A Pastor’s Prayer Journey
Two Preachers Sharing Prayers & ScriptureArchive for Psalm 40
Prayer Thoughts, October 7, 2008: Psalm 40, pt 2
Friends, here is part two of my three part prayer journal entries on Psalm 40. This part takes more of a section by section approach to the Psalm. I note the verse I begin with in each section. I end with the verse before the next marked section. Don’t expect answers to questions. Often times when I pray Scripture, and journal it, I leave open thoughts in order that answers might come from the prayers themselves. That is, learning to wait upon the Lord. I have also included the Psalm for easy reference. This is not an exhaustive exegetical approach. This is praying Scripture in all of its honesty, ambiguity, and personal-ness. That is, I try to make the Psalm mine without feeling the obligation to understand everything that the Psalmist is saying or feeling. After all, that is what prayer is. jerry
Prayer Thoughts October 7, 2008 Psalm 40, pt 2
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.
4 Blessed is the man
who makes the LORD his trust,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods.
5 Many, O LORD my God,
are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us
no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to declare.
6 Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but my ears you have pierced;
burnt offerings and sin offerings
you did not require.
7 Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—
it is written about me in the scroll.
8 I desire to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”
9 I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly;
I do not seal my lips,
as you know, O LORD.
10 I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;
I speak of your faithfulness and salvation.
I do not conceal your love and your truth
from the great assembly.
11 Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD;
may your love and your truth always protect me.
12 For troubles without number surround me;
my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails within me.
13 Be pleased, O LORD, to save me;
O LORD, come quickly to help me.
14 May all who seek to take my life
be put to shame and confusion;
may all who desire my ruin
be turned back in disgrace.
15 May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!”
be appalled at their own shame.
16 But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation always say,
“The LORD be exalted!”
17 Yet I am poor and needy;
may the Lord think of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, do not delay.
On the day that I made these notes (September 11) I was unfocused on ACTS and more focused on the text itself. I made a few random notes about the verses in preparation for prayer. I include a verse number beside the particular thought I had.
Verse 1. He waited for the Lord and the ‘Lord turned to me.’ Does this mean that the Lord had turned away from him for a time?!? It’s a terrifying thought, to me anyhow, that perhaps there are times when God has turned his back to us—that is, not listened to our prayers. I suppose at times when prayers go unanswered we think this is the time when he has done so. But the Lord did a lot of things here in the Psalm: He turned, he lifted, he set, he gave, he put…All these things the Lord did so that the people might ‘see’ and ‘fear’, not David, but the Lord himself; the Lord. He also wants faith. In other words, God made himself known in order that he might be known by faith. Those who do so, David says, are blessed. These are the ones who look to the Lord who made himself known and not to those whose lives are defined by their arrogance and idolatry which are, to be sure, power grabs.
Verse 5. But those who see the wonders of God are not only blessed by the self-revealing God, they are changed too (8). David continues to say that this God he has come to know will be talked about, and declared; but too, read what David says: “Here I am—I will desire to do your will. We get or become so ambitious when we know God. We want to serve him and worship him. We want to do the things that please him. Some how seeing God, hearing God, and knowing God changes everything. And David is speaking of all these things. Seeing (v 3); hearing (v 6); knowing (v 1ff). The point is that this encounter with the God who acts and saves does not leave us unscathed. It is a sad thing to see people who know God and have seen him work and do and yet they remain unchanged, unchallenged, unfermented. “You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.” (Jeremiah 12:2b) I don’t want to remain untouched by this God.
Verse 9. Another important aspect is that the one who gets to know God—through God’s self-revelation—also refuses to keep such information to himself. This has to be proclaimed—but the right ideas have to be conveyed too. None can compare with God—none; but his deeds and wonders are almost too much to talk about because they are so many (v 5). Yet David finds it impossible here to consider keeping God and righteousness, and faithfulness and mercy and love to himself (v 9-10). These things must be proclaimed in the great assembly (interestingly, ‘great assembly’ bookends these verses 9-10; who is David speaking to in these verses?) He speaks. And what else should or can a king or anyone with such knowledge do? Can we keep silent when God has done so much? Will our mouths remain sealed when God has given such a great deliverance? There is much David will declare about this God who has revealed himself, who has turned toward David and heard his cry.
