Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Time of Need
I kept it secret and my frame was wasted.
I groaned all the day long for night and day your hand was heavy upon me.
Indeed my strength was dried up by the summer’s heat.
We do not know but we can imagine that the prophet Jeremiah prayed the psalms from his prison cell or from the bottom of the miry cistern. Chains alone did not stop him from speaking. Scorn and mockery could not hold back the words he knew he must deliver and the actions he knew he must take. If he intoned Psalm 32 it may have been bitterly for he could not put an end to his punishment by acknowledging his sin or by recanting an evil act; or it may have been joyfully for he also knew that God was his only place of safety. Jeremiah, the innocent, bemoaned his reality as he suffered at the hands of corrupt and unjust leaders; but Jeremiah, the prophet, understood the message of hope in this prayer.
So let every good man pray to you in the time of need.
The floods of water may reach high but him they shall not reach.
You are my hiding place, O Lord; you save me from distress.
You surround me with cries of deliverance.
In our moment of stress, God replies through the voice of the psalmist.
I will instruct you and show you the way you should walk, give you counsel and watch over you.
Do not be senseless like horses or mules; with bit and bridle their temper is curbed, else they will not come to you.
In our time of need, God speaks to us today.
Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but love surrounds those who trust in the Lord.
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you just; exult all you upright of heart.
When the weight of the world is too much to balance, let us give our burden of despair to God, and be glad in the hope, and grace and love of the Lord.
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Image from: http://loopyloo305.com/2012/12/16/psalm-32/
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