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Prayer Requests 3-21-18

It’s Wednesday, so don’t forget Ajisuun and The Gambia.

Anyone else?

Psalm 41

1 Blessed are those who have regard for the weak;
    the Lord delivers them in times of trouble.
2 The Lord protects and preserves them—
    they are counted among the blessed in the land—
    he does not give them over to the desire of their foes.
3 The Lord sustains them on their sickbed
    and restores them from their bed of illness.

4 I said, “Have mercy on me, Lord;
    heal me, for I have sinned against you.”
5 My enemies say of me in malice,
    “When will he die and his name perish?”
6 When one of them comes to see me,
    he speaks falsely, while his heart gathers slander;
    then he goes out and spreads it around.

7 All my enemies whisper together against me;
    they imagine the worst for me, saying,
8 “A vile disease has afflicted him;
    he will never get up from the place where he lies.”
9 Even my close friend,
    someone I trusted,
   one who shared my bread,
    has turned against me.

10 But may you have mercy on me, Lord;
    raise me up, that I may repay them.
11 I know that you are pleased with me,
    for my enemy does not triumph over me.
12 Because of my integrity you uphold me
    and set me in your presence forever.

13 Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting.
   Amen and Amen.

14 thoughts on “Prayer Requests 3-21-18”

  1. Interesting insight. I’m sure the scholars have discovered and taught this before, but I just noticed.
    I am presently reading the Psalms of Asaph. Psalm 80 this morning.
    It dawned on me that the Psalms of David are about praise and personal deliverance. The Psalms of Asaph are primarily about restoration of Israel.
    I don’t know who Asaph was, but I surmise that he was a priest during the captivity.,.

    Liked by 3 people

  4. Asaph was one of the leaders of the three musical Levitical clans, and he was a contemporary of David. Those first chapters of I Chronicles, which so many people say they prefer to skip over because of the names, contain quite a bit of information about those who wrote the Psalms along with David. From I Chronicles 6:31-47:

    These are the men David put in charge of the music in the Lord’s temple after the ark came to rest there. They ministered with song in front of the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, until Solomon built the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem, and they performed their task according to the regulations given to them. These are the men who served with their sons.

    From the Kohathites: Heman the singer, son of Joel… [several names excluded] son of Korah, son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, son of Israel.

    Heman’s relative was Asaph, who stood at his right hand: Asaph son of Berechiah… son of Gershom, son of Levi.

    On the left, their relatives were Merari’s sons: Ethan son of Kishi… son of Mahli, son of Mushi, son of Merari, son of Levi.

    From I Chronicles 15:16-24:

    Then David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their relatives as singers and to have them raise their voices with joy accompanied by musical instruments—harps, lyres, and cymbals. So the Levites appointed Heman son of Joel; from his relatives, Asaph son of Berechiah; and from their relatives the Merarites, Ethan son of Kushaiah. With them were their relatives second in rank: Zechariah, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, and the gatekeepers Obed-edom and Jeiel.

    The singers Heman, Asaph, and Ethan were to sound the bronze cymbals; Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah were to play harps according to Alamoth [see intro to Psalm 46]; and Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah were to lead the music with lyres according to the Sheminith [see intro to Psalms 6 & 12]. Chenaniah, the leader of the Levites in music, was to direct the music because he was skillful. Berechiah and Elkanah were to be gatekeepers for the ark. The priests, Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer, were to blow trumpets before the ark of God

    Asaph’s fellow music leaders, Heman and Ethan, also wrote Psalms. Heman was the music leader of the sons of Korah, who had survived their ancestor’s rebellion against Moses by not joining it, and is named as the author of Psalm 88. Ethan is named as the author of Psalm 89. Both Ethan and Heman have the distinction of being among the wisest men in the Old Testament, although Solomon surpassed them: “He was wiser than anyone—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman…” (I Kings 6:14). To be a music leader under David and Solomon, both skilled musicians and poets in their own right, was no insignificant position.

    Liked by 3 people

  6. The reference for Solomon’s wisdom should be I Kings 4:31. Also, there is some question as to whether the Ethan the Ezrahite (who definitely wrote Psalm 89) is the Ethan of Asaph’s musical group. There was another, earlier, Ethan, who was one of five sons of Zerah, the twin brother of Phares, the sons of Judah by Tamar (I Chronicles 2:4-6). That it could the earlier Ethan who was the Ezrahite is apparent by looking at the list of Zerah’s sons and the list of the wise men whom Solomon surpassed:
    I Chronicles 2:6: “And the sons of Zerah; Zimri, and Ethan, and Heman, and Calcol, and Dara: five of them in all.”
    I Kings 4:31: For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all nations round about.”
    Hebrew names did not seem to have standardized spelling and furthermore, many people seemed to be designated by more than one name, making genealogies interesting, though not impossible, to follow.

    Liked by 2 people

  8. Phos

    I was going by the tenor of Asaph’s Psalms. E.g.
    Ps. 80:3f
    Turn us again, oh God and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved.

    Etc. He seems to be pleading for the return of a rebellious people. All his Psalms have a different tone. j
    Thanks for the research and comment.

    Liked by 2 people

  9. Chas, we have a rosy view of David’s reign as a golden age for Israel, but Moses just before his death warned the nation of Israel that they did not have the right heart to follow God (Deuteronomy 31:24-29). Israel was always rebellious. Even during the reign of good kings or the rule of good judges, the heart of the people of Israel was still not right towards God, as evidenced by how quickly they turned out of the way when those kings or judges died. During David’s reign, when Asaph wrote, there was (leaving aside the disorder of those first nine years in Hebron when all the tribes but Judah were ruled by Ishbosheth, Saul’s son): the rebellion of Absalom, the rebellion of Sheba son of Bichri (I Samuel 20), the famine in punishment for Saul’s genocide of the Gibeonites (I Samuel 21) and the untold reason for God to be angry towards Israel when David was allowed to fall into the temptation of numbering the people (I Samuel 24:1). As the writer of Hebrews later said of the history of Israel (8:7-9):

    For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says:

    “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
    when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
    and with the house of Judah,
    not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
    on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
    For they did not continue in my covenant,
    and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.”

    Liked by 1 person

  10. My cousin’s hip replacement surgery went well this morning, she’s already walking the hallway at the hospital. She’ll stay overnight but will be home tomorrow, no complications expected.

    Other guy cousin is pushing to have them give her the old hip bone to mount over her fireplace, but looks like they’re not going for it.

    Liked by 5 people

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