October 25 -- Prayers of Praise

This week's lectionary texts: Job 42:1-6 and 10-17 or Jeremiah 31:7-9, Psalm 34:1-8 and 19-22 or Psalm 126, Hebrews 7:23-28, and Mark 10:46-52.



If you asked one hundred people about their prayer lives -- how they pray, when, where, why -- no doubt you'd receive one hundred different answers. Prayer, indeed, is a simple word for an incredibly complex set of possible practices. Prayer can be carried out collectively, in pairs, in small groups, or in whole churches. Prayer may be deeply personal, held silently within one's own mind. Prayers can be well-known and standardized -- the Lord's Prayer is perhaps the most famous example -- or spontaneous and unrehearsed. Prayer may use countless elaborate words -- or it may use no words at all.

Though it would be impossible to list all the reasons that people might pray, I suspect that for many of us, prayer often consists of asking God for something, whether it's inner peace, success at an interview or on a test, healing for a loved one, or nice weather for our soccer game. There's nothing wrong with this kind of prayer. But in today's lectionary texts we find an emphasis on another kind of prayer: prayers of blessing and thanksgiving to God.

Psalm 34, subtitled "Praise for Deliverance from Trouble," is a beautiful reflection of the Psalmist's gratitude for the mercy and care of God. The author is so grateful that he can't contain himself; he has to enlist other people to join in his joy:

"I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." (Psalm 34:1-3)

Growing up I sometimes thought it seemed strange to talk about "blessing" God -- wasn't God supposed to be the one to bless us? How could humans even bless God, anyway? But as the Merriam-Webster dictionary explains, blessing someone can also mean to glorify them. So blessing God, as does David in Psalm 34, means to glorify God for all the good things that God has done in our lives.

The psalm continues in a similar vein, expressing thankfulness for answered prayer and deliverance from worry:

"I sought the Lord and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. Look to him and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed. This poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord, and was saved from every trouble. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them." (Psalm 34:4-7)

Again, notice how the Psalmist is inviting others into his psalm of praise and thanksgiving. He is so filled with gratitude that he wants to use his own testimony of God's faithfulness to assure others of God's goodness: "Look to him and be radiant," he exclaims. We are often encouraged to share our struggles with one another, in order to help lighten each other's loads, and give each other assistance and aid. Here, David reminds us that we ought to share our happiness and gratitude too, that our joy may be contagious and help others to realize the signs of God's grace in their own lives.

As the psalm continues, listeners are reminded over and over that God is a God of care and protection:

"O taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him." (Psalm 34:8)

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord rescues them from them all. He keeps all their bones; not one of them will be broken." (Psalm 34:19-20)

This is evocative language; God's looking out for our "bones" recalls the reminder in Luke that God has numbered every hair on our heads (Luke 12:7). In short, the Psalmist is praising God for God's protection and personal concern with every human being. And in this week's text from Jeremiah, we see an example of God's care and deep love:

"See, I am going to bring [my people] from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth...I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble." (Jeremiah 31:8-9)

Prayer can take countless forms, and each of them has its advantages. But sometimes, in the hustle and bustle of our busy lives, we forget to take time to simply thank God for God's goodness and grace. This week's texts remind us to remember to express our happiness and thanksgiving -- to bless God, and happily encourage others to do the same.


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