Pray the Scriptures, May 14

Psalms 81-83

Lord God,

We sing for joy to you, for you are our strength; we shout aloud to you, the God of Jacob. You are the God who presides in the great assembly and gives judgment among the gods. You will one day judge the earth and inherit all the nations.

I pray for ______________________ this day, as well as for myself, that you will remove the burden from our shoulders and set our hands free. I pray that you will answer us and rescue us when we call to you out of our distress. Keep us from following our own counsel out of stubborn hearts.

I pray instead that we will listen to your voice, walk in your ways, and open wide our mouths that you may fill them with good things. I ask you to subdue our enemies and turn your hand against our foes. I ask you to feed us with the finest of wheat, and satisfy us with honey from the rock.

I pray this day for our judges, who exercise God-like authority but often seem to lack knowledge and understanding and walk about in darkness. When they rule unjustly, they cause the foundations of the earth to shake. And so I pray that they will give justice to the weak and maintain the cause of the afflicted and the poor. I pray that they will deliver the righteous from the hand of the wicked.

Together, we pray that you will see how your enemies, O God, make an uproar, and how those who hate you raise their heads. There are those who seek to wipe us out as a nation. We pray that you will not keep silent or hold your peace when they conspire with cunning against us and plot against those you cherish.

We pray that you will protect us from those who seek to destroy us by making them like chaff before the wind. We pray that you will fill their faces with shame so that they will come to seek your name and know that you alone, Yahweh, are the Most High over all the earth.

In Jesus’ name, we ask these things, amen.