Pray the Psalms: Psalm 132

[MUSIC PLAYING] Hi. Rick Hamlin. Psalm 132. I will not give sleep to my eyes nor slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the Lord, a habitation for the God, the mighty God. 

A habitation for the mighty God. There is something really important here about place. When you pray, it’s helpful to have a place you go to every day, even if it’s only five minutes. It could be a chair. It could be someplace by your bedroom, sitting on your bed. It could be in an office. It could be in front of a computer. But a place, because when you go to a place, it reminds you what you want to do there. And your body and everything, all your sensory perceptions become accustomed to that. 

So for me, my regular place of prayer is a subway train. And I close my eyes after I’ve read a psalm or two, and I pray. But all those things happening– the noise, the jostling, the movement– is a reminder to me of prayer. 

So if you’re sitting in a chair, and some of the external sounds, the light, even the smells will remind you to pray. So make a place for the Lord. There’ll be other times in the day when you pray here or there. You close your eyes. You say something in your head. You remember something from those psalms. Lord, have mercy upon me. Have mercy upon me. 

But that sense of place is something so helpful to prayer, because when you go back to that place, every time, it will always help you reconnect, become still, become silent, hear your inner thoughts, and hear that inner voice that’s God. A habitation for the mighty God. Psalm 132. Amen.