Praying Through the Scriptures: For Prayer Times that Engage, Edify, and Exalt the Lord

I like to pray through sections of Scripture to give vibrancy, zeal, and assurance to the things I am praying about. In this blog post, I give you a peek at how to go verse by verse through a group of verses by considering what you know about God and what that means for you and those you are praying for. I hope to do a number of these "prayer prompts” to give you some ideas for enlivening your time with the Lord.

George Muller said, “When we pray we speak to God. Now prayer, in order to be continued for any length of time in any other than a formal manner, requires, generally speaking, a measure of strength or godly desire, and the season therefore when this exercise of the soul can be most effectually performed is after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God, where we find our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble us, to reprove us.” [Cited in Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney (NavPress, 1991), 74-76 (emphasis added).]

In this adventure in prayer, read through Psalm 37:16-22, noting the italicized sections": “16 Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked. 17 For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord sustains the righteous. 18 The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their inheritance will be forever. 19 They will not be ashamed in the time of evil, and in the days of famine they will have abundance. 20 But the wicked will perish; And the enemies of the Lord will be like the glory of the pastures, they vanish—like smoke they vanish away. 21 The wicked borrows and does not pay back, but the righteous is gracious and gives. 22 For those blessed by Him will inherit the land, but those cursed by Him will be cut off.”

Now go back to Psalm 37:16 and begin to pray for some of the things I mention here: There are so many things to pray through, about, and for from this section of Scripture! We see in verse 16 the reminder that it is better for the righteous to have little and know the Lord, than to be like the wicked, have an abundance, and yet not know the Lord. Here we see and are reminded of what is truly valuable and is truly sufficient for our souls. Because the Lord is sovereign, good, mighty, powerful, and providing, believers can rest and be at ease with their “little,” knowing that if God wanted them to have “more,” to have an “abundance,” they certainly would.

Psalm 37:17: We see in verse 17 that the Lord sustains the righteous. Whether we are in plenty or in want, in joy or in sorrow, in sickness or in health, the Lord is the One who sustains us. Unbelievers do not have this comfort, help, or hope. But we, as believers, can persevere, knowing the Lord keeps us in life here on earth until the day when He takes us to heaven and sustains us there.

Psalm 37:18: We see in verse 18 the declaration that the Lord knows the days of the blameless. God’s sovereignty, omnipotence, omniscience, nearness, care, kindness, compassion, righteousness, and justice are all on display in that phrase. The Lord knows the days of the blameless. Nothing escapes His notice. We may be hidden from the world, tucked away from sight, but we are not hidden from the Lord. He sees and knows our days. Not only does He see our days, He knows about our days. He knows the hardships, trials, suffering, joys, and blessings of our days. Implied in the statement of the Lord knowing our days is the idea that He takes note and will act to help us. He doesn’t just watch—He watches over us to care for us.

Psalm 37:19: We see in verse 19 that the righteous, that is believers, will not be ashamed in time of evil. No one will ever be ashamed of putting their hope and trust in the Lord. That occurs for us in the larger picture of salvation and in the smaller picture of trusting in the Lord in every moment of the day. We will be ashamed when we don’t trust Him. We’ll be sorry we were angry. We will be ashamed that we were fearful. We will be sorry that we gave in to worry, fretting, irritation, pouting, discouragement, despair, envy and things like this. But trusting the Lord? No, we won’t be sorry we did that. We also see in verse 19 that the righteous will have an abundance in days of famine. God assures us that He will see to our needs, but more than that we see for the righteous, He intends to abundantly provide. More often than not, we think of temporal “abundance,” while God intends a spiritual bounty. Yet, no matter how God provides, we see again, that our God is invested, intentional, and involved in the lives of His children. He will provide!

Psalm 37:20: In verse 20 we are reminded again of why it is necessary to place our faith in Christ for salvation. The wicked are in peril. They have no hope, no rescue, no help. Pray for gospel conversations among your friends and family, that they would move from the realm of “none who seek after God” to the realm of “seek the Lord while He may be found.”

Psalm 37:21: We see in verse 21 that the wicked borrows and does not pay back, while the righteous is gracious and gives. The righteous is able to be generous and open-handed in their giving because they know the Lord knows their needs and will provide for them in just right way and time. We act like those who don’t know God when we hoard or covet what someone else has. God loves it when His children act like Him and give willingly, generously, and cheerfully to those in need, while trusting the Lord to provide for them. What a testimony this is to a watching, grasping, hoarding world!

Psalm 37:22: In the end we see from verse 22 that the righteous enjoy God’s blessing, while unbelievers suffer from their rejection of God. They have no comfort, hope, or blessing in this life, and certainly not in the life to come.

In the end, this section in Psalm 37 reveals to us the ways we need to think during trials, giving us specific ways we can live. It shows us a picture of a providing, guiding, drawing near, and concerned God, who ministers to us in every situation and every need. It reminds us that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will more than abundantly provide our heart’s desires in Him (Psalm 37:4).

Take the time now, to pray through the whole psalm or these verses, based on our discussion here.