CHRISTIAN PRAYER

Prayer Anywhere and Psalm 102

Submitted May 24, 2012 | by Joseph Jagde

Psalm 102 from the King James version of the Bible:

102 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee.

2 Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.

3 For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.

4 My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.

5 By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.

6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.

7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

8 Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me.

9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.

10 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down.

11 My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.

12 But thou, O Lord, shall endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.

13 Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.

14 For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.

15 So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.

16 When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.

17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.

18 This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.

19 For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord beholds the earth;

20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;

21 To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;

22 When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.

23 He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.

24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.

25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.

26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:

27 But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.

28 The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.

The psalmist in this psalm is certainly on the down and out and not approaching the Lord in prayer in the more ideal situations that most of us would prefer to be with in the first place.His pleas are coming from the distance and he is nowhere close to where he wants to be.

In the depiction of his situation in this psalm, he has a lot of ground to make up if he ever hopes to get

to those places of hope, comfort, peace, prosperity, restoration and all those good things.

The images given in verse 6 and 7 are stark and he is just about as far away from where he wants to be as possible.

6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.

7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

But as the psalm progresses, he still sees this unfortunate positioning as a place where he can still pray and speak of a time of favor.

Overall he is contrasting the eternal views and perspectives of the Lord with his own present difficulties which are temporary.

In the gospel of Mark Chapter 12 verse 31 it says from the New Living TranslationIn this

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Since the Word includes strong emphasis on prayer, the praying person will always have somewhere to pray, even if heaven and earth passes away.

Logically, if that happens, then they wouldn't be alive on the earth, yet they would still have life, eternal life.

In Acts 16.13 they were looking for a place to pray by the river, and this seems to presume that by the river was a place that was better suited for meditatioin and prayer than maybe the bustle of the town or city.

From our limited perspective, heaven and earth are about the only possibities at hand we could even concieve of. But all possibilities are not limited to the here and now or even the great beyond.

25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.

26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:

It says in 1 Corninthians Chapter 15 verse 51 and 52 using the NIV translation of the Bible:

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

The perishable nature we are all subject to, is contrasted against the imperishable nature of the Lord, and according to this psalm and Cornithians, there is hope immortal and at the last trumpet eternal life.

When it says here in this psalm in verse 20,

To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;

it would at first seem to refer to someone who is subject to imprisonment.

But the picture is that anybody that is in a perishable state, which includes everybody is indeed by that subject to a type of bondage that is really being referred to in verse 20 of this psalm so this psalm applies to everybody everywhere.

Anybody who has an eventual appointment with death is in a type of prison from which they can be loosed by the Lord.

While there is a duality of this psalm to the temporal troubles of the psalmist, and the temporal is important, it could be more so taken that this psalm is referring to a last minute plea for eternal life.

It might be interpreted that the psalmist might be approaching his last breadth, surrounded by enemies, alone at a sparse location and without an ability to aptly defend his very life.

Indeed there is a two fold meaning carried with this psalm, with the foremost being that last minute plea for the eternal being available for both the prayer person as praying for himself and also for others as the psalmist is doing here as he is also pleading for mankind in general and across the generations of time as well in this beautifully versed power packed psalm.

The sameness of the Lord Jesus Christ surpasses, eclipses even the heavens and earth which can pass away.

Hebrews 13 verse 8 says using the NIV version of the Bible:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever

Verse 27 in this psalm says,

27 But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.

Verses 15 through 17 in this psalm says,

15 So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.

16 When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.

17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.

These verses are echoed in Colossians chapter 3 verse 4 which says using the NIV version of the Bible:

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

This psalm clearly emphasizes the one person, one individual in dire straights and it is certainly personalized to the one, as is this verse in Colossians where the one individual is sharing the glories and enternal presence of the Lord.

The psalmist compares himself to a sparrow alone on a rooftop.

In Matthew Chapter 10 verse 29 using the NIV version of the Bible it says:

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.

This verse shows the careful watch to all from the heavenly Father when it says " not one" is exclued from his careful watch.

This psalm can be seen as referring to the mystery of the Trinity, in the careful watch, will and care of the Father, the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ and the watch of the Holy Spirit in its references to the future as it speaks of across the generationsVerws.

