As I write this, and as I read Psalm 20, I’m in the middle of a bout with a severely enlarged prostate. Three trips to the ER to get some help, and I finally got into the urologist’s office last Wednesday, January 22, where they put in a catheter that works and scheduled me for a cystoscopy on February 10 (way farther out than I would like). We can’t take any action to fix the prostate until after that. So I’m laid up, operating at less than half speed…

Psalm 20 feels like the prayer I need:

May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble; May the name of the God of Jacob defend you; May He send you help from the sanctuary, And strengthen you out of Zion; May He remember all your offerings, And accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah (Psalm 20.1 – 3, NKJV)

Yes, Lord. Please remember me in this day of trouble. May your name defend me. Please send me help from the sanctuary and strengthen me out of Zion. Please remember my offerings.

The psalm ends with a promise:

Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God. They have bowed down and fallen; But we have risen and stand upright. (Psalm 20.6 – 8, NKJV)

I appreciate the help I’ve gotten from the medical establishment, some more helpful than others. But I can’t trust “in chariots and horses.” I have to trust “the name of the LORD our God.” I’m praying for healing, however God chooses to send it. I’ll keep you posted.

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. (Mark 11.22 – 24, NKJV)

…who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. (1 Peter 2.24, NKJV)