All your commandments are sure. They persecute me with falsehood. Help me.
– Psalm 119:86
Wow, what a verse. I think about this word, persecuted, in light of brothers and sisters I’ve spent time with over recent weeks. They’re facing great costs for following Jesus in different countries around the world. From parts of Asia to parts of Africa.
Psalm 119:86 helps us to consider our persecuted brothers and sisters.
Just think about a brother in Nigeria. Where Christians today are being brutally killed, kidnapped, or beaten. And other Christians in other parts of the world who are being imprisoned. Who are being attacked in different ways and accused with falsehood. One brother telling me about people trying to smear his reputation in order to prevent him from sharing the gospel. And I read Psalm 119:86, “They persecute me with falsehood. Help me.” And I think about these brothers and sisters in Christ crying out for help in the middle of persecution. And standing on God’s Word in the middle of it. Because they know Psalm 119:86, all his commandments are sure.
Oh, I just want to encourage you then with this Word today, no matter what this world may bring at you, including potential persecution, we know 2 Timothy 3:12, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” So maybe to different measures or degrees as you face persecution as you are attacked or hurt with falsehood and you’re looking to God for help, know that in the middle of the attacks of the adversary against you, that you have sure commandments in God to stand on.
And as you stand upon them, he will help you. This is a promise, he will help you according to his Word. I don’t know what you’re walking through in your life right now where you need help, especially in any way that others are trying to harm you, but know that as you experience those challenges, the commandments of God are sure for you to stand on. They’re a rock that you can believe, you can trust.
Psalm 119:86 reminds us God’s Word is a rock we can stand on.
As you live according to them, you can know this leads to reward. This world and whatever it brings at you is not the end of the story. You are living for a reward that’s found in obedience to God’s Word and proclamation of God’s Word and trusting in God’s Word and the help that comes from God through his Word. Oh God, I pray this over every single one of our lives and we pray this especially over our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world.
God, help them to stand on your Word. Help them to stay steadfast in your Word amidst unimaginable suffering, amidst imprisonment, amidst risk that they walk in on a daily basis, amidst challenges, amidst trauma from experiencing persecution. God, we pray that your Word would hold them up. We remember them right now, Hebrews 13:3, “Who are in prison, who are suffering as if we were in prison or suffering with them.”
Help them, oh God, we pray. Even as we pray for your help in our lives, in every way we need, we praise you. All your commandments are sure and they’re steadfast. They are a rock, we love them. Oh God, we praise you for your Word to stand on.
Prayer for the Jiiddo People
And God, we pray that you’d help us to spread your Word. Knowing, knowing that there will be more persecution the more we give our lives to proclaiming your Word, but God, help us to do it anyway, help us to faithfully spread your Word.
We pray specifically today for the Jiiddo people of Somalia, for 39,000 of them who don’t know your Word, and anybody who tries to share your Word in Somalia will face great risk and great cost. God, we pray that the Jiiddo people of Somalia would be reached with your Word by people who are persecuted with falsehood, that you would help them and that the gospel would spread through them, and the Jiiddo people would experience your salvation in Somalia.
God, we pray all this for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world and in our own lives, help us, help them to stand on your sure and steadfast Word to trust in you and to proclaim you no matter what it costs. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
