Psalm 79

"8 Let your tenderhearted mercies
quickly meet our needs ..."

I love this prayer.

In fact, this whole verse is the prayer I need to pray today.

You've probably heard me or others suggest the ACTS model for prayer -- Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication (which is a fancy word that simply means "our prayer requests").

These eight words are the bookends to that ACTS model for prayer. Isn't it adoration, trust, and love when we pray to and trust in the God of "8 tenderhearted mercies"? And when we pray "8 quickly meet our needs," isn't that supplication?

This verse also includes confession -- "8 do not hold us guilty for our former sins!" I said moments ago that I need this prayer today. I hunger for God's tenderhearted mercies. I want him to quickly meet my needs and swiftly answer my petitions. But do you know what I also need? I also need to confess. How dare I think I can request God's blessings when I approach him with an impure heart.

Like every human being there are things I've done and plenty I've left undone. Like every human I've sinned against him in thought, word, and deed. Relinquishing my pride. Turning away from the sins that I excuse. Confession before supplication.

What are the "needs" that

you desire God to "meet" today?

Make a list.

But before praying that list,

spend a while confessing your sins.

And then spend a while

adoring our God of "tenderhearted mercies."

If you get to your list, fine.

If not, God knows the list anyway.

What he desires most is your

repentance and your love.

P.S. I couldn't completely resist the history in this Psalm. This is another "psalm of Asaph," and it causes me to ask the question again: Who is Asaph?

As we've discussed in previous weeks, Asaph was a priest and a contemporary of David ... AND ... the descendents of Asaph continued to serve in the temple for many generations. Therefore, did Asaph write this in the time of David or did those who followed in his line write it in much later generations?

Why does this matter? Because of how specific this Psalm is regarding the destruction of Jerusalem. If the original Asaph wrote about "1 pagan nations ... ma[king] Jerusalem a heap of ruin [and] 3 blood ... flow[ing] like water," then this Psalm is prophecy. However, if Asaph's descendents wrote it four hundred years later in the time of Babylonian invasion and the destruction of Jerusalem, then it's history.

Does it matter whether it's history or prophecy? In one sense, no. Whether the prayer is prophetic or historical, there are times when the enemy is at my door and I can pray along with whichever Asaph this was for God's "8 tenderhearted mercies."

However, in another sense, it really does matter. This issue is: Do I put God in a box ... or not? Do I say he could show Asaph (and us) a glimspe of our future ... or not? Do I say I demand that every answer be logical ... or do I permit a little faith ... and wonder ... and trust ... and hope?

Just so you know, here's my clue to when this was written. It comes from the first verse of another psalm of Asaph -- Psalm 76. Asaph says, "God is well known in Judah; his name is great in Israel." It's a simple phrase that apparently doesn't mean much ... until we realize that if these Psalms of Asaph were historical -- rather than prophetic -- then at the time of the Babylonian invasion and the destruction of Jerusalem, Israel would have already been defeated by the Assyrians one hundred years earlier.

Think about what that means.

God's name wouldn't have been viewed as great in Israel anymore ... because Israel simply didn't exist! Indeed, by the time of the Babylonian invasion, the people in those former territories of Israel had fully turned to other gods. But look even further, God's name hadn't been great in the northern kingdom Israel from the time the kingdoms of Israel and Judah unzipped. In fact, according to I and II Kings, about the last time God's name was great in the northern territories of Israel was when David was king of Israel. Which was when? At the same time the original Asaph was a priest!

To me, that says, let's allow a God of prophecy. Let's allow a little wonder. Let's bow before the power. And let us pray to our great God, "8 [may your] tenderhearted mercies quickly meet our needs ..."

What are the "needs" that

you desire God to "meet" today?

Make a list.

But before praying that list,

spend a while confessing your sins.

And then spend a while

adoring our God of "tenderhearted mercies."

If you get to your list, fine.

If not, God knows the list anyway.

What he desires most is your

repentance and your love.