Verse 24 in the psalm says:

24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.

With prayer, there is a belief that we can pray into the future for people not yet born.

This is a prayer through the Holy
Spirit.

Verse 17 and 18 in this paslm gives this picture when it speaks of the people who are yet to be created.

We can also prayer for ourselves and our own future, which is also yet to be created, in conjunction with the help of the Holy Spirit.

The psalmist in this psalm is certainly on the down and out and not approaching the Lord in prayer in the more ideal situations that most of us would prefer to be with in the first place. His pleas are coming from the distance and he is nowhere close to where he wants to be.

In the depiction of his situation in this psalm, he has a lot of ground to make up if he ever hopes to get to those places of hope, comfort, peace, prosperity, restoration and all those good things.

The images given in verse 6 and 7 are stark and he is just about as far away from where he wants to be as possible.

6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.

7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

But as the psalm progresses, he still sees this unfortunate positioning as a place where he can still pray and speak of a time of favor.

Overall he is contrasting the eternal views and perspectives of the Lord with his own present difficulties which are temporary.

In the gospel of Mark Chapter 12 verse 31 it says from the New Living Translation version of the Bible:

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

From our limited perspective, heaven and earth are about the only possibities at hand we could even concieve of. But all possibilities are not limited to the here and now or even the great beyond.

25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands

26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:

It says in 1 Corninthians Chapter 15 verse 51 and 52 using the NIV translation of the Bible:

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

The perishable nature we are all subject to, is contrasted against the imperishable nature of the Lord, and according to this psalm and Cornithians, there is hope immortal and at the last trumpet eternal life.

When it says here in this psalm in verse 20,

To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;

it would at first seem to refer to someone who is subject to imprisonment.

But the picture is that anybody that is in a perishable state, which includes everybody is indeed by that subject to a type of bondage that is really being referred to in verse 20 of this psalm so this psalm applies to everybody everywhere.

Anybody who has an eventual appointment with death is in a type of prison from which they can be loosed by the Lord

While there is a duality of this psalm to the temporal troubles of the psalmist, and the temporal is important, it could be more so taken that this psalm is referring to a last minute plea for eternal life.

It might be interpreted that the psalmist might be approaching his last breadth, surrounded by enemies, alone at a sparse location and without an ability to aptly defend his very life

Indeed there is a two fold meaning carried with this psalm, with the foremost being that last minute plea for the eternal being available for both the prayer person as praying for himself and also for others as the psalmist is doing here as he is also pleading for mankind in general and across the generations of time as well in this beautifully versed power packed psalm

The sameness of the Lord Jesus Christ surpasses, eclipses even the heavens and earth which can pass away.

Hebrews 13 verse 8 says using the NIV version of the Bible

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and foreve

Verse 27 in this psalm says,

27 But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.

Verses 15 through 17 in this psalm says,

15 So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory

16 When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory

17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.

These verses are echoed in Colossians chapter 3 verse 4 which says using the NIV version of the Bible:

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

This psalm clearly emphasizes the one person, one individual in dire straights and it is certainly personalized to the one, as is this verse in Colossians where the one individual is sharing the glories and enternal presence of the Lord.

The psalmist compares himself to a sparrow alone on a rooftop.

In Matthew Chapter 10 verse 29 using the NIV version of the Bible it says

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father."

This verse shows the careful watch to all from the heavenly Father when it says " not one" is exclued from his careful watch. Every sheep is called to the fold.

This psalm can be seen as referring to the mystery of the Trinity, in the careful watch, will and care of the Father, the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ and the watch of the Holy Spirit in its references to the future as it speaks of across the generations,

Verse 24 in the psalm says:

24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.

With prayer, there is a belief that we can pray into the future for people not yet born.

This is a prayer through the Holy
Spirit

Verses 17 and 18 of this psalm gives that picture , where even the prayer of the destitute can be regarded and affect people across the generations:

17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer

18 This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.

The main action of the psalmist is prayer and when it says in verse 6:

6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.

it shows that despite being in the wilderness or desert, the psalmist has the wisdom symbolized by the owl and the care symbolized by the pelican to prayer.

And here this psalm give two key elements of personhood to hold on to no matter how bad things get and that is wisdom and good care and first and foremost apply these traits to the World of Prayer.

