It’s Tuesday, and it’s the day before the first game of the 2010 World Series, which, for us North Texans, will be one of the most exciting World Series ever. It’s going to be hard to top the 2004 World Series, but it will be close. After all, even though I’m cheering with all my might for the Rangers this season, I’m still a bona-fide member of the Red Sox Nation.
So, anyway, for a few moments, here, I’m going to try to think about things that are actually more important than baseball. *gasp* Didn’t know there was such a thing, did you? Heh.
Psalm 122:6-9
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you!
7 Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!”
8 For my brothers and companions’ sake I will say, “Peace be within you!”
9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good.
David prays for the security of “his beloved city and for the personal security of others who love her.” But more importantly, he prays for the good of the “house of the LORD our God.”
“We live in a rootless society. Many factors contribute to rootlessness – mobility, industrialization, domestic upheaval, isolation, alienation, etc. The foundations are crumbling. We have downplayed community and stressed individualism. Our identities are threatened. We feel lost. We have become a society of vagabonds!”
There is a lot of truth to that quote. By the way, “vagabond,” simply means someone who is a drifter, or an itinerant person. Means “inclined to wander.” I certainly don’t have any place that feels the same way to me that Jerusalem would have felt to ancient Israelites. Sure, my parents still live in the house I in which I grew up, and I visit them occasionally. But it doesn’t have the kind of significance that Jerusalem had. As for community…how many people do you know in your neighborhood? I have occasional conversations with my two next-door neighbors, and know a small amount about them. Outside of the Vietnamese families across the street, who have a daughter close to Stephanie’s age, we know no one else on our street. I don’t even know their names. Once a year, we are encouraged by some national program to get out and meet people.
Our culture is so drastically different from David’s. His roots were in “the Lord, his nation, his city, his family.” I feel virtually no connection with my nation or my city. It’s just a place to live. However, I do feel connection with my spiritual Family. So in that, at least, I can say I’m similar to David. And I feel that that is far more important than any connection to a nation or a city. I’m a Christian first.
Now. Do I believe that, because of this psalm, I’m commanded to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem?” I don’t think so. I think, perhaps, if I’m commanded to do anything at all by this passage, it is to pray for the peace of my own nation, and my own city, and its inhabitants who also come together each week to worship God. That is what I get from this psalm.
(From A Musician Looks At the Psalms, by Don Wyrtzen)
IN PRAYER
O Lord,
In prayer I launch far out into the eternal world,
and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs over all evils on the shores of mortality.
Time, with is gay amusements and cruel disappointments, never appears so inconsiderate as then.
In prayer I see myself as nothing;
I find my heart going after you with intensity, and long with vehement thirst to live to you.
Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.
In prayer all things here below vanish,
and nothing seems important but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.
In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear,
and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.
In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts at what you are doing for your church,
and I long that you should get yourself a great name from sinners returning to Zion.
In prayer, I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life,
and taste heavenly joys;
entering into the eternal world I can give myself to you with all my heart, to be yours for ever.
In prayer I can place all my concerns in your hands,
to be entirely at your disposal, having no will or interest of my own.
In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers, sinners, the church, your kingdom to come,
with greatest freedom, ardent hopes, as a son to his father, as a lover to the beloved.
Help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying.
(From The Valley of Vision)
Prayers from the Presidential Prayer Team
THE ECONOMY
The Federal Reserve announced plans to amend several credit-card regulations and block some practices that issuers
have used to circumvent new credit-card laws, particularly with respect to fees charged.
China is the largest holder of U.S. Treasury debt. Japan is ranked number 2. Total foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury
holdings rose 1.4 percent in August.
Pray about the unhealthy amounts of both U. S. government and individual citizen debt.
Father, I will uphold what I believe to be my responsibility to pray for the peace of my nation, state, and city. I pray for peace in the U.S.A. I pray for peace in Texas, and in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I pray especially for peace surrounding all of my brothers and sisters in Christ, all of my family members, and all of their friends and relatives, and everyone that I work with and anyone my family works with. For the good of your family, I pray for peace, Lord! For your “house” is truly the souls of all believers everywhere.
Help us to be more “connected,” as believers, Lord. Let us never try to be loners, isolated from each other in this world, which has potential to be such a hostile place.
Keep me praying, Lord, for this is very important. Let my day be a day of prayer, throughout the day, as I work, as I eat, as I rest and relax, whatever I do, let there be an attitude of prayer at all times.
I pray that the upcoming World Series games be played fairly, and in good sportsmanship. Of course, I want the Rangers to win, but there are many believers on both sides of the upcoming games, so I will simply pray for fairness and safety for both teams, as well as the fans of both teams. Let there be no injuries during the games, no altercations during the games, either on the field or in the stands.
Let your name be glorified in all things, Lord!
We speak in analogies about God all the time, due to the insufficiency of our language to adequately describe him. Today, think about God as being your “rock” or “fortress.” Meditate on that today. He truly is a safe place where we can hide, and to whom we can take all our cares.
Grace and peace, friends.
Spaces of Beauty, Grace, Prayer, and Mercy 