The song of Moses reminded Israel of the great deliverance they’d had from the Egyptians. Very similar themes to many of David’s psalms.
- “The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him”
- “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them.”
- “The Lord will reign forever and ever.”
The ideas of praise and thankfulness are rarely translated into our modern life. We experience so few moments where there is some monumental event to be thankful about. So instead we need to find ways of identifying small victories, or events in which we can retrospectively see some form of guidance.
With nothing to be happy or praise God about, it’s easy to end up much like David in today’s Psalm. “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.” The cares of this life, all its troubles and vanities, can easily become overwhelming. David’s answer to that feeling is prayer. “My prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.“
Prayer will almost certainly never produce immediate results. For me, part of the power of prayer is that, for those few short minutes, I’m thinking of someone or something other than myself. Whether it’s just the mighty power of God, or prayer for others in need, it results in outward-focused thoughts. I sometimes wonder what Jesus spent all night praying about, all those times. I think it’s fair to assume that he spent a considerable amount of time praying for the needs of others.
Jesus’ selfless personality is highlighted in today’s Mark reading. “And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him”; “Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat”; “And a crowd was sitting around him“. Jesus is constantly attending to the needs of others, even at the expense of his natural needs.