But as for me, my prayer is to you, oh Lord. At an acceptable time, oh God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me in your saving faithfulness.
– Psalm 69:13
Is that not a great prayer? Did you hear that phrase “at an acceptable time?” “My prayer is to you, oh Lord. At an acceptable time, oh God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me in your saving faithfulness.”
Psalm 69:13 Shows Us the Psalmist’s Humility in Prayer
Oh, we need to insert that phrase more often into our prayers, “at an acceptable time,” to pray with trust in the timing of God as we ask for all kinds of things, to constantly say, “God, according to your timing,” to pray for healing when we are sick or hurting, and to say, “God, please do this at an acceptable time,” knowing that he will answer. And that’s what I love about the last part of verse 13.
In the abundance of his steadfast love, in his saving faithfulness, we are praying to the God who loves us so much with a steadfast love, the God who saves us from our sin and from death, the God who is faithful to us, we can trust his timing. The other day in our church family, we were just praising God for his holiness in all kinds of different ways. Just saying, “God, your love is holy. Your power is holy. Your justice is holy,” all of these different attributes of God and actions of God that are holy, and one person prayed, “God, your timing is holy.”
Psalm 69:13 Is a Call to Trust God’s Timing
And I have continually been meditating on that. How true is that? God’s timing is not like our timing, but it’s holy, it’s acceptable, and we can trust his timing. So God, we pray. Teach us to pray like this, to lift our prayers to you with confidence in your steadfast love, in your salvation, in your faithfulness to us.
And as a result of all these things, with confidence in your timing, that you will answer our prayers according to the abundance of your steadfast love, you will answer our prayers according to your saving faithfulness in your time. Oh God, we praise you that your timing is holy, and we pray that you help us to trust you. And God, we pray for people who don’t know the abundance of your steadfast love, who’ve never heard of your saving faithfulness.
Praying for the Turi People
In Jesus, we pray for the Turi people of Bangladesh, hundreds of thousands of them living in Bangladesh and India, Hindu, Bengali speakers, hardly any, if any, known followers of Jesus. God, we pray that in the abundance of your steadfast love and your saving faithfulness, the gospel would spread to them. And we pray this would happen soon. Please God, use us as your church, use your church in India, in Bangladesh, and other places around there from all around the world. Send the nations to reach the Turi people of Bangladesh and India. We pray that they might pray to you the way we’re praying to you right now. According to Psalm 69:13. In Jesus name, we pray it. 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.
