March 22, 2018 - - Psalm 109:4b How are you using your borrowed breath?

...But I give myself to prayer

Psalm 109:4b ESV

The alternate reading for this line is: "But I am prayer." The psalmist is describing a situation where enemies and troubles are all around. Rather than falling victim to this and moaning, the man is a pillar of prayer.

Why? The answer is given towards the end of this psalm: "For He stands at the right hand of the needy one." God is as near as our most recent prayer. Let me rephrase that: God is always near; our awareness of His nearness is communicated to our soul and mind by our most recent prayer. Sometimes we think God is absent when in fact it is our praying awareness of Him that is lacking.

Yesterday I was singing a hymn and it had this line: "I will praise You while You lend me breath". What a stunning truth--song and prayer, blessing and cursing, encouragement and rancour--all these flow from our mouths and require the very breath loaned to us from God.

Since our very breath is on loan to us from God, let me ask you what you are using your breath for right now? Is it prayer? Is it blessing?

Father in heaven, the urgent prayer of this psalm-writer was answered by the arrival of Jesus Christ. All enemies have been vanquished and defeated so that anyone who calls on the Name of Jesus will be saved and know You, O God, as our Father. While we live as believers we will face threats to our faith and many trials, it is Your Spirit, Father in heaven, Who gives us the words to sing, to pray and to speak--as long as You lend us breath here on earth. May You receive the glory and may our words call many others to faith in Jesus Christ, in Whose Name I pray: Amen.