Psalm130 is a helpful psalm to pray while keeping your congregation in mind. Pray it slowly, with emendations, and reflecting on its particular meaning for the congregation where you are pastor or where you worship.
Out of the depth my congregation cries to you, O Lord. Lord, hear this people’s voice!
(Hear their pain on behalf of sick members. Hear their fears of job loss. Hear their insecurities that result in petty arguments)
Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my congregation’s supplications.
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?
(The people of my congregation are aware of their selfishness. They are aware of their fears that cause them to pull in on themselves. They are aware of the ways in which they take faith too lightly.)
But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.
This congregation waits for the Lord, the souls of this congregation wait, and in God’s word they hope. (They keep returning week after week hoping against hope.) Their souls wait for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.
Oh church, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with God is great power to redeem. (God’s power is made perfect in our weaknesses. God can work even through our failures to redeem us.)
It is God who will redeem this church from all its iniquities.
I think it was Horace Allen who first introduced me to the practice of taking a line in a psalm and building on it with additions that followed the same line of thought. With your congregation, you might want to add even more specific lines. It is good to pray for your congregation with stark honesty. Lay before God both their light and their darkness and remember that you are not alone in your ministry. God is there with you.
