I praise You seven times a day for Your righteous judgments.
-Psalm 119:164
Seven prayers, or scripture meditations for prayer, for today:
- Psalm 61:1-4
- Psalm 84:1-4
- Hosea 2
- Isaiah 49
- Habakkuk 3
- Daniel 7:9-10
- John 17:6
One
God, hear my cry; pay attention to my prayer.
I call to You from the ends of the earth when my heart is without strength.
Lead me to a rock that is high above me, for You have been a refuge for me,
a strong tower in the face of the enemy.
I will live in Your tent forever and take refuge under the shelter of Your wings.
Selah
-Psalm 61:1-4
How lovely is Your dwelling place, Lord of Hosts.
I long and yearn for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh cry out for the living God.
Even a sparrow finds a home, and a swallow, a nest for herself where she places her young—
near Your altars, Lord of Hosts, my King and my God.
How happy are those who reside in Your house, who praise You continually.
Selah
Call your brothers: My People and your sisters: Compassion.
Rebuke your mother; rebuke her.
For she is not My wife and I am not her husband.
Let her remove the promiscuous look from her face and her adultery from between her breasts.
Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her as she was on the day of her birth.
I will make her like a desert and like a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.
I will have no compassion on her children because they are the children of promiscuity.
Yes, their mother is promiscuous; she conceived them and acted shamefully.
For she thought, “I will go after my lovers, the men who give me my food and water, my wool and flax, my oil and drink.”
Therefore, this is what I will do: I will block her way with thorns;
I will enclose her with a wall, so that she cannot find her paths.
She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will seek them but not find them.
Then she will think, “I will go back to my former husband,
for then it was better for me than now.”
She does not recognize that it is I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil.
I lavished silver and gold on her, which they used for Baal.
Therefore, I will take back My grain in its time and My new wine in its season;
I will take away My wool and linen, which were to cover her nakedness.
Now I will expose her shame in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from My hands.
I will put an end to all her celebrations: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths—all her festivals.
I will devastate her vines and fig trees.
She thinks that these are her wages that her lovers have given her.
I will turn them into a thicket, and the wild animals will eat them.
And I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, put on her rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but forgot Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Therefore, I am going to persuade her, lead her to the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.
There I will give her vineyards back to her and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope.
There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt.
In that day—this is the Lord’s declaration—you will call Me, “My husband,” and no longer call Me, “My Baal.”
For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth; they will no longer be remembered by their names.
On that day I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the creatures that crawl on the ground.
I will shatter bow, sword, and weapons of war in the land and will enable the people to rest securely.
I will take you to be My wife forever.
I will take you to be My wife in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion.
I will take you to be My wife in faithfulness, and you will know Yahweh.
On that day I will respond—this is the Lord’s declaration.
I will respond to the sky, and it will respond to the earth.
The earth will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.
I will sow her in the land for Myself, and I will have compassion on No Compassion;
I will say to Not My People: You are My people, and he will say, “You are My God.”
-Hosea 2
Four
Coastlands, listen to me; distant peoples, pay attention.
The Lord called me before I was born.
He named me while I was in my mother’s womb.
He made my words like a sharp sword;
He hid me in the shadow of His hand.
He made me like a sharpened arrow;
He hid me in His quiver.
He said to me, “You are My Servant, Israel;
I will be glorified in him.”
But I myself said: I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and futility;
yet my vindication is with the Lord, and my reward is with my God.
And now, says the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be His Servant,
to bring Jacob back to Him so that Israel might be gathered to Him;
for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God is my strength—
He says, “It is not enough for you to be My Servant raising up the tribes of Jacob and restoring the protected ones of Israel.
I will also make you a light for the nations, to be My salvation to the ends of the earth.”
This is what the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, says to one who is despised,
to one abhorred by people, to a servant of rulers:
“Kings will see and stand up, and princes will bow down, because of the Lord, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel—and He has chosen you.”
This is what the Lord says:
I will answer you in a time of favor, and I will help you in the day of salvation.
