“Save us, Oh Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations that we may give thanks to your Holy name and glory in your praise.”
– Psalm 106:47
This summary verse of Psalm 106:47 in a sense comes at the end of an entire chapter just recounting God’s grace among his people. How God’s people continually turned from him, and God saved them. God delivered them, and yet they would still turn away from him. It’s just a recounting over and over and over again of God’s gracious salvation. So you get to this verse and it just says, “Save us, Oh Lord our God gathered us from among the nations that we may give thanks to your Holy name and glory in your praise.” That verse, well, it’s in so many ways applicable right now as we turn our eyes to God in the middle of a pandemic and say, we need your salvation, your deliverance, your provision.
Thanking God and Giving Him Praise Among the Nations
“Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.”
And I was looking through the prayer requests that people are sending in just specific ways to pray in light of the coronavirus crisis we’re in. Let me encourage you to continue sending those into radical.net/prayerrequests as we just pray over each of those and identify one to pray for together each day. I want to read from what Carissa wrote. She said, “Please pray for people groups around the world who are facing particular need this time. Please pray for people groups around the world who are facing particular needs during this time.” And then she goes on to mention rural Uganda and Ethiopia and Kenya and Somalia, so just think East Africa, who in addition to dealing with this virus, are dealing with a plague of locusts. Many people must make the choice between protecting themselves from this virus or protecting their food source from the locusts.
If you don’t know about this, I would encourage you to just search this online and see what is happening in East Africa right now. Just a plague of locusts that descended over the last couple of months. The likelihood is that more are on the way that are just devastating crops. Devastating food supplies, and having a disastrous effect on top of this virus. Just imagine natural disaster on top of a global pandemic.
Psalm 106:47 Prays for God’s Provision
And this is what our brothers and sisters, peoples, people groups across East Africa are experiencing right now. And so I want to lead us to pray for God’s provision and salvation and deliverance among them for people who are at this moment, Not just facing a global pandemic, but are facing a real threat of potential starvation as a result of a plague of locusts. God, we join our hearts and our voices before you right now as I voice this prayer on behalf of everybody’s listening to this. Oh God, we pray for your mercy in East Africa.
God, we pray for your grace. For your provision. For your power on behalf of our brothers and sisters in countries like Ethiopia and Kenya and Somalia and Uganda right now. Even as I mentioned Somalia, the number of people there who have little to no access to the gospel. God, we pray for your merciful provision there in the midst of this pandemic on top of this plague of locusts.
Psalm 106:47 Prays for the Church in East Africa
Oh God, we pray for your provision for your help, for your protection. God, we pray that you are blessed your church in the middle of these countries. So God, we pray that you would give them faith, that you’d give him strength. God, we pray for their physical provision in every way they need. God we pray for the spread of the gospel through those churches in the midst of dire days. Oh God, we pray for the good news of your ultimate deliverance to spread.
God, we pray for all kinds of ministries that are working across these countries. God, we pray that you would bless them, grant them favor. So God help us. Help us and our lives and our churches to know how we can best be a part of showing your provision to our brothers and sisters in these countries and through them to so many who are in need. God, we pray for your mercy in East Africa right now. Even as we plead for your mercy all around the world, we pray for an extra measure of grace there. Save us, Oh Lord, our God. Gather us from among the nations that we may give thanks to your Holy name and glory in your praise. In Jesus name we pray. 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.
