I’ve been reading through the Psalms lately and it has struck me how much they pray national prayers, and so seldom pray individual prayers.
- “Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises” Ps 22:3
- “let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you.” (Neh 1:6)
- “He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” Ps 98:3
When I read these “we” and “us” prayers, I wonder how it would affect us if we began praying national prayers?
Lord, you have been good to us.
Lord, we have turned from you.
Lord, heal our land.
When God brings judgment on an land, he brings it on whole nations. It might do all of us some good in our prayer lives to come before God with the prayer of “us” in mind.
