“In my distress, I called to the Lord and He answered me.”
– Psalm 120:1
Is that not a beautiful verse, an awesome verse to meditate on and pray? According to today, in my distress, I called to the Lord and He answered me. I just look at all these different prayer requests that people are sending in the middle of this pandemic at radical.net/prayer request.
I invite you to continue to send those in and as I read through them, there’s just so many different pictures of distress, of crying out to the Lord and Psalm 120:1 is a reminder that when we call out to the Lord, He answers. He answers us. He hears us and He answers us. Now, not always in the way we would design. Heather and I, we’re having a conversation this week, just about our longing for our child, who we’re not able to go to in adoption right now and God’s not answering in the way we would like.
Crying Out to God for His Love and Wisdom
But we know that when we cry out to Him, He who is all powerful and all wise answers us according to His power and His wisdom, His goodness and His love. So I just want to encourage you with that reality today. No matter what is going on in your life. No matter what distress might look like at any moment, to know that you can call to the Lord and He answers you and all of that is possible because of the gospel, because of what Jesus has done to make the way for you and I to come directly to God through His blood that covers over our sins and to call out to the Lord and He answers us. So I want to read today just one of the many pictures of distress of calling out to the Lord.
Ty writes, “You prayed the other day about those who are already married and I would like to ask for prayer for those who like me are preparing to get married in this uncertain season. My fiance and I more than anything want to celebrate and glorify Christ in early June on our wedding day. But this virus has made decision-making difficult. We both know that marriage is so much more than the wedding day. But the added stress has brought difficulties, relational tensions for me, my fiance.
Psalm 120:1 Prays for Trust and Peace
So please pray for trust. For peace that we would still be able to celebrate. That I would still be able to celebrate my bride. That we would be able to celebrate together even with a very different wedding than they were planning originally in June.” So I want to lead us to pray for Ty and his fiance and all kinds of other couples in similar situations.
God, we praise You that no matter what distress might look like in our lives at any moment that we have Your ear, that You hear us and You answer us, that You help us. You provide for us. You care for us. So God, we pray that over Ty and his fiance. God, we pray that this next month of preparation for this wedding would be a time of deeper intimacy with You than they have ever experienced before.
God Within Marriages
So, God, I pray for that amidst all the stresses and decisions to be made. God, I pray that You would draw them both into deeper intimacy with You. That their hearts might be fully prepared to unite together in marriage even if that’s just before You. To be able to unite together in marriage in a way that powerfully portrays Your gospel, not just on that day, but for years to come, we pray and I pray for just an extra measure of grace. I know. All who have been married know how special that day is.
God, I just pray that You would give them extra measures of grace, of joy in this celebration, of unique ways to celebrate this with family and friends and not being able to gather together in the way that they had originally planned. God, we pray this for Ty and his fiance. Just for Your blessing on them in every way, for them to know Your presence with them, Your promises to them, Your peace in their hearts, Your joy in their hearts and Your blessing on their marriage.
Psalm 120:1 Prays for God’s Grace
We pray for this for Ty and his fiance. We pray this for all kinds of other couples who are preparing to get married over the next couple of months. God, we pray that You would grant them an extra measure of grace. You would draw them into deeper intimacy with You. Don’t let the adversary use this to pull them away from You in a moment where they need to be pressing into You like never before in preparation for this awesome covenant of marriage.
God, please bless Ty, his fiance, other couples like this. That You might be glorified on that wedding day in a unique way and for years to come from it. That they from the very beginning of marriage would know what it is like in the middle of distress to call to You the Lord and know that You always answer in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
