Prayer for Protection (Psalm 31:14–15)

But I trust in you, oh Lord. I say, you are my God. My times are in your hand. Rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors.
– Psalm 31:14–15

Oh, what a great phrase. Right in the middle there, I mean both verses, every phrase. But Psalm 31:15, my times are in your hand.

Psalm 31:14–15 Is a Prayer of Trust and Surrender

All throughout this psalm, the psalmist is talking about how he’s being attacked and being persecuted and pursued by enemies, and the psalmist looks up to God. He says, “But I trust in you. You are my God, and my times are in your hand.” Just think about that reality in your life today. Your life, your times are not in someone else’s hand. Specifically in Psalm 31, your life, your times are not in the hands of those who would attack or persecute you or pursue you to harm you.

You are not in their hands. You are in God’s hands. What comfort, what confidence is this? To know that right now your life and your times are in the hands of God and he loves you. He, as Psalm 31 says in other places, is a rock for you, is a refuge for you, is a fortress for you. Just a couple verses later, God, how abundant is your goodness toward those who fear you and take refuge in you.

“Blessed me the Lord,” verse 21 says, “For he has wonderfully shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city.” This picture all throughout this psalm of the goodness, the strength and the power of God, and Psalm 31:15 says, “That’s whose hands you are in today.” So God, we praise you for this reality and we pray you to help us to live in it today.

Psalm 31:14–15 Is a Prayer for Deliverance

Help us to live in the confidence that you hold us in the palm of your hand. And God, help us to stay close to you, to abide in you as we meditate on your word. As we pray, as we obey your Word. And God, no matter what comes our way, help us at every moment to look up and say, you are my God. I trust in you. My times are in your hand. God, we pray this especially over our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world.

God, we pray that you would rescue them from the hands of their enemies and from their persecutors. God, we pray that even as we are doing secret church this week and praying for the church in Iran, God, we pray for your rescue and deliverance and power on behalf of the persecuted church in Iran and so many other places, God, in the world.

Praying for the Unreached

Oh God, we praise you that our times are in your hand and we pray that you would help us and our brothers and sisters around the world to live in this reality and to lead others to this reality. God, help us to lead other people today around us to the comfort and the confidence and the refuge that is found in being in your hand through faith in Jesus.

And we pray that for our persecuted brothers and sisters who are on the front lines of unreached people. God help them in Iran, in Yemen, in Somalia, in so many places to lead people to find refuge in your hand. We pray all of this in light of your word, which we love, and I would be remiss if I didn’t add at the end of this podcast episode praying for the persecuted church.

Secret Church Announcement

We’re a day away if you’re listening to this when it comes out from Secret Church, as we will gather together, thousands of people around the world to pray for the persecuted church and to dive in depth into studying God’s word. It’s not too late to sign up.

So if you want to be a part of it, secretchurch.org, and regardless of whether you’re a part of it, which I hope you will be, I would just ask you to pray God would blast this gathering of his people to draw us into deeper intimacy with him through his word as we walk word by word through the Book of Jonah, and that God would blast this time as we’re praying and giving to the persecuted church around the world, that there would be fruit from this gathering that flows among the nations for God’s glory. Again, more information at secretchurch.org.