Padres Road

Love will find a way and psalm 5

Psalm 5 reads as follows from the New American Bible:

For the leader; with wind instruments. A psalm of David.

Hear my words, O LORD; listen to my sighing.

Hear my cry for help, my king, my God! To you I pray, O LORD;

at dawn you will hear my cry; at dawn I will plead before you and wait.

You are not a god who delights in evil; no wicked person finds refuge with you;

the arrogant cannot stand before you. You hate all who do evil;

you destroy all who speak falsely. Murderers and deceivers the LORD abhors.

But I can enter your house because of your great love. I can worship in your holy             temple   because of my reverence for you, LORD

Guide me in your justice because of my foes; make straight your way before me

For there is no sincerity in their mouths; their hearts are corrupt. Their throats are open      graves; on their tongues are subtle lies.

Declare them guilty, God; make them fall by their own devices. Drive them out for their many sins; they have rebelled against you.

Then all who take refuge in you will be glad and forever shout for joy. Protect them that you may be the joy of those who love your name.

For you, LORD, bless the just; you surround them with favor like a shield.

 

 

Just as it is with the weather, we see how quickly things can commence in any possible direction. The changing weather conditions are one relevant format of outer conditions that we are dealing with unless we are choosing to keep it indoors altogether.

The guiding principle to stay upon, guide upon, pray upon is the great love of the Lord individually shown and present

As mentioned in the psalm, people who are trying to trample on others aren't taking the position or view that David is of acknowledging the Lord's presence, his great love as being personally present not only in the distance but in back step and each step from here into the distance.

In Jeremiah chapter 11 verse 14 it says, do not pray for these people, I will not answer you.

The NIV version of this verse quotes as "Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress."

Unless the Lord says this, the understanding is to keep praying with an emphasis that it will be for people and unless you hear otherwise for some specific reason the call is to broad, general and far reaching prayer with some specific connotations.

David's ultimate commitment and reliance was to the great love of the Lord with the rising up the dawn and all the way through in to still to form pathways found in the vision of that love.

His inclusion of others is undertaken right at the beginning of his own personal journey in prayer even though he doesn't know where this journey will take him

That his prayer vision included others right at the get go of things would mean that this inclusion was probably kept with as he went along.

David does depict a separation, people who have strayed, who have stayed away from or had a disbelief in the "great love" of the Lord.

He is careful not to include himself with them, while he at the same time intervenes for others, especially those who are understood as being with the Lord.

David was originally a shepherd earlier in his career and is continuing in that vein in the spiritual sense as he is seeking spiritual protection for others in the realms of prayer.

He is speaking on behalf for others in prayer within this psalm.

David has the keys, not only for himself and opening doors for himself but also for others

In this psalm, he is symbolically at the earliest part of the journey and this goes along with other passages in the psalms of if today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

David could have kept his prayers only within his own concerns, but in his wisdom he extended his prayer reach right away to others as well.

He is avoiding the uphill battle for himself and others as he asks the Lord to make his ways straight

Straight could me not crooked, mystifying, uncertain and difficult but it could also mean straight rather than a difficult uphill climb.

The Lord's way can be make straight and is not necessarily an uphill battle where you have to climb Mt. McKinley in Alaska to reach the Lord's good verdict for you.

Sometimes people are trying to get somewhere and feel like the waves are crashing on them from all directions and it is too much of a struggle to get to anything that would fit a description of a straight path.

Looking to the Lord might remedy that, in many cases the first instinct is to charge ahead and try harder but the obstacles might be too great and the mountains to high to climb, while in the meantime the Lord has a better, breezier, smoother sailing course that can be found as you seek his ways for you.

David might have seen great obstacles and no straight road ahead.

Taking on step back is what David is really doing here

And by taking that step back, he then can step forward into another better road, that is the way of the Lord for him and journey that path.

The imagery in this psalm shows that David felt the call, as well as having understood it intellectually.

As David is praying for others, these others could for example have included future generations. He couldn't have known from where he was standing who these people might have been and indeed there could have been none that fit the criteria of his prayer.

But this is also an example, that unless the Lord says otherwise, you can proceed with criteria presented in prayer that you don't know who these people are. You can pray for people in a given nation who need healing, not knowing who these  people are but you can present the criteria of those of need healing nonetheless

An angel approached an individual to bring lunch to Daniel in the lions den in Babylon, yet this individual didn't know of Babylon or anything that was going on there. Yet the angel instantly brought him to Babylon and back for the task.

The account is described in Daniel chapter 14 from the New American Bible:

 

" In Judea there was a prophet, Habakkuk; he mixed some bread in a bowl with the stew he had boiled, and was going to bring it to the reapers in the field,

when an angel of the Lord told him, "Take the lunch you have to Daniel in the lions' den at Babylon."

But Habakkuk answered, "Babylon, sir, I have never seen, and I do not know the den!"

The angel of the Lord seized him by the crown of his head and carried him by the hair; with the speed of the wind, he set him down in Babylon above the den.

"Daniel, Daniel," cried Habakkuk, "take the lunch God has sent you."

"You have remembered me, O God," said Daniel; "you have not forsaken those who love you."

While Daniel began to eat, the angel of the Lord at once brought Habakkuk back to his own place."

Prayer and the works of the Lord do proceed into the unknown and this was the case for David as well.

He was shepherding people in a large part that he did not know, yet he was called to do this, and not doing this would have been wrong.

In Ezekiel chapter 34 it talks about shepherds who did not shepherd to the displeasure of the Lord.

Ezekiel 34 verse 4 says, " The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.?

The healing that this is talking about, which wasn't done by the shepherds, might have also referred to intercessory prayers for healing, which had they been said would have been honored.

 

This psalm and others do reveal the David had the sensitivity to call to prayer for others, and through in writing many of the psalms through the inspiration of the Holy

Spirit is also speaking of a call for all believers and followers of the Lord to in some way follow suit and intervene for others including for matters of all types of healing.

 

Many of the saints of the church have worked miracles of healing among their many works.

 

A more modern example is Padre Pio, widely cited working miracles of healing right up to this present day.

David did have this sensitivity that caused him to act not only out of his own self interest but also out of a sincere caring for others.

In Jeremiah Chapter 12 verse 11 from the NIV version of the Bible it says,

11 It will be made a wasteland, 
parched and desolate before me; 
the whole land will be laid waste 
because there is no one who cares.

One thing that Lord is looking for is the sincerely caring heart of the individual intercessor.

A manifestation of the caring heart is praying for others.

The shepherds mentioned in Ezekiel Chapter 4 were in position to do this, they had the means, and know how to intervene for others, but got too involved in their own power trips and concerns and kind of stepped over their calling and bypassed it.

They could have kept their lofty positions, given by the Lord in the first place, had they still approached things with a true shepherding care for others in the midst of their own power and prosperity.

Indeed, though, the Lord brought them down.

By contrast, David did see others who went by this wayside, but was careful to first center on the great love of the Lord, right from the starting line and continuing and also including in the spiritual world a careful approach of also praying for others, many of whom might have been personally unknown to him or people he was referring to that would have been in the future, past his lifetime as you can pray for future generations.

David had a citing of the Lord's great love and all his moments referenced this great love.  Even if nobody else was going with him, this would be the road he would adhere to and the hope of his prayers was that others would as well.

 

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MLB 11: Road to Cooperstown (RTC) Ep.5 - Padres April Breakdown