Lent Devotional March 20, 2025

Scripture

Psalm 147

1 Praise the Lord!
How good it is to sing praises to our God;
for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted,
and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.
6 The Lord lifts up the downtrodden;
he casts the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
make melody to our God on the lyre.
8 He covers the heavens with clouds,
prepares rain for the earth,
makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He gives to the animals their food,
and to the young ravens when they cry.
10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner;
11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.
12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
he blesses your children within you.
14 He grants peace within your borders;
he fills you with the finest of wheat.
15 He sends out his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
16 He gives snow like wool;
he scatters frost like ashes.
17 He hurls down hail like crumbs—
who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them;
he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
19 He declares his word to Jacob,
his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
they do not know his ordinances.
Praise the Lord!

Devotion

Margaret Owusu-Sekyereh ’22

David praises God and brags about His greatness, creative abilities, and compassion to heal the brokenhearted in this psalm. David is now ruling over a united Israel but a Jerusalem that needs rebuilding. However, God had “strengthened its gates and brought peace” within the Temple City.

Metaphorically, the human body represents Jerusalem as it houses God’s temple (1 Cor 3:16-17). God enters your city/temple when you lift/open your gates to Him (Ps 24:7) for spiritual ascension. As Christians, our gates include our five senses, hearts, hands, and souls (Ps 24:4). During this season, let us reflect on how we can strengthen our gates in this digital, information, and media age. We do so by having clean hands, pure hearts, and non-idolatrous souls. We are to apply kingdom principles, and the strong and mighty Lord of Hosts will strengthen our gates that we may ascend and come into His peace, blessings, and glory.

Prayer

Lord, we acknowledge our need of your help to discern our closed gates and to not hide the Holy Spirit-revealed gates, and equally, we are deficient in using the opened ones to ascend. As we observe man’s world within your creation becoming progressively destructive, we appeal to you to equip our “inner man” with “tools” to strengthen the bars of our gates and experience peace within our borders in this season. Amen!

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