I’m excited to share a special resource with you that may enrich your Sunday mornings. Each week, I write an opening prayer based on a specific psalm for my church’s Sunday morning worship service, using Don Whitney’s method from Praying the Bible. My goal is to provide a thoughtful, scriptural, Christ-centered prayer to start the worship service. Each prayer is typically around 500 words and includes adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. They highlight Christ’s redemptive work and our need for the Holy Spirit’s guidance. I trust these prayers will encourage you as you worship the LORD.
Psalm 69
1. Acknowledging God’s Presence and Expressing Gratitude
Heavenly Father, we come before You today, recognizing Your sovereignty and power over all creation. We trust in Your ability to save and deliver us. As the psalmist declares in Psalm 69:16:
“Answer me, LORD, for your faithful love is good. In keeping with your abundant compassion, turn to me.”
We thank You, Lord, for Your unwavering faithfulness and steadfast love. We are grateful for the grace You extend to us each day, and we praise You for Your goodness and loving-kindness, which sustain us through every challenge.
2. Making Requests and Intercessions
Like the psalmist, we cry out to You in times of distress. In verses 1-2, he pleads:
“Save me, God, for the water has risen to my neck. I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no footing; I have come into deep water, and a flood sweeps over me.”
We too face struggles and hardships. We may endure insults and shame for Your sake, feeling like strangers even among our own families. As verses 7-8 express:
“For I have endured insults because of you, and shame has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers and a foreigner to my mother’s sons.”
Yet, even in our despair, we trust in Your deliverance. We plead for Your swift answer and redemption, repeating the words of verses 17-18:
“Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me quickly! Come near to me and redeem me; ransom me because of my enemies.”
3. Connecting to Christ
As we reflect on this psalm, we see foreshadowings of Christ. In verse 9, we’re reminded of Jesus’ zeal for God’s house:
“Because zeal for your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”
We also see the suffering and sacrificial love of Jesus Christ in verse 21:
“Instead, they gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
4. Concluding with Praise and Blessing
With grateful hearts, we commit ourselves to praising Your holy name. As verses 30-31 declare:
“I will praise God’s name with song and exalt him with thanksgiving. That will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with horns and hooves.”
We are encouraged by Your attentiveness to the needy, as verses 32-33 remind us:
“The humble will see it and rejoice. You who seek God, take heart! For the LORD listens to the needy and does not despise his own who are prisoners.”
We bless You for Your promise to save and restore, trusting in Your unfailing love and mercy.
May our lives be a testament to Your goodness and faithfulness as we seek to glorify You in all we do. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, we pray. Amen.
Note: All scripture references are from the Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
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