Prayer and psalm 96

Psalm 96 reads as follows:

I sing to the Lord a new song,

Sing to the Lord, all the earth,

Tell of his salvation from day to day,

Declare his glory among the nations,

His marvelous works among the peoples

For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised,

He is to be revered above all the gods,

For all the gods of the peoples are idols,

But the Lord made the heavens.

Honor and majesty are before him,

Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary,

Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,

Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength,

Bring an offering, and come into his courts,

Worship the Lord in holy splendor,

Tremble before him, all the earth,

Say among the nations," The Lord is king!

The world is firmly established, it shall never be moved,

He will judge the peoples with equity"

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice,

Let the sea roar and all that fills it,

Let the field exult, and everything in it.

Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy,

Before the Lord, for he is coming,

For he is coming to judge the earth,

He will judge the world with righteousness,

And the peoples with his truth.

Overall, this psalm feels like it involves a continental shift. Everything and everybody is renewed. There is a rebirth of the nations and now everybody can feel renewed under the presence of the Lord and his majesty. You could think of the analogy of spring, after a harsh winter has passed by and suddenly all of nature is renewed, and it is seen that the trees finally bloom again. This renewal of nature is widespread and can encompass all of the land. But something like what this psalm is talking about would dwarf this analogy, it is far greater, involving an almost an incomprehensible splendor, where all the earth sings a new song to the Lord, all of the peoples, along with all of the seas with all of its might, everything in the fields, and all the trees of the forest. The metaphor is one of inclusiveness but also of expansiveness.

There could be this type of rebirth through the Lord for an individual but also at the level of the whole earth.

In verse 2 it says, “Sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day."

The Lord’s presence is not going to fade from day to day.

It is not like, having a run of good luck and suddenly it disappears. If I have a run of good luck, I almost expect that it will tail off sometime sooner or later as this run indeed is based on luck. People might think that things had gone well in the past as far as their prayer life, but they seem to have lost that lovin feeling, like the words of that famous song by Johnny and Edgar Winter. But regardless of how you feel in the moment, there is simply no reason to expect that the Lord's presence has faded suddenly this day or a day coming up in the future, to where the present is obscuring what once was a clear and vibrant presence of the Lord. The sun will be there every day, maybe some days it will be hidden by clouds, and so also will the Lord be there every day. The Lord’s presence is as strong for you this day, as it was for any day in the history of mankind for any given individual, Adam on down. Therefore, since the Lord is about newness, a major theme of this psalm, you should expect something new and exciting today and the next day even as the Lord presented his newness for others in prior generations.

And it will be that way tomorrow. So expect some wonders right about today.

The great vision of promulgated in this psalm can move forward, because the Lord does not fade.

You almost think of John Lennon’s song, “Imagine" with the words of the song saying, “ “Imagine all of the people, sharing all the world."

Verse 5 says, “For all of the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.

Idolatry is at best incorrect, at it’s worst it is a nightmare that you may actually have to contend with. The works of idolatry can be right in front of you and seem to take on a greater proportion because of its closeness and its influence. But the background to it, even if it is right there and takes up a large portion of the landscape you are now observing, is the truth, that the Lord made the heavens. For example, say a whole city has buildings which we will call idolatrous just for the sake of example. You can look at that, but the Lord made the heavens. The tower of Babel was considered idolatrous, but the background to that was that the Lord made the heavens. It was really the tower itself, but the ideology behind it that made it idolatry. There isn’t a fade to the backdrop of the Lord's presence against the work of idols, but an amazing opening and illumination to the truth of the Lord's presence in all of the heavens. Like the rising sun, the truth of the Lord will appear against the works of idolatry. The works of idolatry are small in the context of the Lord making the heavens, but they are a big deal in that they can directly affect people, and that is why the Bible mentions idolatry numerous times.

In relating this psalm to prayer, a major point is no matter how you are feeling personally, the unending pervasiveness of the Lord is not going to fade and within prayer you are going into a thickness, something like a thick forest by analogy and that forest never is going to thin out Verse 12 refers to all the trees of the forest. It is not difficult to imagine getting lost in the forest and not being able to find your way out.

