Carry a Blessing
I wanted to give you an example of how to pray a psalm into your life- from my experience with Psalm 24 this week. Click here for the prayer guide. Psalm 24 is one of the Psalms of Advent (see Dec 1 blog post).
Part I- Become present to the presence of God: Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend. (Psalm 5:3 The Message). My centering prayer: “Father, I lay before you the distracted pieces mind and heart this morning. As I breathe, Holy Spirit I invite you into every part of my being. Fill me as you filled the Tabernacle. I open up all ‘gates’ of my soul to you, Lord Jesus, King of Glory. Take your rightful place on the throne of my life.”
Part 2- Listen to the Psalm: I read through Psalm 24 slowly out loud. I listened to it in three different translations in the audio Bible. I especially liked comparing renderings in the Message and the NIVUK (by actor David Suchet). Then I personalized the psalm, re-voicing the 3rd person pronouns as 2nd person: “The earth is YOURS Lord, and everything in it. YOU founded it on the seas. Who may ascend YOUR mountain? Who may stand in YOUR holy place? Those with clean hands, pure hearts, who put no trust in idols. They will receive (lit, ‘carry’) blessing and vindication from YOU, God our Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek YOU, who seek YOUR face, God of Jacob. King of glory- YOU are strong and mighty, Yahweh of Angel Armies, come into our lives this Advent.”
Part 3- Pray the Psalm into your life (using the prayer prompts in the guide):
“Lord God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit- I praise you, for you are… the Lord of all the earth, of all creation. The entire cosmos is under your generous ownership. It does not belong to us. We are your covenant partners, called to steward the good gifts of your creation. And you are holy. You make us holy. You are the King of Glory. You are the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. You are strong and mighty, mighty in battle- over all that causes darkness and death in my world.
“I praise you for what you have done. Specifically, I thank you for…. giving me clean hands and a pure heart so I can enter your presence. Thank you for dethroning every idol and lie that holds us captive. Thank you for setting me free to worship you today.
King of Glory, I welcome you into every part of my day. I lift up the ‘gates’ of my life to your loving rule- I invite you into all of it. I welcome you into the happy parts and the hard parts, into my laughter and my lament. And in this sacred season of Advent, I invite you King Jesus into every part of my life today and into the life of your church- both, as we gather in worship this Advent, and as we scatter as your ambassadors into your broken world. We anticipate your coming as King of Glory.”
Experiencing the psalm through music: I listened to a musical version of Psalm 24, ‘Carry the Blessing’ by the Shiyr Poets. As I listened, I focused on these verses: (5) They will receive blessing from the Lord, and vindication from God their Savior. (6) Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob.
I was curious why the musical artists used the phrase ‘carry the blessing.’ So I looked up the Hebrew on biblehub.com. The Hebrew word translated ‘receive’ in v. 5 is nasah (נָשָׂא), which literally means ‘to lift’ or ‘to carry’. For example it is used in Exodus 25:14 describing how the Israelites were to carry the Ark of the Covenant. The Shiyr poets rendition (‘Carry a blessing’) accurately reflects the heart of this beautiful Hebrew verb! We not only receive blessing from God our Savior, we carry that blessing into this dark world.
What a privilege! We are blessing carriers. I invite you to join me in praying this prayer each day this Advent: ‘King of Glory, how can I carry your kingdom blessings into my world today?’
