Remember Your Covenant, O Lord!
Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.[1]
Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22 NRSV
Although our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name’s sake; our apostasies indeed are many, and we have sinned against you. O hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble, why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler turning aside for the night? Why should you be like someone confused, like a mighty warrior who cannot give help? Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not forsake us!
Thus says the Lord concerning this people: truly they have loved to wander, they have not restrained their feet; therefore, the Lord does not accept them; now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.
Have you completely rejected Judah? Does your heart loathe Zion? Why have you struck us down so that there is no healing for us? We look for peace but find no good; for a time of healing, but there is terror instead. We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord, the iniquity of our ancestors, for we have sinned against you. Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not dishonor your glorious throne; remember and do not break your covenant with us.
Can any idols of the nations bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Is it not you, O Lord our God? We set our hope on you, for it is you who do all this.
Heidelberg Catechism Question #6
How are you right with God?
Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God’s commandments and of never having kept any of them, and even though I am still inclined toward all evil, nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ; as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner; as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. All I need to do is to accept the gift of God with a believing heart.
Matthew Henry
Our sins not only accuse us but answer against us. Our best pleas in prayer are those fetched from the glory of God’s own name. We should dread God’s departure, more than the removal of our creature-comforts. He has given Israel his word to hope in. It becomes us in prayer to show ourselves more concerned for God’s glory than for our own comfort. And if we now return to the Lord, he will save us to the glory of his grace. The Lord will always have a people to plead with him at his mercy seat. He will heal every truly repenting sinner. Should he not see fit to hear our prayers on behalf of our guilty land, he will certainly bless with salvation all who confess their sins and seek his mercy.[2]
O Lord, all knowing, most wise God! Our Father, you have searched me and known me.
You have looked into the deepest desires of my heart. You know my secret loyalties as well as my hesitations. You know my doubts and my reservations.
All knowing and still all loving Father, have mercy on us, for we have gotten confused. We love you and we love your ways, yet we have loved the world, too.
O Lord, our Father, have mercy on us. We have been wayward. We have fled your presence. We have even made our bed in Hell and somehow you discovered us there, too. All knowing and still all loving Father, have mercy on us.
O Lord, all knowing, most wise God, our Father, have mercy on us! Grant to us purity of heart. Focus our erratic desires. Unite us in Christ. Grant that in him we may find integrity, that our hearts may be yours and yours alone.
To Christ our Savior, then, be all praise, all honor and glory, together with you, O Father and the Holy Spirit. One God, now and evermore. Amen.[3]
Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Corinthians 4.15).
[1] Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 2019, Proper 25.
[2] Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Je 14:17.
[3]A Prayer based on Psalm 139 by Hughes Oliphant Old. Used in worship October 26, 2025 at Cayce Presbyterian Church, Cayce, SC.
