The prayer of Psalm 84

How lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young--
even Your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in Your house;
they will still be prising You.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,
whose heart is set on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a spring;
the rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion.
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob.
O God, behold our shield, and look upon the face of your annointed.
For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord will give grace and glory;
no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts, blessed in the man who trusts in You!

King James Version

We plow the fields and scatter
the good seed on the land,
but it is fed and watered
by God's almighty hand.
He sends the snow in the winter,
the warmth to swell the grains,
the breeze and the sunshine,
and soft refreshing rain.
He only is the Maker
of all things near and far.
He paints the wayside flowers,
He lights the evening star.
The winds and waves obey Him;
by Him the birds are fed;
much more to us, His children,
He gives our daily bread.
We thank Thee, then, O Father,
for all things bright and good,
the seed time and the harvest,
our life, our health, our food.
Accept the gifts we offer,
for all Thy love imparts,
and, what Thous most desirest,
our humble, thankful hearts.

Author Unknown

Columnist Herb Caen wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle: "Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle; when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."

Charles Spurgeon writes likewise, "If you are not seeking the Lord, the Devil is seeking you. If you are not seeking the Lord, judgment is at your heels."

In the Christian life, it's not enough to simply wake up. We are called to run, to become more like Christ, to press ahead in godliness.

Author Unknown

When the promises of love
are first made to us,
Our hearts overflow
with ecstasy.
We never dreamed such happiness
could ever be ours--
the love,
the warmth,
the acceptance,
The promise of a future
alive with excitement
and joy.
But when the promises are broken,
the love vanishes,
the hope disappears,
And we feel so empty
and alone.

And we wonder in despair,
'What did I say
to bring about such change?
What did I do
to turn away such love?
Am I not worthy
of another's love?
Am I no good at all?"

God hears those cries
of our broken hearts.
He promises to stay
especially close to us
Until our hearts are mended
and our wounds
are healed.

Author Unknown

Cast your cares on the Lord
and he will sustain you;
He will never let the righteous fall.
Psalm 55.22

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
Psalm 43.5

I will exalt you, O Lord,
for you lifted me out of the depths. . . .
O Lord my God,
I called to you for help
and you healed me.
Psalm 30.1-2

The Lord delights in the way of man
whose steps he has made firm;
Though he stumble,
he will not fall,
For the Lord upholds him
with his hand.
Psalm 37.23-24

Everyone hurts
at one time
or another.
Sometimes the hurts
are relatively minor
and tend to go away
by themselves,
but at other times
the hurts
are so intense
that we wonder
whether they will
ever go away.
God does not promise
that his children
will have no hurts
in this life,
but God wants you to know
that every hurt of yours
is of concern
to him,
and he graciously
invites you
to cast all your cares
on him,
because HE cares
about YOU.

Author Unknown

If you put a buzzard in a pen eight feet square and entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason: a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of ten to twelve feet. Without space to run, as is his habit, he will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no ceiling.

The ordinary bat, a remarkably nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessle and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself up into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.

A bumblebee, if dropped into a open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.

In many ways, there are lots of people like the buzzard, the bat, and the bee. They are struggling with all their problems and frustrations, not realizing that the answer is righ there above them.

May we always look up and put our trust in the Lord.

Author Unknown

'Tis not enough to bend the knee,
And words of prayer to say;
The heart must with the lips agree;
Or else we do not pray.

For words, without the heart,
The Lord will never hear;
Nor will he to those lips attend,
Whose prayers are not sincere.

Author Unknown

An excerpt from Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son (Doubleday, 1992).

For most of my life I have struggled to find God, to know God, to love God. I have tried hard to follow the guidelines of spiritual life--pray always, work for others, read the Scriptures--and to avoid the many temptations to dissipate myself. I have failed many times but always tried again, even when I was close to despair.

Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not "How am I to find God?" but "How am I to let myself be found by him?" The question is not "How am I to know God?" but "How am I to let myself be known by God?" And, finally, the question is not "How am I to love God?" but "How am I to let myself be loved by God?" God is looking into the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home.

It might sound strange, but God want too find me as much as, if not more than, I want to find God. yes, God needs me as much as I need God. God is not the patriarch who stays home, doesn't move, and expects his children to come to him, apologize for their aberrant behavior, beg for forgiveness, and promise to do better. To the contrary, he leaves the house, ignoring his dignity by running toward them, pays no heed to apologies and promises of change, and brings them to the table richly prepared for them.

Henri Nouwen, a great champion of prayer, conducted an interview with Youthworker in 1993 on the subject of prayer. Here is Nouwen's response to the question, "What exactly is prayer?"

Prayer is listening to God. It's listening to God who calls us his beloved son or his beloved daughter. Remember when Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River? He heard a word that came down from heaven: "You are my beloved Son." That word basically announced his identity--who he was. And it was on the basis of that identity that Jesus lived his life--as the Beloved, the one who was intimately connected to the Father.

When we pray, then, we listen to God to hear his voice--to find out who we really are. We are his beloved children.

What is important is that we continue to listen to God's voice and not become distracted by the voices of the world that tell us other things, things that cause us to lose our true identity. We need to set aside certain moments of each day to pray, not because God needs us to pray, but because we need to be reminded by God of who we truly are. We need to constantly be in touch with what our lives are all about.

Prayer can also become a way of living. it can permeate all of life. We can pray as we drive a car, as we work, as we talk to people. In that sense, all of life can become a prayer.


An excerpt from "Gazing at Jesus: A conversation with Henri Nouwen about the discipline of contemplative prayer," Youthworker (Spring 1993): 38-44.