Praying

Psalm 20

I don’t know about you, but I am absolutely allergic to asking for help! For a number of reasons, asking for help feels like a confession that I am not good enough to do whatever it is I am doing. Asking for help is an admission of defeat.

And folks, while I know that the opposite is true, it is also true that belief can be more powerful than knowledge. And some of the most powerful beliefs we cling to are the ones that are about ourselves. We cling to the beliefs we have learned about ourselves as children. If we are told as children we cannot sing, that belief persists. If we are told as children that we are problems in all of the ways that can happen with or without words, then we bring that self-loathing into adulthood. If we are taught as children, either implicitly or explicitly, that we must please others to be safe, then we bring that misguided belief into adulthood.

It’s amazing what we learn in childhood that can take so much work to unlearn. I’m terrified at what I will accidentally teach Zoë to believe about herself, even against my own will! I am also aware that this is a universal aspect of being a parent.

The fact of the matter is this, I need help all of the time. And I have sabotaged myself tons of times by not asking for it.

Psalm 20 is a Psalm of prayer. Scholars call it a Royal Psalm because the author is likely praying for whomever the king might be: “Give victory to the king, O Lord.” But if we put that to the side and look at it differently, I could see the Psalmist potentially praying for me. And when I look at Psalm 20 in this way, I find words of encouragement and support.

Words that give me courage.

I don’t like to admit to needing those things, (or anything, really) but a deep part of me yearns for encouragement and support. And I think that might be true for so many of us.

I have a lot of friends on social media and I see so many posts there that are simply jokes disguising cries for help. Parenting is hard, and these days our culture expects nuclear families to raise children alone. It’s possible, of course. But it can be miserable and isolating. It can be exhausting and demoralizing. I have no idea whatsoever how single parents do it, but they find ways to manage as well.

The Psalmist in Psalm 20 prays that in the day of trouble, God will protect us, that God will answer us when we call, and that God will help us.

Friends, when you encounter someone who needs help, and what they need is not something you can provide, I hope you will be inspired by the Psalmist in Psalm 20 who prayed for the king and, I like to think, is also praying for each person who hears and reads this Psalm today.

Let’s pray for one another. Let’s send out that energy of hope for God’s help to come because we all need it; even if we are too intimidated, prideful, or overwhelmed to ask.