A Pair of Psalms

One of the parts of the order of worship for our Thursday night Common Grounds service is a prayer request time. Members of the congregation submit written prayer requests which are then incorporated into the community prayer. It's a meaningful time; I imagine that most of the members of the Thursday night group, many of whom are homeless or very poor, don't have anyone else who takes the time to pray for them.

There is one gentleman, Fred, who routinely requests that Psalms be read during the prayer time. Tonight he requested Psalms 90 and 91. As they were read in the prayer, I couldn't tell where one stopped and the next one started, so they formed one larger prayer. If you read them, you'll see that the first one is a lamentation and the second one is a Psalm of faith. It struck me, as they were read, that together they were a prayer well designed for Common Grounds. The first part, a listing of the worries and problems the Psalmist was facing, then the second part, a statement of faith in God's protection. It seemed to me to be a prayer that someone from that particular congregation would pray.

I also like the beginning of Psalm 90 and the end of Psalm 91:

God, it seems you've been our home forever;
long before the mountains were born,
Long before you brought earth itself to birth,
from "once upon a time" to "kingdom come" -- you are God.

"If you'll hold on to me for dear life," says God,
"I'll get you out of any trouble.
I'll give you the best of care if you'll only get to know and trust me.
Call me and I'll answer, be at your side in bad times;
I'll rescue you, then throw you a party.
I'll give you a long life, give you a long drink of salvation!"