To Pray With My Whole Heart

Meditations on the Psalms 

July 14, 2022

To Pray With My Whole Heart

 

I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;
    I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.
 I will be filled with joy because of you.
    I will sing praises to your name, O Most High.

Psalm 9:1-2

Psalm 9, in its original form, was written in the acrostic poetic form with the first verse beginning with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each succeeding verse began with the next letter in the alphabet. Knowing this helps me appreciate both the poem and its author. This message was important to the author, and he carefully crafted his poem, in form and content, to communicate his message. 

The foundation of Old Testament theology was based on a real experience of God’s presence and power, coupled with a belief that one day God was going to restore the entire world to its originally created order. The people of Israel longed for the coming Day of the Lord, when God’s mercy and justice would freely flow, and everything would be made right. Psalm 9 is an expression of this longing for justice. This longing was carried forth in the New Covenant where God’s people still pray for God’s Kingdom to come, God’s will be done, on earth as in heaven.

Verse one sets the tone of the psalm and is helpful in showing us how to pray for the coming reign of Christ on earth:

“I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;

    I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.”

To pray with my whole heart is to recall that my life does not belong to me. My life belongs to God. By creation and redemption, my life, my heart, belong to God. And my life in God is not to be a secret. The reality of God’s love for me overflows from my heart, and I cannot help but tell of all the marvelous things the LORD has done.

My Takeaway: I previously have written about the Blessing Jar Cheryl, and I keep on our dining table. Each Sunday morning, we make note of how we have experienced God’s blessings the previous week. At the end of the year, we will review all our blessings from God. This helps us tell of all the marvelous things God has done in our lives. (I am writing this on the day after I returned from the hospital; tomorrow we will need several notes to contain all of the Lord’s marvelous deeds in our lives this last week.)

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.