For our church Advent booklet this year, members of the congregation were asked to reflect on Psalm 20.1-5, which is perhaps quite a surprising prayer, and then to offer a 200 word contribution with the opening words: This Advent my prayer is…
Here is my contribution:
This Advent my prayer is that the Lord would answer you in times of trouble, and keep you safe from all harm.
Amen to that! I’m not sure what harm is coming my way, but it’s good to be protected.
And may the Lord grant your heart’s desire.
Excellent! My heart’s desire is to get that job promotion and have more time to spend on holiday.
May he make all your plans succeed.
I’ve got big plans you know. Plans to travel the world, so that would be great.
But wait, all my plans? Even the plans I’ve got for that nasty piece of work who lives next door?
Love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.
Yes, maybe I’d better change that plan – wouldn’t want that coming out in the open by God making it come true.
Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves…
Better?!
…you must have the same attitude that Jesus had.
May the Lord answer all your prayers
Father God, I want your will to be done, not mine.
As I started to reflect on this Psalm, and think about what to do with “may the Lord make all your plans succeed” I realised that there are three people involved here: the psalmist whose voice we hear, the Lord who is called upon to grant the prayer, and the hearer to whom the psalmist is speaking in references to your plans, your heart’s desire, your prayers, etc.
In putting myself in the place of the hearer I felt a responsibility to try to ensure that my plans and desires are outcomes I would actually like to see happen, if someone was going to be praying that they would. Not only that, but also a responsibility to see that what I want is in line with what we know of God and so what the Lord, called upon in the psalm, would want to grant.
I have tried to represent this in the conversation above. The voice of the psalmist is in bold using words from Psalm 20 in the New Living Translation. The response of the hearer is in plain type and attempts to convey a realisation of the responsibility mentioned above. The third voice, in italic type, using words of Jesus and Paul from the New Testament, might stand for the Lord prompting a follower of Jesus, although there is no response from the Lord mentioned in the psalm.
I have concluded with words of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, although in the mouth of the hearer of the psalm.