Praying with the Psalms
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2
At ARDF, we believe prayer is a vital part of our ministry. Our dedicated team of intercessors receives a monthly prayer letter, generally featuring a specific development project or relief event and containing specific prayer requests. There are incredible things happening all over the world, and this monthly space of prayer is one way to celebrate the work of the church and thank God for his love towards all people.
The aftermath of a Kentucky tornado.
However, not everything is celebratory. Some things can be particularly difficult to lift up in prayer - for example, how do we find words after a natural disaster, a war, a famine, or when tribal violence occurs? Caring for all corners of the world often means knowing what sorts of ugly and hurtful things occur, and such knowledge can be difficult to bear. Even though we do not have all the answers, we believe that great solace and wisdom can be found in simply praying the words of Scripture over our partners, especially when we cannot think of our own words to say.
There is a little line in a recently published book about how Anglicans have historically read the Scriptures, and it contains a lot of hope when we apply it to our prayer for the broken world around us:
Scripture words reach out into the world, grab hold of things, and draw them in so that God might convey his Lordship over them all: “Mine!”
Or, put a different way, when we think of Scripture in this living and active way, we do not interpret Scripture; rather Scripture interprets us. We can turn to the Word of God to help us make sense of the world. Perhaps the natural world around us reminds us of pieces of Israel’s history, or a Psalm, or an edifying word from Paul. When we believe that our lives and the lives of our partners are contained in Scripture, we find hope there. No matter how messy or ugly, we know that God holds us. Nothing is outside His care. Nothing is outside His redemption. Nothing is outside His Word.
Students in Kenya during a time of prayer.
If you receive our prayer letter, you may have noticed that there is always a Psalm included. As the prayer book of God’s people, the Psalms can teach us so much about how to orient our thoughts, desires, and emotions towards God. It’s often said that the Psalms contain the breadth of human emotion, and indeed some of the Psalms are brutally honest in ways that may shock us! But this means no matter how difficult our situation or desperate our emotions, nothing is too difficult for God. And the Psalms also contain beautiful praises! We can sing the glory of God through the words of the Psalms as we hear good news from churches around the world. So whether good or bad, celebratory or mournful, we can lift everything up to our Lord in prayer, knowing that He cares enough to have given us His Scripture when we search for words to pray.
Interested in joining our team of intercessors? Sign up for prayer updates here!
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