Psalm 33:22
May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.
This verse echoes verse 18 in making a connection between
our hope and God's unfailing love. We can be confident that God will rescue and deliver us because he loves us with an unfailing love - he doesn't get bored of us, or give up on us, or encounter obstacles which prevent him doing the good he wants to do for us.
But there's also a difference between these verses. V.18 is
a statement of fact. 'The eyes of the Lord are on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.' V.22 is a prayer 'May
your unfailing love be with us, even as we put our hope in you.'
Why does the psalmist bother asking for what he already
knows is true? I think it's because he wants it to be true of HIM. He's making it personal. It's one thing to acknowledge that the only secure thing to hope in is God's unfailing love. But to pray that this would actually be MY only hope, our only hope, goes further. To know that God is gracious, or patient, or forgiving is wonderful in theory. But it doesn't actually change my life unless
he is gracious towards me, patient with me, forgiving of me.
That's where prayer comes in. Prayer is taking God's character and promises - the things he is and does - and asking that they would be true for us. Making them personal. Taking hold of them to bring them into our own, everyday lives. That's why we pray for things that are already true. We ask God to be gracious towards us, not because he isn't gracious already, but because we know that he IS gracious, and we want to experience more of it for ourselves.
Of course, we can ask for other things as well, when we pray
- for better sleep, success at work, improved health, an end to coronavirus. But those are a different kind of request. Then, we're asking that God would make something true that isn't true yet. Which he can do. And he will do, at the right time, if it is for our good and his glory. It's right to ask him about these things that concern us, but prayers like that will always be provisional ... 'if it is your will, please would you ...'
What a shame, then, if those requests become the only things
we ever ask God for. Why would we not want to especially ask for things that we know are guaranteed? To pray, as the psalmist does here, for things that are already true to be true for us. Perhaps we think it's pointless - why ask for what God is already doing anyway? Because we're making it personal. Prayer isn't about getting God to do something he wouldn't otherwise have done. It's about developing our relationship with him. About taking what we know to be true about him in general, and holding onto it firmly for ourselves.
So, let's pray today that what we see of God in this psalm - his unfailing love, his vigilant care and rescue of his people - would be true for us, and that we would increasingly put our hope in him.
