It must be 40 years since Psalm 139 has become my goto psalm for praying for myself.  I love that the Lord knows me so well that my thoughts, words, actions, even my attempts to run and hide from 

Him, are completely known to Him.  Especially precious to me is His knowledge of me before I ever came to be born. 

 It was in 2012, when I had the privilege of being part of a pastoral search team that I asked the Lord how I could pray for the people who applied for the position, who sent resumes for the team to read and consider.  I wondered how I could pray for someone I really knew nothing about. At 3:30 one morning I woke to the thought, “Psalm 139”, and the idea of replacing the pronoun: “I, me, my” with a person’s name and the pronouns to match.  That morning as I typed out the whole psalm. I replaced every pronoun with a blank line, printed off several copies and began to fill in the names from the resumes I was responsible for at that time. 

 What I found was that I enjoyed praying for these potential candidates, because I could trust that God knew them through and through and cared deeply about each one, whether or not they came to be part of our staff.

Over the years I have prayed for many people using the same tack and have used the same method with Psalm 23, Jeremiah 29:11-13, as well as many hymns, replacing the pronouns I, me, my with a friend’s name. Then I sing the prayer. 

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
       even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
       even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day,
      for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,
       I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place,
       when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book
       before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—
       when I awake, I am still with you.

If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.
Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139 NIV

 

I hope you take an opportunity to try this way of directing your prayers for specific people you love or are asked to pray for.
I also hope that you will find that it is a blessing for yourself.

by Carolyn Schmitt