Praying the Psalms: Psalm 120

Do you ever flick through your news source and wonder just how much can I ACTUALLY take of hearing about the affliction that humans place on each other? At times, I’m baffled at lying lips and deceitful tongues who try and sell justified dichotomies via a combination of media stories and policies. Deceit breeding contention, then cruelty, then war. It hits me. The sin. The brokenness of this world. I sometimes feel like I’m living at a distance from God’s ideal for the earth. I feel like I don’t belong here. I feel like an alien (insert relevant lyrics here)

When will the lying stop? The psalmist in 120 is found asking the same questions. He cried out to God and prayed for deliverance from falsified formations of friendships and a hierarchy who would lie to make themselves look good. Psalm 120 is the beginning of the “Songs of Ascent” and this one in particular is a lament. It starts with a prayer. A cry out to God to deliver him from a world he feels no part in.  Verse 3 then address the trouble makers. A prayer that God would pierce the conscience of the sinner and that he would realise the consequence of his actions “What shall be given to you and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue?”.

I’ve come to realise that amongst my confusion, one thing is very clear. Not everyone knows of God’s Word and truth and, therefore, they hate peace. But I am for peace. (v7) Because peace amongst turmoil comes from knowing the peace-maker. The creator and the giver of life.

I’m challenged with the last verse: “When I speak, they are for war”

Lord, may I never stop speaking up for the inflicted, the hungry, the widowed, the oppressed. Even though the world may not know your love and ‘they are for war’… may YOUR voice, through my words, never stop sowing seeds of your love and peace. I am for peace because you are.

– Sera McCulloch (21/7/14)