God's Presence in God's Word

As I enter this time of prayer, I repeat the words of Psalm 69:16–18, slowly, several times, making them my prayer to God:

‘Answer me, LORD, out of the goodness of your love;

in your great mercy turn to me.

Do not hide your face from your servant;

answer me quickly, for I am in trouble.

Come near and rescue me.’

Pause and repeat

Pause to read the passage Ps. 22:1, 16–18

This psalm depicts Christ’s crucifixion so accurately that He Himself quoted it from the cross. ‘Far from abandoning the Word of God when He felt abandoned by God, Jesus found the Scriptures more poignant and pertinent than ever … When God is silent, the galvanising revelations that formerly came to our life through the Bible and through the “still small voice” may seem little more than a distant memory, but this does not make them any less true. In fact, when God is silent, it becomes especially important to feed vicariously on the words He spoke back in the day when life was an easy conversation of two-way prayer; when the sermon seemed to be aimed directly at our heart, and the Bible really was the book we wanted by our bed’*

Is there a particular Bible verse that has been meaningful to me for a long time?

Pause and reflect

I spend a little time exploring each word of that favourite Bible verse now, turning it into a prayer.

Pause and pray

As I bring this time with God to a close, I pray a fourteenth-century prayer of trust from Thomas à Kempis:

O Lord my God, do not be far from me.

My God, have regard to help me.

I have many thoughts and great fears afflicting my soul.

How will I pass through unhurt?

How will I break them to pieces?

This is my hope, my one only consolation,

to flee to you in every tribulation,

to trust in you, to call on you from my inmost heart,

and to wait patiently for your consolation.**

Amen.

*Pete Greig, God on Mute, David C Cook, (Colorado Springs, 2020), p220

** Freely modified from Prayers of the Middle Ages, ed. J. Manning Potts (1954).