Daily Devotion for Sunday 20th September 2026

Lord, listen to my prayer:
turn your ear to my appeal.
You are faithful, you are just; give answer.
Do not call your servant to judgment
for no one is just in your sight.
 
The enemy pursues my soul;
he has crushed my life to the ground;
he has made me dwell in darkness
like the dead, long forgotten.
Therefore my spirit fails;
my heart is numb within me.
 
I remember the days that are past:
I ponder all your works.
I muse on what your hand has wrought
and to you I stretch out my hands.
Like a parched land my soul thirsts for you.
 
Lord, make haste and answer;
for my spirit fails within me.
Do not hide your face
lest I become like those in the grave.
 
In the morning let me know your love
for I put my trust in you.
Make me know the way I should walk:
to you I lift up my soul.
 
Rescue me, Lord, from my enemies;
I have fled to you for refuge.
Teach me to do your will
for you, O Lord, are my God.
Let your good spirit guide me
in ways that are level and smooth.
 
For your name’s sake, Lord, save my life;
in your justice save my soul from distress.
In your love make an end of my foes;
destroy all those who oppress me
for I am your servant, O Lord.
 
Reflection

In some of the Psalms the writer sounds so demanding of God, and this is one of them. The writer (this is one said to be a Psalm of David) is clearly having a hard and frightening time. The “enemy” has crushed him to the ground, his spirit fails, and he reaches out to God.

It is of course difficult to understand the writer’s situation – most of us will not have experienced anything like the horrors he is describing. From our perspective, this demanding approach to God seems wrong.

But the tone seems to change a bit as the Psalm goes on, and the writer begins to ask for God’s help and for God to give him a bit more understanding, rather than just telling God to come down hard on his enemies: “I stretch out my hands”, “In the morning let me know your love”, “Make me know the way I should walk”.

Is this how our thoughts, feelings and prayers should move? From desperation, asking for immediate change, thirst for retribution on our enemies, to beginning to ask to understand better, to know a bit more how God sees things, rather than demand that God share our point of view.

The Psalmist seems to have gone back on this quest for understanding towards the end of the Psalm though, as he asks God quite bluntly to destroy all those who oppress him and, “in your love” to “make an end of all my foes”.

How do we see our relationship with God, and even in the darkest hours, do we call for revenge (we may think of Jesus’s words from the cross), or ask for understanding?

Prayer
Father, please help us to make our prayers to you to be prayers for more understanding of how you would have us be. Let us try to understand those with whom we disagree, even those we would call our enemies, and only then, if such seems to be your will, to try to stop them. Help us to seek peace first, not revenge. Amen