Praying Through: Psalm 76 Righteous

The Psalm

Psalm 76 (CSB)
For the choir director: with stringed instruments. A psalm of Asaph. A song.

1 God is known in Judah; his name is great in Israel.

2 His tent is in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion.

3 There he shatters the bow’s flaming arrows, the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah

4 You are resplendent and majestic coming down from the mountains of prey.

5 The brave-hearted have been plundered; they have slipped into their final sleep. None of the warriors was able to lift a hand.

6 At your rebuke, God of Jacob, both chariot and horse lay still.

7 And you—you are to be feared. When you are angry, who can stand before you?

8 From heaven you pronounced judgment. The earth feared and grew quiet

9 when God rose up to judge and to save all the lowly of the earth. Selah

10 Even human wrath will praise you; you will clothe yourself with the wrath that remains.

11 Make and keep your vows to the LORD your God; let all who are around him bring tribute to the awe-inspiring one.

12 He humbles the spirit of leaders; he is feared by the kings of the earth.

The Prayer

Righteous

When I joined the rest of the world

  • to make war with you
  • I sit tight
  • under your mighty wraith
  • with every beat of my heart
  • because my heart knew nothing else
  • but wickedness and deceit towards you.

What I could never foreknew

  • is that before the mountains were formed
  • and time and space were spoken into existence
  • from everlasting to everlasting
  • you have sat your affections on me
  • and you bended time and circumstances
  • and you broke into our broken world
  • by the way of your Son
  • so that he would live and die for me
  • so that my sins--all of my wicked sins
  • would be buried in that tomb
  • and I would be resurrected
  • not just in life
  • but true life
  • forevermore.

Do what you must

  • to keep me close to you.
  • I never want to be apart from you
  • because that is a hell
  • I never want to see again.

Amen.