- He will sing a new song of his deliverance by God (v 3)
- He will speak of God’s wondrous deeds—if he can! (v 5) (although at times he seems more inclined to listen than than talk, v 6)
- He proclaims God’s saving acts (v 9)
- He speaks of God’s saving acts and righteousness and faithfulness (v 10)
- Eventually those David witnesses to will also speak—saying, ‘The Lord is Great!’ (v 16) I guess part of the goals is to have more and more people joining in the chorus; to have their words converted from ‘aha, aha’ to ‘The Lord is Great!’ in the great assembly.
Verse 11. Those who know the Lord will cry out to him. They will recognize in Him a Deliverer, a Protector, a Forgiver. In other words, David realizes that his prison is far more than physical. His prison is much deeper and much more complex than mere physical enemies who may be a sign of great trouble David has with sin. He says he cannot see (v 12); what can he not see? The Lord’s deliverance? The Lord himself? David, in other words, even after hearing and seeing God, still sins. He is not yet perfected. He must still recognize the sincere gap, the huge distance, between who God is and who David is. David learns much about himself when he learns about God and thus will respond appropriately to God: Deliver! I think we can look at the sin that wrecks our life as an enemy too. It surrounds us, engulfs us, consumes us. All we can pray for is deliverance. David here was being battered on all sides: from within and from without. Enemies around his house, sin within his heart. But David knows who delivers from all sorts of enemies and he turns to Him time and time again.
Verse 14. Those who seek God who has revealed himself are marked people. This seems abundantly obvious. They cannot go unnoticed by those who do not seek God. With declaration comes a certain amount of animosity from the wicked: They want to destroy. David is rightly concerned, but he is not full of fear because he trusts God. Some seek David to destroy him, but they will only meet with the Lord in one way or another. He doesn’t say if they will meet ruin or confession or not. He doesn’t say if he will be delivered from their reprobate actions or not. He trusts that God is is Deliverer, but as far as it goes, in the Psalm, we have no idea if David is rescued or not. He leaves us on an open chord—calling out for the God he has patiently waited for to not delay.
When I was finished reading and collecting these thoughts, I noted some concluding observations.
I think the question is this: Can we or will we wait upon the Lord? What if he delays? What if he never shows up at all? Do we put our trust in him or not? Do we make the Lord our trust? Do we still declare? Sing? Speak? Do his will? Wait (patiently)? Do we still trust him? Do we have confidence in his faithfullness? His greatness? His love? His mercy? His righteousness? Can we still declare with and in the assembly that God is great, even when he makes us wait? Will we trust him even when it seems that he has turned his back to us and not answered our prayers?
Soli Deo Gloria!
Prayer Thoughts September 30.2008
Prayer Thoughts September 30.2008
A Couple of weeks ago, our prayer team spent the week digesting Psalm 40. It is a beautiful Psalm and the week we spent with it proved especially timely due to some deaths that took place in and around our congregation. I grew to love this Psalm and appreciate it even more than before. It is a beautifully written and wonderful piece of poetry. Here are some of the thoughts I had following the ACTS pattern. Over the next couple of days, I will share three days’ worth of prayer thoughts from this Psalm. You will see the thoughts deepen over the three days as the Psalm was opened up to me.
