Prayers that Bring Us Home

Prayers that Bring Us Home

By John Garland

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The Prayers That Bring Us Home is a daily journey through the Psalms, the p... more
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  1. Number 1: Psalm 30: Mourning Into Dancing

    Click here for today’s Daily Prayer Companion The Prayers That Bring Us Home is a daily Psalm prayer podcast from San Antonio Mennonite Church. We gather as a group each morning to pray Jesus’ prayer book in order, listening for the Messiah’s voice and learning to bring our whole lives into the presence of God. Psalm renderings are original working renderings for prayer and formation, not official translations. Hosted by the pastor John Garland, with Ramona Garcia, Paula Loring and Gaye Slomka.Produced by John at the San Antonio Mennonite Church.

    18min
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  2. Number 2: Psalm 29: The Voice Over the Waters

    Click here for today’s Daily Prayer Companion The Prayers That Bring Us Home is a daily Psalm prayer podcast from San Antonio Mennonite Church. We gather as a group each morning to pray Jesus’ prayer book in order, listening for the Messiah’s voice and learning to bring our whole lives into the presence of God. Psalm renderings are original working renderings for prayer and formation, not official translations. Hosted by the pastor John Garland, with Ramona Garcia, Paula Loring and Gaye Slomka.Produced by John at the San Antonio Mennonite Church.

    16min
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  3. Number 3: Psalm 24: The King of Glory Comes In

    Receive the daily Psalm email here: King of Glory, come in. Open the way home. Psalm 24 completes the arc that began in Psalm 15. Psalm 15 asked: Who may Sojourn in Your Tent? Who may settle on Your Holy Mountain? Psalm 24 asks: Who may ascend the mountain of YAHWEH? Who may stand in His Holy Place? The answer concerns integrity: clean hands, a pure heart, a Being not lifted to Vain Emptiness, and a life free from deceit. Psalm 24 refuses the split between public praise and hidden dishonesty. Hands and heart belong together. Worship and integrity belong together. But the Psalm does not end with our anxious climbing. It ends with the arrival of the King: Lift up your heads, O gates. Be lifted up, ancient doors, so the King of Glory may come in. This is the culmination of the Messiah movement in Psalms 15–24. The Messiah is the One who can dwell with God, trust God, be tested, be rescued, embody the word, receive the prayers of the people, rejoice in resurrection life, bear forsakenness, be shepherded through Death-Shadow, and enter as King of Glory. Psalm 24 begins with the whole earth: To YAHWEH belongs the earth and its fullness, the world and those who dwell in it. The world does not belong to empire, fear, death, despair, or the powers that claim ownership over bodies, land, futures, or hope. The earth belongs to YAHWEH. Imagine praying this in Babylon. The gates of Jerusalem have been broken. The Holy Place has been violated. The people remember a procession they can no longer perform. To pray, “Lift up your heads, O gates,” in exile is to believe the story of God’s presence is not finished. The ancient doors will open again. And imagine praying this today in a world of closed doors: closed hearts, closed systems, closed churches, closed futures, and closed places in the self that no longer expect glory. Psalm 24 announces that the earth still belongs to YAHWEH. In Jesus, Psalm 24 becomes the entrance of the Messiah into the presence of God and the opening of the way for us. The One with clean hands and pure heart, the One who did not lift His Being to Vain Emptiness, the One rescued from death and shepherded through the valley, now enters as King of Glory. The King of Glory comes in. And because he comes in, home is open. This Psalm can help a community see that the whole earth belongs to YAHWEH, not to the powers that claim it. It can connect integrity with worship. It can turn spiritual life away from anxious self-qualification and toward the Messiah who opens the gates. It can deepen secure attachment by showing that God’s presence is not permanently closed to us. May YAHWEH restore your hands and heart. May the King of Glory enter every closed place. May the Messiah gather you into His welcome. And may you come home in the presence of God. ________________________________ The Prayers That Bring Us Home is a daily Psalm prayer podcast from San Antonio Mennonite Church. We gather as a group each morning to pray Jesus’ prayer book in order, listening for the Messiah’s voice and learning to bring our whole lives into the presence of God. Psalm renderings are original working renderings for prayer and formation, not official translations. Hosted by the pastor John Garland, with Ramona Garcia, Paula Loring and Gaye Slomka.Produced by John at the San Antonio Mennonite Church.

    18min
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  4. Number 4: Psalm 23: YAHWEH Is My Shepherd

