Prayer and Meditation on Psalm 86:1-8

Our Heavenly Father, we confess that we are content 

to rest in Your heavenly kingdom and our Lord Jesus 

Christ forever and ever.

You have heard the prayers of your saints in all the 

ages of the world, when they called upon You. You 

heard the blood of Abel, Your first martyr, cry to You 

from the ground, slain by Cain who was of his father 

the devil.

You heard Enoch and Noah and Abraham, Isaac and 

Jacob. The prayers of David when he fled from Saul, 

the cries of Elijah and Elisha; the prayers of Your 

apostles and Stephen the martyr, and the thousands 

and thousands of the saints that called upon You in 

all the history of the church.

We think of the great reformers, Wycliffe, and Thy 

martyred servant John Huss; Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, 

Bucer, Ursinus, Cranmer, and our Fathers of the faith 

in the United States. We praise and thank You for 

hearing and showing Yourself strong to preserve and 

keep Your servants in life and in death.

We pray that You would incline Your ear down to us, 

O Lord, for we are poor and needy. We have no 

strength of our own, and our voice is small in the 

world. How helpless we feel when we behold arrogance 

and pride and wickedness strong, entering even into 

Thy House the church and defiling the holy things. 

Stretch out Yourself to us down here in the world, 

O God, for we cannot do Your work without you 

and your Spirit.

You have set us apart for Yourself, O Lord, and 

You must preserve our souls, for we cannot stand 

against the assaults of the devil unless You save us. 

We trust in You and Your salvation, for our souls 

are needy and cry to You. We ask and plead for 

Your mercy—O God our Father, do not deal with 

us after our sins, but according to Your mercy and 

grace.

Your Son, our Lord Jesus, said that You are a 

gracious Father, who will give the Holy Spirit to 

those who ask, and we ask, O Lord, because our 

souls can only be renewed to bring forth the fruit 

of Your kingdom when Thy Spirit moves our hearts 

and minds.

Thy joy is our strength, O Lord, and trials and 

tribulations will weigh us down and destroy us if 

You do not lift us up. We lift our souls to You, O 

Father, for You are our life and our joy.

You are good and merciful, O Father, and You 

delight in mercy and are ready to forgive to those 

who call upon You. You are great in kindness. 

Hear our prayers and the loud supplications of 

our hearts, for we cry to You in the Name of 

Your dear Son.

You have said to call upon You in the days of 

trouble, and we so call, O Lord. You have 

appointed days of trial and tribulation for Your 

people, and we do not know what the future holds 

for us, but we cling to You, Or Lord.

There is no one like You, who will hear prayers or 

can do the works that You do, for all the gods of 

the wicked and dead and deceitful liars, and cannot 

do either good or evil, for they are filled with vanity.

We bring our prayers to before Your throne. We 

pray for those being persecuted in lands of darkness 

and wickedness. We pray for the healing of the 

nations, as You have promised.

Surround Your people with your holy angels and 

preserve them in their lives, their goods, their 

families, their reputations, and their righteousness, 

which is of You, O Lord. Bring confusion and rebuke 

upon the godless; puts hooks in their jaws and confuse 

them with great confusion.

Send Your holy Gospel to all people in all lands. Search 

out Thine own and add them to the church that You 

purchased with Your own blood, the blood of Jesus 

our Lord. Grant us Your mercy and grace, Precious 

Father. We ask in the Name of Christ our Lord.