In the movie, Gone with the Wind, Rex Butler played by Clark Gable, uttered that then controversial line of " frankly, my dear, I don't give a damm."

Throughout the movie, despite his superficial pretensions, he did care, both about her and the South and about the inherent absurity of war as the honorable solution."

While he did care, ultimately he couldn't break through and get his message across, either abroad or to his best friend Scarlett who symbolized the single minded obsessions involved with the war and the issues of war in her personal obsession with Ashley.

When Rhett, who did care, reliquished that, it represented for him a final defeat as he let go of that last vestige of that personal trait of caring entwined with wisdom..

Ultimately, the background was decimated, mostly destroyed with little hands on capacity to rebuilt in the Old South and it was Gone with The Wind and into the place of wilderness and desert as in this psalm.

Rhett did have the wisdom and prescience to see this coming and his method of coping was to let go of his wisdom and caring as the fullness of the decimation swept in and all he did in fact care about was lost seemingly forever.

In the case of the psalmist in the more temporary as well as eternal aspects he does care and has wisdom about his caring, but the troubles are mounting and there is a fading hope, but like with the movie Gone with the Wind, maybe there will be a sequel, maybe there is hope beyond the present carnage.

In his case it is just about the last vestige left and everything else of hope seems to have disappeared without a trace, but

He still has the ability and access to prayer.

It may have been that the psalmist is ostracized in some way and either figuratively or literally he is in the hither lands and his inner strenght is fading and limited to start with as for contenting with dire circumstances.

In terms of physical location, in present society, modern transport makes it much less likely that someone would be stuck in the hither lands.

The hither lands could be a lot of things, not just a physical locale.

There could be a whole series of problems including a seeming failed spiritual state.

There are personal economic drifts, relationship drifts, dreams dashed drifts all of which can leave a person in that dark and lonely place that seems like nowhere.

At the same time, it might be said that trouble is also right there in the midst, say the midst of this job, this relationship, this circumstance and there is the need to retreat to the wilderness and the desert and get alone and pray.

Another interpretation is that the psalmist had been right in the midst of troubles, war, difficulties within the great crowds or throngs just as Rhett has been in the movie Gone with the Wind and he has retreated to the wilderness to conjure up his wisdom and care and subject all these difficulties to the eternal presence of the Lord in prayer.

And that is big picture stuff, but this psalm can also apply to the smaller maybe less significant ways we can all feel down and out with.

There can be the problems and the lack of resources to solve the problem, and the situations contain seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and this psalmist is left upon an ash heap with a heep of problems.

He has however one key retention, and that is his ability and know how to pray and do that effectively.

Who knows how and why he veered originally but this situation was something he somehow got to, and whether this wrong turn was a result of trying circumstances coming upon him, or his own actions or that of others, we can't be sure, but sure enough he is in this place of destitution.

The emphasis is not on the how or why he got there, or on what the underlying fault may have been if there was to be blame to go around.

But the key point of this psalm to take away was that his prayer position was not in direct correlation with his overall lousy position and it is impossible to say what the prayer position is for sure for an individual on the basis of their overall position, which does indeed change.

I can be on top of the world today, but it might only be for today and it might not hold. Nothing is gauranteed.

The give and take on things isn't necessarily on an equal exchange plan.

Logically if the pattern was correct for everything, a destitute location would correlate with a destitute location for prayer power, for having the ability to pray, get heard and get anwers.

Even today, we see people in the church who pray for others with the effective prayers of healing, yet can't get an answer for their own ailment.

The psalmist certainly is on the wrong side of the sliding scale and he isn't sure that he can ever get back as he is on the wrong end of the good continuum and fading fast even from there.

With everyday affairs, if I want to do things, in many cases things need to add up for that

If I want to travel, I need some ample time for that to add up, I need money to add up to the price of the trip and so on.

The math is pretty bad for the psalmist but the prayer doesn't fit into a mathematical equation and 1 + 2 can equal a zillion in the world of prayer.

So that is why, you can shoot for the roof in prayer, even from a terrible position such as the psalmist is portraying for himself here

The place of prayer doesn't directly correspond to the place you might get to after prayer, after all, how much worse can it be than a desert if you are looking for say prosperity? A desert certaintly is not prosperous is that is what you are looking for.