    Receive the daily Psalm email here: YAHWEH, Shepherd us home. Restore our Being. Psalm 23 is one of the clearest secure attachment Psalms in the Psalter. Psalm 22 began: My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Psalm 23 answers: YAHWEH is my Shepherd. I do not lack. The Psalter does not skip forsakenness. It passes through it. And after the cry of abandonment comes shepherding, restoring, guiding, accompanying, feeding, anointing, and pursuing love. Psalm 23 does not begin with what we do for God. It begins with what God gives: Pasture. Rest. Water. Restoration. The beloved is not commanded to become impressive. The beloved is made to lie down. This is care before performance, presence before productivity, enoughness before striving. I do not lack does not mean every desire is instantly fulfilled. It means life is no longer organized around scarcity as shepherd. Fear is not my shepherd. Approval is not my shepherd. Urgency is not my shepherd. YAHWEH is my Shepherd. The Psalm does not pretend there is no valley. There is Death-Shadow. There is evil. There are Oppressors. But danger is not the deepest reality. Presence is. I will fear no evil, for You are with me. The Psalm moves from pasture to valley to table. The Shepherd becomes Host. The one who guides also feeds. The one who protects also honors. A table is arranged even in front of Oppressors. The beloved is not merely rescued from threat. The beloved is dignified under threat. Imagine praying this in Babylon. The people have been displaced from the land. The House of YAHWEH has been burned. They are no longer beside familiar waters or under familiar structures. To say, “YAHWEH is my Shepherd,” in exile is a profound act of trust. Even when the flock has been scattered, YAHWEH can still guide. Even when the House is lost, the hope of return remains. And imagine praying this today when your nervous system is tired, when you are overextended, when responsibilities feel like they are hunting you, when grief has made the world narrow, or when your body does not feel safe. Psalm 23 does not ask you to become impressive. It invites you to be shepherded. In Jesus, Psalm 23 becomes both the prayer of the Son and the care of the Shepherd. Jesus walks through the valley of Death-Shadow. He trusts the Father’s presence where evil is near. And as the risen Messiah, Jesus becomes Shepherd to us. He restores the Being. He guides in tracks of Alignment. He prepares the table. He brings us home. This Psalm can help us receive care instead of performing for it. It can move us from scarcity into enoughness. It can restore the body’s sense of being accompanied by God. It can teach us that danger is real, but not ultimate: You are with me. May YAHWEH give you rest beside waters of peace. May the Good Shepherd stay with you in Death-Shadow. May your cup overflow with Persistent-Love. And may you return to the House of YAHWEH. ____________________________________ The Prayers That Bring Us Home is a daily Psalm prayer podcast from San Antonio Mennonite Church. We gather as a group each morning to pray Jesus’ prayer book in order, listening for the Messiah’s voice and learning to bring our whole lives into the presence of God. Psalm renderings are original working renderings for prayer and formation, not official translations. Hosted by the pastor John Garland, with Ramona Garcia, Paula Loring and Gaye Slomka.Produced by John at the San Antonio Mennonite Church.

    18min
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  5. Number 5: Psalm 22: The Forsaken One Leads the Praise

    Receive the daily Psalm email here: My God, do not be far. Hold us when we feel forsaken. Psalm 22 begins in the place no one wants to pray from: My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? This is the Psalm Jesus prays from the cross. He does not quote it as a detached verse. He enters the Psalm’s whole world: forsakenness, mockery, bodily collapse, surrounding hostility, a cry for rescue, and then, somehow, praise in the assembly, food for the afflicted, and worship among the nations. Psalm 22 moves from abandonment to testimony to worldwide worship. The forsaken one becomes the worship leader of the world. Even in the first cry, there is attachment: My God. My God. Secure attachment does not mean we always feel close to God. Sometimes secure attachment sounds like refusing to stop praying from the place where God feels absent. Psalm 22 gives us permission to bring felt abandonment into prayer without cleaning it up first. Imagine praying this in Babylon. The city is broken. The Temple is gone. The nations stare. The people feel forsaken. Psalm 22 gives them a way to cry without losing the story of God’s faithfulness. Imagine praying this today from the place of deep rupture: depression, family collapse, public shame, bodily suffering, trauma, grief, or a season where God feels painfully far away. Psalm 22 teaches us to say “My God” even before we feel rescued. And then imagine this prayer in Jesus’ voice. On the cross, Jesus prays as the Beloved who feels forsaken and still says, “My God.” He does not teach attachment to God from a safe distance. He enters the place where God feels absent. He prays from the terror of disconnection without severing the relationship. The turn comes when the afflicted one discovers that YAHWEH has not hidden His face forever: For He has not despised and He has not detested the affliction of the afflicted one. He has not hidden His face from him. When he cried to Him, He heard. In Jesus, Psalm 22 becomes the cross and resurrection prayer. The place of abandonment becomes the doorway into worldwide praise. The crucified Messiah is not abandoned to Death. The risen Messiah declares the Name to his siblings. This Psalm can give people permission to pray from felt abandonment without shame. It can help communities resist premature triumph while still trusting that praise may come. It can connect our suffering to the Messiah’s suffering without romanticizing pain. And it can enlarge hope: the cry of one afflicted person can become food for the poor, praise in the assembly, and testimony for generations yet unborn. May the crucified Messiah meet you in the place you cannot clean up. May the risen Beloved declare the Name over you as family. May your heart live to the Eternity. And may the God who heard the afflicted One hear you. __________________________________ The Prayers That Bring Us Home is a daily Psalm prayer podcast from San Antonio Mennonite Church. We gather as a group each morning to pray Jesus’ prayer book in order, listening for the Messiah’s voice and learning to bring our whole lives into the presence of God. Psalm renderings are original working renderings for prayer and formation, not official translations. Hosted by the pastor John Garland, with Ramona Garcia, Paula Loring and Gaye Slomka.Produced by John at the San Antonio Mennonite Church.

    21min
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