In prayer, there can be various ways of viewing what you are asking for. One is asking the Lord to get you out from or away from a difficulty or a set of circumstances that linger, maybe get you out of the forest of difficulties metaphorically. And people often ask that the Lord would get them out of things. But then, maybe you have chosen to hike in the majestic forests and it is not a matter of divorcing yourself from a situation but reaching your goals in the face of real obstacles and possible dangers. Sometimes though, it is a matter of praying through a situation, not around it or from it. Here in this psalm, maybe the earth and all of its peoples have gone through something carrying the weight of difficulty and distresses and have reached a place now where they have made it past some difficulties to a new place and a fresh start, now all these heavy weights have been carryed away by the graces of renewal from the Lord.

Sometimes we are half way between wanting to just stay away from an issue or getting back on that horse and trying again. One thing then to discuss in prayer is whether you want the Lord to bring you through this or out of this. It is really two different frames to the prayer and you would be crafting your prayers according to the route you prefer. Or you might be unsure as to wether you should be praying for relief and your way out or help and your way through and you need to ask the Lord to help you discern the proper prayer.

To read a book, especially if its based on a story, you would have to more than likely go through it page by page. That is, if you do want to read the book. You could ask the Lord to help you get through the book, or ask the Lord to get rid of this book and the idea of ever attempting to read it again. These are two different approaches to prayer depending upon what you actually want.

Or it may be something you want, you just are unsure of how to traverse it. I really want to hike this enchanted forest, but I need help to traverse its mysterious domain and follow the meaderning forest. I might while hiking, encounter a blister and ask the Lord to relieve me of this blister, but my overall prayer for the hike is to help me get through this hike even if I want some specific difficulties relieved or just out of my sight, and not to abandon the idea.

I had been on a hike in Montana where previously I had reached a high point on a moutain trail but didn't have enough daylight to go further into a high mountain valley that was further on between two twin mountains. I had reached a point where I just needed to go down into this valley by talking a small path which would then leave me by a rivulet high up say 8,000 feet that traversed mysteriously between the mountains. I went back another day and hiked down that little rocky trail to a point where I was beginning to go up the valley and by a lush waterway, again, not to far from either of the moutaintops on either side. I was now where I wanted to be. I had gotten through. Then I was thinking of yet another trip all the way through the high valley on another day. I looked back at the trail in and suddenly a bear was coming right towards me, into an area that basically was enclosed until I could find a trail out miles away up further between this mysterious high mountain valley. The only way back out to where I had come from was to take the path that the bear was now walking down on and towards me. Now, the scene changed, all of the sudden this wasn't the spot to be in even though I had hiked for a couple of hours to get there and this initially was where I wanted to be. Even though I had hiked miles to reach this point and now there were no other hikers on this trail at this point in the evening. I did not want to find out what the bear wanted and it did look like it wanted to be in the spot I was in, which was maybe his spot. Now I wanted to get through the hike yes, but I wanted the bear to go away. The only chance of this was if the bear proceeded around a bend going left over an unviting rocky hill down the moutainside. I said a prayer to the Holy Spirit that this would happen, and surprisingly immediately the bear made the turn left and went into the unseen distance even though he had been only 50 yards away from me and approaching me rapidly. Fortunately, I had gotten an answer to my prayer and I did need an immediate answer. I had initially gotten to the pristine spot I wanted to get to, but I didn't anticipate that a bear would want to share it with me and I was also told they didn't go up to points at the highest elevations so it was unexpected. While I still wanted to get through the hike, I now needed the Lord's help in removing a possible dangerous presence. As I was standing there and the bear was approaching, I was thinking of a story I heard the night before of someone's unfortunate encounter with a bear in the area 6 years earlier.

Something to meditate on in prayer then, is to whether you want to ask the Lord to get you through something, rather than just outright remove it and you even might get to where you want to go and still need the Lord to have something removed from your presence and it could be something unexpected that arises as well.

You might be asking to get through an uncertainty, a confusion, a want, a course way you really do want to traverse but you do need help to do it and you are unsure about this as something you are capable of.

