Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.
– Psalm 68:5
Oh, I love this psalm. I feel like I say that with a lot of these psalms, and really I love the whole Word, but when I read Psalm 68, I remember preaching on it, and it is so full of a picture of God moving on behalf of his people in power, defending his people, providing for his people, coming from his sanctuary and working on behalf of his people.
Psalm 68:5 Reveals God as a Champion of Orphans and Widows
At the very end, Psalm 68:35 says, “Awesome is God from his sanctuary, the God of Israel. He is the one who gives power and strength to his people.” So it’s just this majestic Psalm. And right at the beginning, in verse five, God tells us that he is Father of the fatherless and protector of widows. That’s who God is in his holy habitation, in his sanctuary. So God is the provider, protector, gives strength to his people, and God is the protector of the widow and the Father of the fatherless.
I think about this first, my mind on a personal level immediately goes to my mom in light of my dad having gone to be with the Lord unexpectedly many years ago and I just praise God as her protector. And then I think about children who have been in need of a family in different ways for different reasons. I think specifically about JD, the son who we were matched with a few years ago and have been waiting to go and pick him up from overseas and bring him into our family.
And I cling to the fact that God is his Father, that God is his defender and provider and protector. And I so want to be a picture of God’s love and provision in JD’s life. At the same time, I am so thankful that God on high in his holy habitation promises to provide for him. So could we just pray Psalm 68:5 over the fatherless and widows in our world?
Psalm 68:5 Challenges Us Show Compassion to Orphans and Widows
God, we pray for these two particular groups of people, that they would know you, God, they would know your love, your care for them, your compassion for them, your protection of them, your provision in their lives, that they would know, oh God, that you in your holy habitation are for them. And God, we pray knowing what you tell us in your word, in James 1, that religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is to look after orphans and widows in their distress.
So God, we pray, help us as your church to be a picture of your love for the fatherless and the widow, to be a picture of your protection and your provision and your compassion for them. God, help us in our lives, our families, and in our churches to look after, take responsibility to care for the fatherless and the widow in a way that reflects your care for them.
Praying for Orphans and Widows
God, I pray specifically for individuals, families, and churches who are doing this in all the different circumstances and even challenges that brings for those individuals and families and churches and for those who are fatherless and those who are widows. And God, we just pray for your provision and your protection over all of them, over all of us.
Lord, just compelled to pray that by the power of your word and your spirit, even right now, you might raise up more individuals and families and churches to look after and care for orphans and widows, God, that even this short few-minute podcast episode might be an instrument in your hands to prompt people to foster, care for children or adopt children or work in other ways on behalf of orphans. And in the same way that your spirit would prompt care for and ministry to widows in accord with your word. We pray this all in light of Psalm 68:5. You are Father of the fatherless and protector of widows in your holy habitation. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the 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, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
