to bless you and others around me freely in return. Amen.

Meditate on this divine call during your free moments today:

Come, bless YHWH
all you servants of YHWH
who stand by night in YHWH’s house.

The beauty of unity

David saw unity as of the utmost importance. Jesus, likewise, prayed that his followers might be truly one. Yet sadly, Christians and churches today are often no less divided than their society around them.

A song of ascents. A David song.

¹ How good and beautiful it is
when brothers and sisters
live together in unity!
² It’s like costly anointing oil
poured onto the head so freely
that it streams down the beard—
down the beard of Aaron
till it flows onto the collar of his robe.
³ It’s like Mount Hermon’s massive dew
descending on Mount Zion’s little slopes.
For that’s where YHWH has promised
to bless humankind
with life unending.

David knew that a person’s enemies can be members of their own family, whether envious older brothers, a jealous father-in-law, or an egomaniacal son. But the unity this psalm praises extends well beyond David’s family to the nation and the world.

David likens such unity to the oil Israelites anointed guests with. But surprisingly, it’s poured so liberally that it streams down the man’s face and beard. Then we’re told it’s the sacred anointing oil that empowered Israel’s high priest Aaron to represent the nation to God and God to the nation.

Our third surprise comes in the psalm’s over-the-top comparison of unity to dew from the region’s tallest mountain descending on little Mount Zion. Every Israelite knew this was geographically impossible. However, the image beautifully pictures national unity: as Israel’s northernmost mountain blesses southerly Zion with its superlative dew, Zion in return blesses all its pilgrims from wherever, with the unparalleled blessing of endless life. As pilgrims climbed successively higher hills on their way to Zion, they sang of God’s blessing descending on them, like holy oil and heavenly dew, to refresh and renew.

Aided by Internet algorithms, our hyper-individualistic culture has lately embraced with gusto the disunity of tribalism, rejecting anything that might moderate our “personal” viewpoint, however impersonally it’s come to us. Christians tragically sucked into such a vortex of social disintegration forget what David prayed: God has made Zion’s unity the source of eternal blessing for humankind. They also forget what Jesus prayed: the unity of God’s people was the longing of his heart. Allowing secondary issues to break us apart breaks the heart of God.

Prayer:

Jesus, your death on Mount Zion declared all humanity at once unworthy and yet welcomed to sit at your table. Though egotism and gracelessness often divide your people, your Spirit longs to bind us together as one. Spirit of Unity, descend on us today like anointing oil and refreshing dew. Amen.

During your free moments today, meditate on these words:

How good and beautiful it is
when brothers and sisters
live together in unity!

Remember David

Seeing our weaknesses and limitations, we may well wonder how much we can reasonably expect from God. This psalm models the godly response of clinging to his promises, however weak we feel.

A song of ascents.

¹ Remember David, YHWH—
how, after enduring so many hardships
² he swore to YHWH
vowing to Jacob’s mighty God:

³ “I won’t go home or lie down on my bed
⁴ I won’t go to sleep or even shut my eyes
⁵ till I’ve found a place for YHWH
a home for Jacob’s mighty God.”

⁶ We heard about it in Ephrata
and we found it in the field of Ja’ar.
⁷ “Let’s go to his residence!
Let’s worship at his footstool!”

⁸ “Rise up, YHWH!
Move into your permanent home
you and the ark of your power!
⁹ May your priests be arrayed in victory
and everyone trusting you shout for joy.”
¹⁰ For your servant David’s sake
don’t turn your anointed one away unheard.

¹¹ YHWH swore an oath to David
one he promised never to turn back on:

“A son of yours
I’ll seat on your throne.
¹² If your sons are true to my covenant
and live as I teach them to
then their sons in turn
will sit on your throne forever.”

¹³ Because YHWH has chosen Zion
having desired it for the seat of his authority:
¹⁴ “This place will be my residence forever—
the place where I’ll sit enthroned
as I’ve longed to do.
¹⁵ I’ll provide for Zion generously
and give its poor their fill of food.
¹⁶ Its priests I’ll clothe in triumph
and make everyone devoted to YHWH
shout for joy.
¹⁷ I’ll make the horn of David sprout there
and set a lamp burning for my anointed.
¹⁸ His foes I’ll clothe in shame
but the crown on his head will be resplendent.

