Naked Prayer: Praying for Justice (part 5 of 5)

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(Sept 6, 09 – Mike Nichols)
One of my favourite scenes from Forrest Gump is Lt. Dan sitting atop the mast of the fishing boat during the hurricane yelling at God. In a similar vein there is a scene in the movie The Apostle wherein a lady is talking about the preacher’s prayer life. She poignantly says, “Sometimes he prays. Sometimes he just yells.”

Have you ever yelled at God? Ever protested to the Almighty? King David did. David protested “the ungodly who prosper” –this reality was very “painful” for him (Psalm 73:12,16). Jesus also protested when he prayed, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).

Psalm 94 is known in the Psalter as a “community lament”. One third of the psalms are laments, but Psalm 94 is more of a protest than a lament. The Psalmist is praying against exploitation, arrogance, and evil. I imagine that not lots of your prayer life is spent praying this way. Today we are going to learn from the psalmist how to pray when you are anger, fed-up, and irritated with the injustices all around.

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