Proper 13 / OT 18 (Psalm 17:1-7, 15)
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness.
-- Psalm 17:15
When you consider that the book of psalms was Jesus' prayer book, it is interesting to hear this psalm as a prayer that Jesus might have prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Picture Jesus having left the meal with his disciples and having gone to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. He had told most of his disciples to wait in one place in the garden and took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee with him. He went a little further and threw himself on the ground. He began to pray. While Matthew 26:36-46 tells us that he prayed to let the cup pass from him, he clearly prayed more than the words recorded in Matthew.
Psalm 17 may provide an example of the type of prayer that he might have engaged in. This was a prayer of a faithful one who, surrounded by the enemy, was crying out to God. "Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry; give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit." The prayer was a plea for vindication for a life lived in faith that was now threatened by a world that did not consider his life to be of value. He laid his case before God. "If you try my heart, if you visit me by night, if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me; my mouth does not transgress." Later Jesus would demonstrate that he had chosen not to exercise violence against his enemy (Matthew 26:52-53). "As for what others do, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent."
Jesus confronted the question that has always haunted believers throughout the ages. If people are not to respond to their enemies with violence, how should they respond? Jesus' prayer placed the issue before God. "I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me, hear my words. Wondrously show your steadfast love, O savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand." Jesus' hope in the garden, our hope in our confrontation with evil, was (is) that God would arise and confront those who measured life by physical victory or defeat. Jesus demonstrated in his passion that there are times in life when we do not receive an answer ahead of time but must trust God as we "walk through the darkest valley ..." (Psalm 23:4). So we hear the psalm that might have guided him in offering that trust: "As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness." As we imagine Jesus praying this prayer in his time of distress, we hear how, in our time of distress, this might be our prayer.
-- Psalm 17:15
When you consider that the book of psalms was Jesus' prayer book, it is interesting to hear this psalm as a prayer that Jesus might have prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Picture Jesus having left the meal with his disciples and having gone to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. He had told most of his disciples to wait in one place in the garden and took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee with him. He went a little further and threw himself on the ground. He began to pray. While Matthew 26:36-46 tells us that he prayed to let the cup pass from him, he clearly prayed more than the words recorded in Matthew.
Psalm 17 may provide an example of the type of prayer that he might have engaged in. This was a prayer of a faithful one who, surrounded by the enemy, was crying out to God. "Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry; give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit." The prayer was a plea for vindication for a life lived in faith that was now threatened by a world that did not consider his life to be of value. He laid his case before God. "If you try my heart, if you visit me by night, if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me; my mouth does not transgress." Later Jesus would demonstrate that he had chosen not to exercise violence against his enemy (Matthew 26:52-53). "As for what others do, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent."
Jesus confronted the question that has always haunted believers throughout the ages. If people are not to respond to their enemies with violence, how should they respond? Jesus' prayer placed the issue before God. "I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me, hear my words. Wondrously show your steadfast love, O savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand." Jesus' hope in the garden, our hope in our confrontation with evil, was (is) that God would arise and confront those who measured life by physical victory or defeat. Jesus demonstrated in his passion that there are times in life when we do not receive an answer ahead of time but must trust God as we "walk through the darkest valley ..." (Psalm 23:4). So we hear the psalm that might have guided him in offering that trust: "As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness." As we imagine Jesus praying this prayer in his time of distress, we hear how, in our time of distress, this might be our prayer.
