Attend to my cry for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors for they or too strong for me. Bring me out of prison that I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me.
– Psalm 142:6–7
Wow. What good verses to guide us to pray for our family. I don’t use that term, brothers and sisters. We have family members who are in prison right now. We have family members who are being tormented right now. And we have family members who are in labor camps right now, who have armed soldiers around them, constantly threatening to them.
Psalm 142:6–7 Encourages Us to Pray for the Persecuted
And David, who writes this psalm in Psalm 142, is being attacked by soldiers. He’s being pursued by persecutors and he’s actually hiding in a cave when he writes this. So he’s not in a literal prison, although it obviously feels like one to him when he says, “Bring me out of prison.” But we’re praying for brothers and sisters, our family members who are in prison right now, in labor camps right now. And I just want to encourage us in light of these verses and so many verses all over scripture, to make this a continual prayer in your life, to pray for our persecuted family that they would know they are not alone, that we are with them, praying for them, standing with them, and pleading on their behalf. So let’s cry out to God for them right now together.
God, attend to our cries on behalf of our brothers and sisters who are brought very low right now. We pray for your deliverance from their persecutors, for they are too strong for them. God, we pray knowing that they are not too strong for you, God, that you are Lord, you are sovereign over persecution and persecutors.
Psalm 142:6–7 Encourages Us to Pray for Our Persecutors
Lord, I think of specific countries where persecutors are like Saul, working to ravage the church. God, we pray for the salvation of persecutors in those countries. Lord, we pray for Saul-like conversions today. God, would you do it today? Would you hear our cries right now for persecutors? And would you save them by your grace? Would you radically transform their lives just like you did Saul, so that they go from persecuting the church to proclaiming Christ? God, you are strong enough for that. God, you have the power to do that. We pray that you would do that. Hear our prayers, God, and do that today. We pray.
We pray for your strength and your peace and your comfort and your health and your perseverance and faith and trusting you for our brothers and sisters who are in prison right now and for their families who are praying for them and trusting in you, God, please preserve their faith. Strengthen your church just like we see you doing in the Book of Acts. We pray that you would do that today.
Strengthen your church and because the gospel to spread in the middle of persecution, even as we pray, God, deliver them from their persecutors. Bring them out of prison, we pray. Surround them with the righteous according to Psalm 142:7, deal bountifully with them, we pray. Oh God, we praise you that prosecutors in prison will never have the last word for your people, that ultimately the righteous will surround our persecuted brothers and sisters and you will deal bountifully with them.
Praying for the Unreached
God, help them to hold on to faith in you toward that end. And God, as we pray every day on this podcast for unreached people, God, we pray that you would raise up your church that’s willing to go into hard places and be persecuted and imprisoned for the spread of the gospel. God, deliver us from casual cultural Christianity that sees following you, Jesus, as a means to all kinds of ends in this world. God, we pray You help us to truly follow Jesus no matter what it costs, knowing that he is Jesus. You are our reward. We pray all of this in light of your word in Psalm 142: 6 and 7 in Jesus’s name. 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.
