March 5: Psalm. 25

Today's reading. 

"To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul" (25:1). I wish I prayed like this.

There is a passionate abandonment in the psalmist's voice as he prays this prayer. He offers all of himself to the Lord. He declares that God is his highest, most earnest desire. "Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.... for you I wait all the day long" (25:4-5). I don't like waiting 30 seconds for a green light while I'm driving; the psalmist waits all day for the Lord. 

We get to see a glimpse of why he was so passionate in his prayer, why he so desired communion with the Lord: "All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness" (25:10). He has seen God's grace, tasted God's mercy, and so prays with the sort of confidence and feeling that most of us have only experienced once or twice in our lives. 

Perhaps you don't feel you have "enemies" in a personal sense. Maybe no faces come to mind when you read this prayer that God would "Consider how many are my foes" (25:19). But you and i both have trouble. We all have difficulty, all are faced with a circumstance or problem that we know is greater than us. What is it for you? Where do you need the help of the Lord in your life? 

I ask that, because I'd like you to consider reading this psalm again, but praying it to God about yourself and your own circumstances. I was struck by the prayerful nature of this psalm and felt led to pray it myself. Take the time to slowly, thoughtfully pray these words to God on your own. I want very much to pray like the psalmist does, but just can't do it on my own. How gracious of our Lord to give us a book of prayer right in the middle of the Bible! By praying the psalms, we can all be led to pray with the psalmist's same passionate love for the Lord.