Prayers in Pandemic

 With the momentum of the third wave of the 2020 pandemic seeming to be accelerating, I found Psalm 116 helped me articulate from my heart to God and silently rest in God’s responses.

 Even those who have not been infected and those who have recovered feel that the snares of death have encompassed us and the pangs of Sheol have laid hold on us. Few of us have been spared knowing someone loved and precious who has died.

Who of us has not cried out, “O Lord, save the lives of my neighbors, my friends, my relatives, even my own life!”?

Yet, the Psalm prompts praise and thanksgiving for the Lord who has dealt bountifully with us, before whom we continue to walk in the land of the living, lifting up the cup of salvation.

I recommend taking some time with the whole Psalm up against your own experience and responses to the pandemic, but I found these lines particularly evocative for me.

The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, save my life!” You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I kept my faith, even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted.” What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones. I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord.