Psalm 16
April 16, 2023
Father, Son, Holy Spirit we marvel in your revelation to us about yourself. Psalm 16 is loaded with wonderful illustrating words. Refuge, excellent, delight, chosen portion, pleasant, beautiful, counsel, glad, rejoice, dwell, secure, life, fullness, joy, pleasure.
You, the magnificent creator of the universe, the Sun, Moon, and Earth, the skies, seas, and land, the plants, animals, and human beings. What is man that you are mindful of him? The son of man that you care for him? You have revealed, through these human authors, your love and care for us. We can take refuge in you and dwell in your presence and we experience fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Joy is found in you alone, in You alone.
Chasing after anything that is not You, Oh God, multiplies sorrows. Forgive us. We repent and turn to you. The Lord gives us counsel and instruction. In following it we are secure and will not be abandoned. We meditate on your truth and the counsel of scripture that is trustworthy and brings life and spares us from death and destruction. We have it in our purses or pockets, fill our hearts with it. Let it be on our tongues. Transform our minds with your truth. Holy Spirit protect us from the lies. Give us discernment to see the lies from the devil, reject them, and hear your truth that you love us.
Remove the barriers in our lives that prevent us from sharing and carrying our brothers and sisters burdens, we are the body of Christ, not one of us can thrive apart from the rest of the body. Jesus accomplished the work of our salvation, and sent the Holy Spirit to empower us to continue and share the good news with others. We pray that we would be transformed by your truth, and that your Holy Spirit would move in us to boldly share this truth and good news.
We pray for our global partners. We lift them up to you in prayer as they serve in other countries around the world. We pray for their physical health, and ask that you would give them strength. We pray for their mental health as they navigate different cultures. We pray for their spiritual health, that they would dwell in your presence receive good counsel.
We pray for our local church here at Centennial. Thank you that you are the head of our body, the church. We praise you that we have Jesus as the perfect head of our church, and not us humans fighting over the headship of our church. Forgive us for the actions we take that don’t reflect you God as our head. We praise you for sustaining our church through the decades, and the greater Christian church through the centuries. Give us wisdom to see how we can be salt and light and good news to our local community. Help us to faithfully love another and experience the pleasures of dwelling in your presence.
Amen.