Praying for Oregon Counties: Multnomah

Mount Hood, Oregon

Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep; 

Psalm 36: 5-6

 We turn our attention to Multnomah County, but most eyes, and news cameras, are fixed there already.

Multnomah County is the smallest in land - 466 square miles - and the largest in population…and influence. Compare Multnomah with 1705 people per square mile, to Malheur County with three. This is, of course, due to Portland, the largest city in the state, which is also the county seat. In fact, since 1968 the county government has had a consolidated city-county government and there have been some attempts to merge the city-county government into one unit. 

Multnomah was created in 1854 out of the eastern edge of Washington County and a northern strip of Clackamas County. Its northern border is the Columbia River.

The county isn’t all Portland, however. The eastern portion has timbered hills and the population is sparse. Troutdale, one of the towns in the eastern section, is considered the gateway to the Columbia River Gorge. My grandparents and great-grandparents settled in Troutdale in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. My father graduated from Troutdale High School around 1932.

Portland, Oregon

While my family started out in Troutdale, now, after more than 100 years, I have family and connections all over Multnomah County, including the City of Portland itself. While I have never lived there, cousins do, and I am deeply vested in the county’s wellbeing.

 While the whole county is our topic, Portland has a way of dominating the conversation, especially now. The town itself was actually started very early in Oregon history, around 1843, and grew quickly due to the ideal location between the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. With the sailors, the rough and rowdy loggers, the kidnapping (you can tour the old Shanghai Tunnels in Portland where men were drugged and then forced onto ships) the city
did not have the best of reputations. The history, up to the early twentieth century, includes accounts of government corruption and organized crime, among other depressing things.

My father, who was born in Oregon City and grew up around Troutdale, viewed Portland as a seedy and dangerous place. This is understandable: during the time he was growing up Portland was considered, it is said, to be the most dangerous port city in the world. It was from him I heard the tales of shanghaied sailors: men and boys who wandered into the wrong part of town and were never heard from again. 

Image by kaelisan from Pixabay 

Yet I associate Portland with many good things: the hospitals, concerts, plays and shopping. The City of Roses. My youngest son and his wife held their wedding in Portland’s Rose Garden (The International Rose Test Garden). I have heard accounts by more mystical folks who claim there are scents associated with a close encounter with God, both the scent of roses, and the scent of rain. Portland is known for both. 

When I moved back to Oregon in 1994 I first lived on our family’s timberland about 40 miles south of Portland. We have various viewpoints created when timber is harvested. Back then, to the north on clear days, we could make out the taller buildings of Portland, a dark smudge against the horizon. Sometimes I felt compelled to walk out there and pray over Portland. Perhaps I should have “prayed harder,” but whatever we have or have not done in the past, we need to fight in the Spirit now. 

So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it….Ezekiel 22:30. 

How do we pray for Multnomah County and especially for Portland?

Repentance seems in order, for the past, for the sins of others that have set a dark spiritual atmosphere over the city. Like Daniel, begin by repenting for the sins of our fathers. 

 For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light. Psalm 36: 9

We need to change the spiritual atmosphere over the city of Portland. As born-again believers, we have authority over all the forces of evil, no matter how powerful and out-of-control they may appear. 

Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Luke 10:19

He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. I John 4:4 

We change the atmosphere by releasing praise and worship, and I know of groups who are doing that in Portland. Agree with them. Stand with them. We change the atmosphere by speaking and decreeing God’s Word over the city. There is intense, focused, emergency prayer going up for Portland just now in many quarters. Agree with them. Join in where you can.

Lord, in place of violence, we speak peace.

In place of hate, we speak love.

In place of destruction, we speak order and protection.

We bind the darkness, turmoil and confusion over Multnomah County, and we release God’s love, mercy and grace.

In place of the stench of bitterness and strife, we release the sweet-smelling aroma of praise and worship, the scent of the Presence of God: rain and roses.

Margaret