angela hormberg

Tag: Prayer for Deliverance

  • Psalm 35

    Psalm 35

    Commonplace –

    “…say unto my soul, I am thy salvation” (Psalm 35:3b).

    In Psalm 35, David is crying out to God for help in conquering his adversaries. He beseeches the Lord to defend him. Particularly moving is David’s request that God speak directly to and encourage his soul. He desperately needs to know God supports him, because he is surrounded by those who seek his life.

    Interspersed in between his petitions, David declares:

    “my soul shall be joyful in the Lord” (Psalm 35:9a) and

    “All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?” (Psalm 35:10).

    In this way, David lives in hope of God’s providential help. He builds his confidence in God’s salvation, He reminds himself of what his own response should be and had been to evil doers, when sickness strikes them: “I behaved as though he had been my friend or brother” (Psalm 35:14a).

    This is a psalm of petition. David is in the midst of suffering. He models for us what we should do in such trying times. We may

    1. cry out to God and lay before him our claims against those who commit evil against us,

    2. continually praise God through the process and rest assured of his aid, and

    3. not turn from doing good.

    Matthew Henry imparts solid guidance in regard to Psalm 35.

    “In singing this psalm, and praying over it, we must take heed of applying it to any little peevish quarrels and enmities of our own, and of expressing by it any uncharitable revengeful resentments of injuries done to us; for Christ has taught us to forgive our enemies and not to pray against them, but to pray for them, as he did; but,

    1. We may comfort ourselves with the testimony of our consciences concerning our innocency, with reference to those that are any way injurious to us, and with hopes that God will, in his own way and time, right us, and, in the mean time, support us.
    2. We ought to apply it to the public enemies of Christ and his kingdom, typified by David and his kingdom, to resent the indignities done to Christ’s honour, to pray to God to plead the just and injured cause of Christianity” (293).

    Works Cited

    Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 35.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3 and Volume 6, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.

    Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.

    © 2025 Angela Hormberg

  • Psalm 22

    Psalm 22

    Commonplace –

    “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” (Psalm 22:1).

    Psalm 22’s lament stands in stark contrast to Psalm 21’s joy. They are desperate and sorrowful. Later, Jesus would echo David’s words on the cross in one of his last mournful cries.

    “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

    But God.

    Midway through Psalm 22, David offers the following prophetic words:

    “Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.

    For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard” (Psalm 22:24-25, emphasis mine).

    Jesus knew God’s word. He had clearly read this psalm. So, even though his last words sound like a defeat, there is a seed of hope in them. We know Jesus cried out, but we also know God heard. So, if Jesus had hope in his worst hour, and David had hope in his horrible hour, shouldn’t we have hope in our difficulties? We can share in their cry and claim the promise of deliverance, at the same time. It is a great act of rebellion against evil to face a challenging circumstance with hope. May that hope never leave us, whatever situation we face.

    Matthew Henry’s summary offers a judicious assessment of Psalm 22.

    “The Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets, testifies in this psalm, as clearly and fully as any where in all the Old Testament, “the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow” (1 Pet 1:11); of him, no doubt, David here speaks, and not of himself, or any other man. Much of it is expressly applied to him, and some of it must be understood of him only. The providences of God concerning David were so very extraordinary that we may suppose there were some wise good men who then could not but look upon him as a figure of him that was to come. But the composition of his psalms especially, in which he found himself wonderfully carried out by the spirit of prophecy far beyond his own thought and intention, was (we may suppose) an abundant satisfaction to himself that he was not only a father of the Messiah but a figure of him” (251).

    Works Cited

    Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 22.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3 and Volume 6, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.

    Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.

    © 2025 Angela Hormberg