N o one wants to appear to be a whiner. We hold our complaints inside, nurse them in private thoughts, and allow them to gnaw away at our soul. As a pastor, we instruct others to listen to Scripture and forget to allow it to instruct us. If the Psalms, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer suggested, is our school of prayer, then as I suggested in the blog on Psalm 22, we have been instructed to let our complaints out to God.
I want to offer you a slight adaption of Psalm 13 as a framework for a pastor’s (or any devoted Christian’s prayer). It will have the most power if you pray it aloud in a private spot and maybe even pause occasionally to fill in the lines with some specific lines of your own.
Psalm 13:
To the leader. A Psalm of David.>
1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God! Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”; my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
5 But I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
