Psalm 28

Psalm 13 pretty much drained all the intelligent-theological brain power (if any in the first place) that I had stored up for the past 22 years, so I have been racking my brain/struggling to come up with something to put down for Psalm 28. I’m simply not that prestigious of a writer, so most of the time when I’m called on to write something regarding scripture, the only inspirations I have to draw from are my struggles or relations to whatever it is that I’m reading. By pondering on Psalm 28 over and over again for the past few days, this is what I finally noticed…

Since Sunday night, prayer has been a rampant topic floating around in my brain. And by sort of reviewing Psalm 28 specifically since then, it dawned on me that this passage sounds like David is praying! He may not have actually been “praying”, but to me, David’s words in this Psalm in particular are an exceptional example of a brutally honest, real, conversational, and meaningful prayer.

I like David. I seem to relate to his way of wanting to be real with God and to communicate in a meaningful way. As opposed to regurgitating spiritual phrases that we’ve heard everybody pray all our lives. Instead of just saying “bless me”, “be with me”, “watch over and protect me”, “forgive me of all my many sins”, etc etc… all the time, I hope God can mold my thinking to where I can automatically say real and meaningful things to Him. In this mysterious thing called communication with the God of the universe, I want to use real words, and not slip into these tired religious clichés that don’t mean anything to us and certainly don’t mean anything to Him. God isn’t looking for more of that. God wants people who are in connectivity with him, in a conversation, who are saying things to him that sound like what they would say to a friend or to a person of great worth in their lives.

While writing most of these Psalms, David’s heart and mind was one that said, “I get what God has done for me.” For those of us who have a relationship with Christ, I think a solid goal for our prayer lives could sound like this: “I want to fully grab a hold of power of the cross and the resurrection of Christ and the transformational power that those two things have in my life everyday. Therefore, as I’m talking to God, I want to pray prayers that reflect that back to him.”

Just read the first few verses of Psalm 28. David wanted to say stuff that was real, he wanted to get out of a rut, and perhaps he wanted to give God a break. I think God would be thrilled if we started a dialogue with him using real words that we actually thought about. What is it that we want from God? More importantly, what is it that we want to give to God? How do we want to converse with the creator of the universe?

Much Love,
Rob