A Morning Prayer

Psalm 5 (from the International Children’s Bible) (ICB)

A Morning Prayer for Protection

 Lord, listen to my words.

    Understand what I am thinking.

2 Listen to my cry for help.

    My king and my God, I pray to you.

3 Lord, every morning you hear my voice.

    Every morning, I tell you what I need.

    And I wait for your answer.

4 You are not a God who is pleased with what is wicked.

    You do not live with those who do evil.

5 Those people who make fun of you cannot stand before you.

    You hate all those who do wrong.

6 You destroy liars.

    The Lord hates those who kill and trick others.

7 Because of your great love,

    I can come into your Temple.

Because I fear and respect you,

    I can worship in your holy Temple.

8 Lord, since I have many enemies,

    show me the right thing to do.

    Show me clearly how you want me to live.

9 With their mouths my enemies do not tell the truth.

    In their hearts they want to destroy people.

Their throats are like open graves.

    They use their tongues for telling lies.

10 God, declare them guilty!

    Let them fall into their own traps.

Send them away because their sins are many.

    They have turned against you.

11 But let everyone who trusts you be happy.

    Let them sing glad songs forever.

Protect those who love you.

    They are happy because of you.

12 Lord, you bless those who do what is right.

    You protect them like a soldier’s shield.

A book I’m reading, “God Called – He Needs Your Decision”, recommended the International Children’s Bible as an easy-to-read bible. Sure, it is written at the third grade reading level, but it isn’t talking down to me. I just want to understand it. Isn’t that the most important part? 

In this particle passage, I love the thought of praying to God each morning. I think a lot of us wake up whining, not wanting to get out of bed, not wanting to go to work. All we want to pray to God for is the winning lottery ticket and then all our troubles will be over. Right? They say that God answers all our prayers but sometimes the answer is “no”. Can you see why that is?

But we may never be able to understand why our prayers asking for world peace or an end to suffering or for just one friend or relative to be cured of their incurable disease, why those prayers would possibly also get an answer of “no”.

It is not for us to know what is in the mind of God; it is for us to continue to pray and to not lose heart. He is listening.