Other prayers might involve, just asking for an outright removal, get me out of this situation and get me out of here. There is no reason to be here and do this because I don’t want to be there and I could be so many other places doing so many other things. So there can be an analysis right up front as to whether this particular issue does involve a prayer for something I need or want to go through or is it something else that qualifies as something I really don't want. I’m not trying to pray through something I abjectly want removed. For example, you loath your job, you may not want to pray through this specific situation, you might just want to get away from it and the Lord will take care of you from the outer banks of this situation and get you another job that you like. Jesus, took the blind man by his hand, and led him out of the village, and then ministered to him privately and prayed him through to the reclamation of his sight. Possibly, the village was a toxic environment and Jesus knew that the blind man needed to be led out of this as part of his overall healing. The enviroment of the village and is possible associations, was something that Jesus felt the blind man needed to be led away and removed from. Because of his blindness, he wasn't able to get out of this on his own and it was Jesus himself who led him away. For other people, they may have a spiritual blindness that keeps them from getting away from a toxic situation as the just can't see it ruinousness in a way that stops them from going forward. They also need the help of being led out of the situation.

Then sometimes you can go to the other side of what you are praying about, not just staying in one place. For example, someone might be profoundly poor, but they pray for wealth and it seems to remain in the distance as an elusive concept that they can't get to in reality, nor can they even hover into it's realm with their contemplations. Go into wealth in the prayer, thanking the Lord for all your wealth as you advance into the situation spiritually even though you haven't yet advanced into it in the material realm. You may still find your pockets relatively empty at first, but the moral is that you can traverse and conceptualize in the spiritual realm to the other side of the issue you are praying about without the physical manisfestations of what you want being present as you pray the prayer of advancement. This is a type of praying in advance. Another example is someone who has a nagging health problem and they continue to pray for healing. Maybe go into the healing, advance that healing and thank the Lord that this area is now in perfect form and health, getting to the other side of this in the prayer itself. This type of prayer represents a crossing over, you are crossing over the mysterious river of possibilities in this prayer.

In Habakkuk, Chapter 3 verses 17 to 19, it says,

Though the fig tree does not blossom,

And no fruit is on the vines,

Though the produce of the olive fails,

And the fields yield no food,

And there is no herd in the stalls,

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will exult in the God of my salvation,

God, the Lord, is my strength,

He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

And makes me tread upon the heights."

His personal situation in the moment certainly didn’t sound like he was “ treading on the heights’ as what he is describing is the equivalent of someone who's projects are all failing in today's business world but he allowed himself to go to those heights in prayer and in his contemplation of the Lord as he traveled or advenced to the place where he was indeed " treading on the heights" in his prayer, even though he may or may not have done so physically, he did go there spiritually and conceptually as he advanced his prayer forward. The heights was not where he was in terms of his personal circumstances and affects, so going there did represent going to the other side from where he was.

The moral of this little story is also not to just look at the direct circumstances in front of you and reach all of your conclusions spiritually or otherwise off that. The possibilities you are facing in prayer are roomier and quite different. Nothing that he was directly involved with seemed to be going well at all. Yet what the Lord actually had did differ substantially. With the Lord he was treading on the heights, things were in a different category. There is a tendency always to pray right from the situation your in. But the Lord might have a whole new category, as per the theme of this psalm of new song for the nations. The possibilities of this can at least be contemplated in prayer. Prayer does go beyond what I can conceptualize, imagine, or think about right in the very moment I'm in and you have to be ready for that as well. For example, you might say to the Lord, thank you for your will today. Or you might say to the Lord, thank you for your glorious plans for today. You are saying just about the same thing with both requests, but the tilt in the second request seems to go into another category and calls upon greater possibilities. Something along the lines of treading on the heights that is referred to in these verses from the Habakkuk. He doesn't speak of a direct answer to his economic misfortunes, but of the Lord coming to him and bringing him to the heights which is far different reality than the reality which is facing him now on the home front. For him to get to the heights was even more unlikely and an odds against type situation given his own crumbling circumstances. Yet the Lord did take him there even though he was subject to dragged down personal situations. In this psalm there is a great exuberance throughout the land, which has an equivalency to the idea of treading on the heights.

