Pastor Fredo Ramos: For whatever reason, I have always struggled to pray. And so as this new year begins and as many of you think about new routines that you wanna give yourself to, especially for those of you who follow Jesus, I wanna invite you to learn to pray the Psalms with us. It's a practice I picked up years ago that really saved, my ability to learn to pray, to speak to God honestly about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. And so every single day on sandalschurch.tv on YouTube, we're gonna be releasing, praying the Psalms, a psalm a day. We started in January 1st and every day you're gonna get a new psalm, but the opportunity to read the psalm with us, to reflect on a phrase, and then to respond to God in prayer, how to pray through the Psalms.
This has been a gift to me in my own journey with Jesus. I pray that it's a gift to you, and so would you join us. Grace and peace.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: We continue praying the Psalms and come now to Psalm 35, Psalm of David verse 1. Oh, Lord, oppose those who oppose me. Fight those who fight against me. Put on your armor and take up your shield. Prepare for battle and come to my aid.
Listen to David's tone to God in prayer. Lift up your spear and your javelin against those who pursue me. Let me hear you say, I will give you victory. Down in verse 9, then I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be glad because he rescues me.
With every bone in my body, I will praise him. Lord, who can compare with you? What a question. No one compares to him. But notice verse 11.
This is kinda the heart of this Psalm. Malicious witnesses testify against me. They accuse me of crimes I know nothing about. They repay me evil for good. I am sick with despair.
When they were ill, I grieved for them. I denied myself by fasting for them, but my prayers returned unanswered. I was sad as though they were my friends or family, as if I were grieving for my own mother, but they are glad now that I am in trouble. Verse 17. How long, oh, Lord, will you look and do nothing?
Rescue me from their fierce attacks. Protect my life from these lions. Verse 22. Oh, Lord, you know all about this. Do not stay silent.
Do not abandon me now, oh, Lord. Wake up. Rise to my defense. And then we get to the end now, verse 27. But give great joy to those who came to my defense and let them continually say, great is the Lord who delights in blessing his servant with peace.
Someone who was without peace is finally now bearing witness to the fact that God has brought peace. 2 things by way of reflection for us to consider today as we pray this psalm. The first is there in verse 11, that David is confessing unfair treatment. Things happen in life even when we strive to live with integrity following Jesus, even when we seek to do good to those around us, whether they are our friends or our enemies. We will live with integrity, and at sometimes, things will happen to us that are unfair.
Lies will be spoken against us in the same way they were about Jesus. And then also the other reality I wanna speak to is verse 17, David's confession and prayer. How long, oh Lord, will you look on me and do nothing? In other words, it's very normal for you or I to go through seasons where it feels as though God is being passive and not active in our life, especially when we feel like people are treating us unfairly. And so I think this psalm, Psalm 35, is such a great reminder to us, and it's preserved in scripture for us that we might have the permission and the confidence and the ability to practice praying like this.
God, things are happening to me and it is unfair. Jesus, I know you see me in this. It even feels though, lord, that you are passive, you're not active. It feels as though, like, you're taking a long time to help me out of this situation, but yet we are reminded of the promise that peace will come to us. And so, lord, we we wanna receive your invitation now just to be honest about what we're experiencing, whether it be unfair treatment or whether it be a sense that you're just passive and not active in our lives.
And yet at the same time, god, we wanna confess that though we might be feeling a certain way about our life and about you, we want ultimately our trust and our hope to be built on your word and what you have said already. And so Jesus, we look to you as the one who lived life even when you were treated unfairly, and you live life still with integrity and with love. And you did that for us. And so would you help us now to follow in your footsteps? Would you give us grace and your holy spirit to lead us today in that?
We pray these things in your name. Amen.