On Telling God What to Do

On Telling God What to Do
Psalm 70

As usual, this Sunday morning in church we prayed that the church might be one, that it might faithfully preach the gospel to the ends of the earth, that there might be justice and peace on the earth, and that the world might be freed from poverty and famine. And as usual we prayed for some specific needs of our congregation and community: for a lady who would be there every week but has been in pain with her back and legs, we prayed that she would find relief; and for a family who were just marking the six months’ anniversary of the death of their father and husband, we prayed that they might find comfort. These prayers are very unlike the prayers in the Psalms, which spend more time than we do in telling God how awful things are and less time than we do in making suggestions to God concerning what to do about it. In general I assume their example suggests insights about how we might rework our way of praying...