As a possible shift in prayer strategy, don't just focus on the answer, but on the Lord himself coming to you in this situation and meeting you in this situation. Because what happens is that the answer can seem to become fleeting, like the air dropped supplies that appear from a relief plane, but the plane itself never actually stops and it soon fades into the distant horizon of faraway skies as it passes by. Ask the Lord to come to you in your particular distress, disappointment, discouragement, or uncertainty. The wanted answer can seem too much like a separate entity from the presence of the Lord. Just give me my answer and I will not badger you any more and we'll all go on our merry way, maybe to meet again sometime in the future or maybe not. Someone can receive payment for services rendered and then everybody goes their separate ways. Unless you feel you are properly entwining the wanted answer with the Lord's care and presence, switch gears a bit and more so focus on what this psalm is saying, that the Lord will come. It doesn't say the answer will come, it says the Lord himself will come. And in the case of the gospels Jesus came into the presence of the blind man in the village who was just one man, he also came to those he ministered to with the answer but it was his presence that was paramount.

Where I'm praying from is probably going to influence my prayer. If I'm praying in a Harry Potter type forest, I might pray one way. If I'm in a beautiful church sitting down and relaxing I might pray another way. But the background to both prayers is still the same, that the Lord made the heavens. And the Lord is still going to be able to find you and your prayer in the dense forest among the wilds of nature as well as in the beautiful church. While I might feel that way or this way, I don't need to let whatever circumstances I'm praying from be totally influential on my prayer. If I'm praying from the position of lack, that doesn't mean that I need to constantly refer to lack in my prayers. Even if I'm lacking I can refer to great things in my prayers. Circumstances should not be the only dictates towards prayer. There are other truths out there and the final verse of this psalm refers to the Lord bringing his truth. Even if your circumstances are not dire but rather enchanting, this is not the whole truth either. The truth resides with the Lord.

Later in this psalm it says, " Then all the forest shall sing for joy for the Lord, for he is coming." One of the problems with prayer is that I might be so focused on my "answer". The answer might seem to come like a plane dropping off needed supplies or help from the air and then continue flying by. In the case of the blind man in the village, Jesus himself came to him and led him by the hand knowing that he couldn't see himself. Jesus had the answer for his blindness, but he also came to him personally. In the last passage of Habbakuk,this man was in what would be the equivalent situation today of business distress, being unable to make a living.

Maybe you can’t even find you way out prayer wise, if you do want out of the forest. If the Lord is not leading you out of the situation even though it is your initial desire that he does this, then maybe it is his wish that you pray for a way through this particular issue and as you find a good way through your desires would reunite with this situation when you find the good part of it. For example, maybe the Lord wants you to go to school, but you just want out of school altogether. You will enjoy it and get through it, once you change your major and this is what the Lord's leading will be and you need to be able to discern this as the Lord's leading will be to take you through rather than away. This of course will be unique to each different prayer situation and he wish may be different for someone else in the similar circumstances. The discernment involved applies uniquely to the person and to the individual prayer issue of this person. He may want to bring you through some issues and out of other issues as you pray about each issue. But in many cases, what you are actually trying to do is to pray your way through something and praying through is what is actually what you are trying to achieve. The answer isn't always just to exempt myself from the whole issue.

Things that would lend themselves to praying through would be something like trying to launch a career, a relationship, a long term exercise plan, relocation in where you are living, or dealing with ingrained personal characteristics that you are trying to match with. A lawyer working on a trial wants to work through the facts of the case.

Praying through would not as much apply to situations where you are just trying to get out and away, such as getting out of a toxic relationship, getting away from a very bad job or just avoiding trouble that you don't want near you in the first place.

Praying through can apply to situations you have chosen and places you really want to be. For example, I want to hike a wondrous but foreboding trail in a National Park. I want the Lord to help me and maybe my friends that are hiking with me as I traverse this landscape that may have dangers and a ring of unfamiliarity to what I am normally used to. I want to pray through the day and the hike contained within the day.

Praying through relates to the day by day unfading presence of the Lord, as I expect the Lord to show up on every corner whether forseen or unforseen. As I pray through, I don't expect the Lord to disappear on me, I expect his help on this now and around the corner as well.

This psalm seems to have a happy ending and happy new beginning or newness for everyone in the springing forth of renewed hope and refreshment of spirit. There are moments like this, when people do come together in glorious songs of hope and joy to the Lord and it is magnificent to be there and obtain the view of renewed hope which operates at a higher realm yet is manifest in the visible hopes of the moment.

Verse 7 is also important, as it shows that the Lord is not only looking at individual but also in on families. Jacob said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord and the family is part of the leadership of the church and as the Lord looks upon his peoples also looks upon the families of his people.

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