Prayer for People Pleasers

Psalm 17 is a prayer for struggling people pleasers to offer God in search of comfort and transformation. In the original context the human author, David, is falsely accused. He prays, “You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.” David is innocent of the wronging doing of which he is accused. Nonetheless, the experience is painful and he processes his pain through prayer, an act of faith.

Most of us today don’t have enemies or adversaries like David, but the experiential distance between false accusation and negative perception isn’t too far. We’re deathly afraid of both, and the two are spiritually and emotionally crushing. These things are all the more crippling when the accusation or negative opinion is true in the case of actual moral failure. As people pleasers it is hard enough to recover when the worst is untrue. How much harder is it to walk with our heads up when it’s undeniable?

This Psalm gives the people pleaser a path out of fear and failure through prayer. David asks God, “Wondrously show your steadfast love… Keep me as the apple of your eye.” God answered David’s prayer by sending his own Son into the world to demonstrate the extent of his love. Jesus was accused unto death, yet sinless. Dying he opened the way for people pleasers to rest assured of God’s love and affection. When we’re are afraid God’s love is sure. When we fail we can admit it and repent. In Christ, we’re the apple of God’s eye. In light of God’s love revealed in Christ, we can pray with David. We can confess our fear and failure and ask God to wondrously apply again his love to our hearts through his word.