This week we’re praying for justice, using guidance from four Psalms and two of Jesus’s parables. So far we learned about praying for our leaders to do justice, lamenting injustice, petitioning for protection, and praising God when justice is done.
We’re following Jesus’ instructions to not give up praying for justice, while avoiding self-righteousness.
Today we’ll learn how to pour out our anger to God.
Advocating for your vulnerable neighbors will earn you enemies and persecution, even from people close to you. Psalm 109 can help guide your prayers as you ask for God to step in and vindicate you:
My God, whom I praise, do not remain silent, for people who are wicked and deceitful have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues. With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause. In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer. Psalm 109:1-4
This Psalm was applied to Judas after he betrayed Jesus (compare Acts 1:20). You can use this as a template to express your anger about the “Judas” in your own life:
Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy; let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him. May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership. Psalm 109:6-8
If you’re truly being treated poorly but your hands are clean, then it’s likely the person is also hurting others. Verse 16 includes an accusation you can repurpose for yourself:
For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted. Psalm 109:16
The Psalm helps you express the ways you feel hurt by their opposition:
For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. I fade away like an evening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust. My knees give way from fasting; my body is thin and gaunt. I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads. Help me, LORD my God; save me according to your unfailing love. Psalm 109:22-26
The Psalm can help you take vengeance out of your own heart and put it into God’s hands, where it belongs:
Let them know that it is your hand, that you, LORD, have done it. Psalm 109:27
Psalm 109 is a powerful expression of pain, but trust in God to take action. Balance it with Jesus’s warning against self-righteousness that we learned in day 5, but pray it boldly when an enemy is causing you harm.
Tomorrow is our final day in this series, and we’ll learn about using these prayers in a community that is seeking justice together.