Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways.
– Psalm 119:37
Oh, what a good verse. I was putting our 16-month-old to bed the other night, and my 10-year-old came in, and as we often do, I just said, “Hey, buddy, how about a verse we can pray over Mercy?” as we put her to bed. And this is the verse that he shared. Psalm 119:37: “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways.”
Psalm 119:37 Is a Request for Deliverance from Worthless Pursuits
We just prayed that over little Mercy as well as our own lives, that we would turn our eyes away. That she, throughout her life, my 10-year-old, that I would turn our eyes away from looking at worthless things and that we would experience life in God’s ways. Just think today about how tempted you are to turn your eyes toward worthless things.
Think of all that your eyes will look on today, and how many of those things are unhelpful for you. I think specifically about our phones, don’t you? About all the worthless things we can fix our eyes on all day long in our idle moments to just turn our eyes immediately toward worthless things and to spend so many moments, hours, even looking at worthless things.
Psalm 119:37 Is a Prayer for Renewed Vision
And I think about temptations to look at worldly worthless things around us every day. Oh, God, we pray. Turn our eyes from worthless things. Help us to fix our eyes on worthy things, on your Word, on what matters most in the world. Turn our eyes toward looking at that which is pure and right and excellent and praiseworthy. God, we pray that that is where our eyes would be turned all day today. In this, oh, God, we pray that you’d help us to turn our eyes to You, to the one who alone is worthy.
God, help us to live with our eyes fixed on You. Help us to do Hebrews 12, fix our eyes on Jesus today, the author, perfecter of our faith. God, help us to keep our eyes fixed on You all day long. And we pray that You would give us life as we do. Give us life in your ways, in your Word, and that which is worthy of our attention, of our focus of our eyes. God, we pray Psalm 119:37 over each other.
Praying for the Kami People
And we pray this over the Kami people of Tanzania who don’t have your Word yet. God, for this people group of 36,000 that doesn’t have a copy of your Word in their language, in the Kami language. Lord, we pray for the spread of your Word in the Kami language that they might turn their eyes to the worth of your Word.
God, we pray, knowing they can’t be saved. They don’t hear your Word. We pray for the spread of your Word to the Kami people of Tanzania, that they might turn their eyes from the worthless things of this world, and You might give them life, eternal life in your ways, in your Word. God, we pray this over them even as we pray Psalm 119:37 over our own lives and over our kids, over those around us. God, turn our eyes away from looking at worthless things, and give us life in your ways. We pray in Jesus’ name. 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.
