Another Birthday Prayer

In his article, Pastor Treglown shared a birthday prayer (which I would point out isn’t only good for birthdays—it could be prayed any day of the year!), and, because you can never have too much prayer, I want to share with you another birthday prayer—a prayer appropriate for a birthday. Only, because I’m not too original, that prayer isn’t one I wrote—it’s actually the words of Psalm 121, the psalm for the first Sunday in March. The psalm starts:

I lift up my eyes to the hills.

    From where does my help come?

My help comes from the Lord,

    Who made heaven and earth.

Maybe you read this and right away you see that this psalm is a great birthday psalm—or maybe you find it a little confusing.

After all, it is a little confusing—because there are lots of things in this world that help me. Food helps me to take care of my body. My car helps me to get to work. Doctors and medicine help me to recover from illness. So from where does my help come—does it not sometimes come from food and cars and doctors?

On one hand, we can say the answer is yes—and that these are gifts that God has given me to help me. These things in our life that help us are indeed gifts from God, means by which God helps us.

But on the other hand, I think it’s worth considering that these things only help us so much. Food helps me to take care of my body—but no matter how much food I eat, my body is sooner or later going to wear down. My car can help me get to work—but sooner or later, my days of work will eventually come to an end, no matter how nice my car is. Doctors can help me recover from illness—but sooner or later, some illness will come that no doctor will be able to beat. All these things that help us are only band-aids for our real problems—sin and death, which fill this world.

And so in the midst of all this, and especially in this season of Lent, when we consider our mortality, let us remember that our help comes from the Lord—and if we want to see Him, let us look to the hill—the hill of Golgotha! Because there He died for our sake, that He might rise again and conquer death—that we may be helped not just for a time, but for all eternity.

On our birthday, then—or any other day!—let us also pray the words of this psalm and remember that the Lord is our true helper—and our help certainly comes from Him.

-Pastor Duncan