A Adoration “God is the Rock.” You see, David here was in a place of vulnerability—this was a place where his enemies could take advantage of his weak position and destroy him. But David worships God because God heard David’s cry. I suspect his cry was, “Lord make my position secure, make my position one I can fight from.” The real discussion then is this: What sort of position did the Lord set him in that was secure? I wonder if that secure position was the Lord himself? After all, David did not say, “People will see me and run.” He said, “People will see the Lord and fear him and trust him.” Was the position this? David worships even in such a terrible position as this (v 3) with a new song. Well, who worships when the chips are down? Who sings a new song in an old position? Who rejoices when trapped in a slimy pit of mud? But that is what David did! (I also thought of Job and Jonah.) He sang a new song and gives all the glory to God. As a result, it appears that others too put their trust in the Lord. Prayer thoughts: How should we pray when we are faced with difficult situations? How can we trust God to establish our position? How can worship be a witness to others?
C Confession David always seemed to have a lot to confess to the Lord, but in these verses he also had a lot to confess to the public, to the congregation as well. His confessions run deep and are honest announcements of who he is, to whom he belongs, about the depth of his confidence in the Lord God. He confesses that the Lord is wonder-full and that there is no one like him. It is the Lord who blesses and makes whole those who are not. David says the Lord has done too much for him to even begin confessing it all. This is all positive confession. David confesses that he desires to do the will of God—in fact, that it was written of him that he would do just that. He proclaims the salvation of the Lord before the great assembly. He refuses to seal his lips—that is, it iis impossible for him to remain silent about what God has done: His faithfulness, his righteousness, his love, his mercy—all this he proclaims before the great assembly. Finally, he confesses his sin before the Lord and he recognizes that not all is well when it comes to David—his sin was all around. Even though lifted out, David still very much need rescuing. Prayer Thoughts: The confessions here are very much positive and in keeping with the theme of worship. How can confession of the Lord’s attributes form the foundation of our confession in prayer?
T Thanksgiving David has a myriad of things for which to thank God. It is amazing that any occasion or experience is a reason to praise—and, seemingly, never a reason to forget to give thanks. Maybe it’s here, “But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who long for your saving help always say, “The Lord is Great!”” They say great because they are thankful—not just because he is great. They say great because his greatness is not at all impotent, but it is powerful and mighty to save those who long for a power that is able to rescue them. And they didn’t worship the greatness—instead they worship the one who is Great, the One who is the source of greatness. There is a reason for proclaiming that the Lord is great: His saving power. How much thankfulness resides in our heart? Do we recognize God as the reason to give thanks? What I find amazing is that David, regardless of his predicament, always found a reason to give thanks. His heart was inclined towards thanksgiving. Verses 14-16 describe someone who is beset on every side by enemies and yet David is still someone who can give thanks. Prayer Thoughts: Can we do the same? Maybe we should write out a Psalm of praise and thanksgiving. David may not specifically use the word ‘thanks’ in this Psalm, but the Psalm itself is an offering of thanksgiving as he remembered what the Lord had done for him.
S Supplication David’s petitions throughout this Psalm are rather clear. A) That all who sought his life be put to shame and confusion. B) That all who desire his ruin be put to disgrace. C) That those who mocked him would be ashamed of themselves. D) That all who seek God would be glad and rejoice. That they find in Him the source of happiness. E) That those who seek salvation acknowledge the Lord. F) That the Lord think of David. G) That God not delay in rescuing him from his trouble. David prays that those who seek his life would have their words of derision (‘Aha, Aha’) turned into words of worship (‘The Lord is Great!’). Here is a man who petitions the Lord for help, for mercy, for all out deliverance. This is the sort of help that comes only from the Lord. He is a man of faith. Prayer Thoughts: How often do we put our hope and trust in anything but the Lord. David, regardless of the trouble, put his hope in the Lord. He asked the Lord for anything (‘do not delay’) and had the confidence to ‘wait patiently on the Lord’).
These are all very preliminary thoughts from the second day I prayed this Psalm. As I noted above, the thoughts will be deeper and more diverse in the next two installments. Thanks for stopping by and sharing in these prayers.
Soli Deo Gloria!
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