But you don't need a pristine background for prayer power as this psalm is depicting a background of dearth, lack, in just about every sense of the word for the psalmist who is praying effectively and powerfully.

So for example if the Lord is going to bring us to prosperity, it is his supply ultimately if we are starting off at the desert or have somehow arrived there.

You can be ahead, behind or anywhere when praying but a prayer is a prayer whether you are running last in the marathon or running near the top

A potato is a potato whether it is Ireland or any other location in the world

The psalmist may have been in strained relationship with the Lord due to sin, and there can be dividing lines where the Lord will not regard a prayer based on sin but the dividing line for that is not quite known as this psalm says the Lord will regard the prayer of the destitute and sin can be certainly considered one form of destitution and hence the viablity of the prayer for foregiveness.

Maybe the Lord will give that bank robber the escape route but after the escape there will be a call to repentance.

He might allow him some space within the fall of sin, to get back to those open spaces of prayer, symbolized by the desert or wilderness here in this psalm, which means that even if the total picture is bleak, or deserted or out in the wilds, I can still pray even though just about nothing has or apparently will be filling in.

The desert in this psalm could represent the background of personal sin which can also qualify as a desert or wilderness place, or it might conjure up the sins of others decimating the good of the land and causing wilderness conditions.

Destitution can take so many forms; it could even be finding yourself with not the best people when the better people for you are indeed nearby but somehow elusive.

I can't find my girlfriend, I can't find my good friends, I can't find those wise people and if that is the case, in that maybe all that is nearing is the symbolic enemy. I need to double up on the between me and the Lord aspects of that relationship as the psalmist does here.

The psalmist has no friends nearby, all he has contains no good help from any brethern, so his prayers need to be isolated to just him and the Lord in the desert.

But he still has that and recourse to that relationship that represents the individual soul in communion and concert with the Lord in prayer.

Yet look how powerful and potent his prayers are, which unite with the Holy Spirit in going across the generations.

His prayer position mysteriously in no way equates with his position of direness and personal difficulties that have become like mountains.

Mark 11. 23 says,

"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him

But don't exempt yourself from prayer based on any location, whether it be physical, spiritual, economic or otherwise and don't give so much weight to the " mountain" which is supposed to be cast into the seas with the power given in prayer.

Cast into the seas, functionally and practically, it is no longer a mountain.

A larger perpective is needed to see this and always ask for perspective in prayer which is a part of or a subset of wisdom.

James 1 verse 5 says:

The Lord promises to give wisdom to all those who ask which means he will also bring forth the best perpective as well

"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."

More often today, you hear someone day, I lack perspective, he lacks perspective, she lacks perspective or they lack perspective and we all lack perspective at times..

Pray for wisdom and perspective, first for yourself but also for others.

You may not have proper persective even if things are going great, and it doesn't make sense to chart your course only on the basis of where you think you are or ought to be because your perspective is maybe off and of course limited without the presence of the supernatural world helping you and aiding you..

It doesn't make sense because you can find yourself seeminlgly doing well spiritually, economically today and not as good a little bit down road, and whether you are here, there, or back there again, the call to prayer is still there and the belief that the Lord can come back with full answers irregardless is still there anywhere

We can't know the precise divisions involved in the world of prayer, so maybe we do try and correlate those lines with the lines we are experiencing, the lines on the road we are personally traveling.

There is still the precise same call, no matter and that is the call to prayer

The psalmist certainly wasn't on the best paths out there but that place, representing anywhere did hold great possibilities in prayer, yet unknown, but certainty to be, rather than not to be.

Don't miss your prayer trip, a trip that can be made from just about anywhere.

The Holy Spirit is alluded to in this psalm. and it is also important to spend some time in prayer addressing the Holy Spirit specifically, when it speaks of the continuity or sameness of the presence of the Holy Spirit in verse 27 and across the generations in verse 24 of this psalm.

Its the same hoop, its still a 10 foot basket and the key is to stay in the game of prayer no matter what.

Scientist say even the sun at the beginnings of the history of the earth was only shining at 70 percent of the power it is shining today for us, so even the power of the sun can differ.

Hebrews 13.8 is going to be are final tally, no matter what and this is where we in the world of prayer.