David was far from perfect, but he did get some things right. Having been anointed king by Samuel, he was determined to wait for God’s timing, refusing to take matters into his own hands and wrest power from Saul, his narcissistic nemesis. David endured many hardships while holding God to his promise that David would be not just Israel’s next king, but also the founder of a dynasty without end. After finally being crowned king, David made an oath, putting God’s kingdom and God’s glory first. That self-sacrificial oath reflected his desire—visible even in his youth—to lay his life down at God’s feet.

David’s fulfillment of that oath seems to have been part of what made God promise David a son and an eternal throne if his successors remained faithful. That promise kept David going to the end of his days. But by the time this psalm was compiled in Book V, everyone knew David’s successors had failed miserably, devastating the nation. However, the fact that God enabled his people to rebuild Jerusalem inspired hope that he would restore David’s dynasty too and make its end more glorious than its beginning.

God eventually revealed that glory in Bethlehem’s manger and then on a ghastly Roman cross, honoring Jesus’ faithfulness when he did. But because it wasn’t the sort of glory Jesus’ disciples were expecting, they all failed to recognize it till he had risen from the dead. Just like Jesus’ disciples and everyone else before and since, we all fall short of Jesus’ perfect standard. But thankfully, his triumph over sin and death has made all God’s promises available to us in our weakness.

Prayer:

You proved yourself David’s true heir by wearing a crown of thorns, Jesus. God then kept his oath to David by giving you authority over all. Help me cling to your promises and seek your kingdom first, however my story plays out. Let me know you and reign gloriously under you, I pray. Amen.

In your free moments today, pray this prayer:

For David your servant’s sake
don’t turn your anointed one away unheard.

Resting in God’s embrace

So many today want it all: wealth, position, power, houses, cars, family, friends, fashion, freedom, and on and on. Which only leaves them pulled every which way. True fulfillment comes in learning to let go.

A song of ascents. A David psalm.

¹ My heart isn’t proud, YHWH
nor are my eyes haughty.
I’m not grasping at personal greatness
or clutching at things beyond my reach.
² I’ve calmed and quieted my soul
like a baby nursing sweetly at its mother’s breast
lulled by the sound of her heartbeat
lost in the love in her eyes.

³ Wait on YHWH, Israel!
Hope in him now and always.

Having fled in terror from Goliath, everyone in Saul’s army was baffled by little David’s unflinching confidence in God. Everyone except David’s brothers, who were too busy berating him for playing the big shot. But David’s ambitions were far different from theirs. Ignorant of the sweet simplicity he’d found in God’s embrace, his brothers didn’t get it: he was wide open to whatever God wanted and nothing else mattered. What else explains his unearthly calm?

When used of babies, the word I’ve paraphrased as “nursing sweetly” (gāmal) usually means “weaned.” But since it carries the sense of being fully satisfied, Nancy deClaissé-Walford translates it “sated,” meaning that the infant is contentedly nursing, looking up at its mother with those dreamy eyes that say, “How could life possibly get any better?” This seems more likely here than “weaned.”

I imagine David singing verses 1 and 2 to God after his brothers’ public tongue-lashing. Then while advancing on Goliath, sling in hand, he shouts verse 3 back over his shoulder to all the Israelites standing mesmerized behind him.

In any case, true fulfillment lies in surrendering to God’s will. As Jesus says, we must become like little children. Obedience may be straightforward. But faith’s letting go seldom is since accepting God’s dreams for us involves accepting his means to them too. That involves accepting our lot, fully embracing what he wants us to do, and actively waiting for him to show up—usually without knowing how it will all turn out. While God’s dreams for us will cost us everything, they’ll be good with his goodness. And for all its challenges, waiting on God is still as simple as a baby’s resting in its mother’s arms.

Jewish pilgrims who returned from exile only to find their land overrun by threatening enemies must have found this image encouraging: with God as my everything, how could I lack anything?

Prayer:

Above the din of the world, Lord, your still small voice calls me to freedom and simplicity. All that I long for is found in your arms. Yet I so easily fear, lest the world leave me behind. Center me in you, God, that in your pure and peaceful wisdom, I may learn your gentleness, joy, and rest. Amen.

In your free moments today, meditate on these words:

I’ve calmed and quieted my soul
like a baby nursing sweetly at its mother’s breast
lulled by the sound of her heartbeat
lost in the love in her eyes.