I will keep you, and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land,
to make them possess the desolate inheritances, saying to the prisoners:
Come out, and to those who are in darkness: Show yourselves.
They will feed along the pathways, and their pastures will be on all the barren heights.
They will not hunger or thirst, the scorching heat or sun will not strike them;
for their compassionate One will guide them, and lead them to springs of water.
I will make all My mountains into a road, and My highways will be raised up.
See, these will come from far away, from the north and from the west, and from the land of Sinim.
Shout for joy, you heavens!
Earth, rejoice!
Mountains break into joyful shouts!
For the Lord has comforted His people,
and will have compassion on His afflicted ones.
Zion says, “The Lord has abandoned me;
The Lord has forgotten me!”
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the child of her womb?
Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you.
Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.
Your builders hurry; those who destroy and devastate you will leave you.
Look up, and look around.
They all gather together; they come to you.
As I live”—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
“you will wear all your children as jewelry, and put them on as a bride does.
For your waste and desolate places and your land marked by ruins—will now be indeed too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
Yet as you listen, the children that you have been deprived of will say, ‘This place is too small for me;
make room for me so that I may settle.’
Then you will say within yourself, ‘Who fathered these for me?
I was deprived of my children and unable to conceive, exiled and wandering—
but who brought them up?
See, I was left by myself—but these, where did they come from?’”
This is what the Lord God says:
Look, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and raise My banner to the peoples.
They will bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.
Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers.
They will bow down to you with their faces to the ground, and lick the dust at your feet.
Then you will know that I am Yahweh; those who put their hope in Me will not be put to shame.
Can the prey be taken from the mighty,or the captives of the righteous be delivered?
For this is what the Lord says: “Even the captives of a mighty man will be taken,
and the prey of a tyrant will be delivered;
I will contend with the one who contends with you, and I will save your children.
I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
and they will be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine.
Then all flesh will know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior,
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
-Isaiah 49
Five
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. According to Shigionoth.
Lord, I have heard the report about You; Lord, I stand in awe of Your deeds.
Revive Your work in these years; make it known in these years.
In Your wrath remember mercy!
God comes from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran.
Selah
His splendor covers the heavens, and the earth is full of His praise.
His brilliance is like light; rays are flashing from His hand.
This is where His power is hidden.
Plague goes before Him, and pestilence follows in His steps.
He stands and shakes the earth; He looks and startles the nations.
The age-old mountains break apart; the ancient hills sink down.
His pathways are ancient.
I see the tents of Cushan in distress; the tent curtains of the land of Midian tremble.
Are You angry at the rivers, Lord?
Is Your wrath against the rivers?
Or is Your rage against the sea when You ride on Your horses, Your victorious chariot?
You took the sheath from Your bow; the arrows are ready to be used with an oath.
Selah
You split the earth with rivers.
The mountains see You and shudder; a downpour of water sweeps by.
The deep roars with its voice and lifts its waves high.
Sun and moon stand still in their lofty residence, at the flash of Your flying arrows, at the brightness of Your shining spear.
You march across the earth with indignation; You trample down the nations in wrath.
You come out to save Your people, to save Your anointed.
You crush the leader of the house of the wicked and strip him from foot to neck.
Selah
You pierce his head with his own spears; his warriors storm out to scatter us,
gloating as if ready to secretly devour the weak.
You tread the sea with Your horses, stirring up the great waters.
I heard, and I trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound.
Rottenness entered my bones; I trembled where I stood.
Now I must quietly wait for the day of distress to come against the people invading us.
Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will triumph in Yahweh; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!
Yahweh my Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights!
-Habakkkuk 3
“As I kept watching, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took His seat.
His clothing was white like snow, and the hair of His head like whitest wool.
His throne was flaming fire; its wheels were blazing fire.
A river of fire was flowing, coming out from His presence.
Thousands upon thousands served Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.
The court was convened, and the books were opened.
-Daniel 7:9-10
I have revealed Your name to the men You gave Me from the world.
They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
-John 17:6
In-between 
