WHY PRAY?
Psalms Message ❧ Part 1
Psalm 138 ❧ Pastor, Dr. John Denney
One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the life of Jesus was He was a Man of relentless prayer. He believed in it. He taught about it. He modeled it. He commanded it. If ever we wonder about the importance of prayer, the simple fact alone that Jesus Himself believed so strongly in it should be reason enough for us to pray. But the truth is, there are times when we wonder “Why pray?” Does God need our prayers to help Him direct the affairs of the universe? Does the Almighty somehow need our assistance to do His work? Does our all-knowing God need our suggestions to be placed in His suggestion box? Isn’t God’s will going to be done even if we don’t pray? Why pray then? Our struggle is not hidden from God.
In Luke 18:1 Jesus taught His disciples that…they ought to pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1). A number of chapters earlier His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray (Lk. 11:1). Why is that? They saw the power of prayer in Jesus’ life. When Jesus prayed the forces of darkness were crippled and defeated. The dead came back to life. Demons fled and the Devil shuddered. When Jesus prayed things happened.
It is interesting to me that we never read the disciples asking Jesus, “Lord, teach us to preach.” Or “Lord, teach us how to do miracles.” Or “Lord, teach us how to walk on water.” Instead, they asked Him, “Lord, teach us how to pray.” Why? They saw the results of His prayers. They recognized prayer played a central role in the power and effectiveness of Jesus’ life. If prayer served such a vital role in His life, then how much more so will it serve in ours? The great reformer Martin Luther wrote: As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.
This morning we’re going to step back from the book of Romans and look at a Psalm that gives us a reason to keep on praying that outweighs all of our inadequate feelings we have when we wonder, “Why should I pray?”
Psalm 138 is about David’s praise to God for keeping His promise of making David the king of Israel (2 Sam. 7). This psalm shows us that prayer and praise are inseparable – like two sides of the same coin. Prayer and praise in the Bible are like a spiritual plant, observes one author. Prayer is the root and praise is the flower. When we pray, not in a shallow way, but in sincerity, God answers. And our response to His answer is to give Him praise. Psalm 138 says, in a nutshell, prayer changes our lives.
David gives us three reasons why we should pray: 1) God renews our confidence in Him, 2) God strengthens our witness for Him, & 3) God increases our awareness of Him.
- God renews our confidence in Him. Someone once noted: Great supplicants have sought the secret place of the Most High, not that they might escape the world, but that they might learn to conquer it. Prayer focuses our resolve to trust God in the face of intimidating circumstances. If we can say, “The Lord is the strength of my life,” then we should in the same breath be able to say, “Whom shall I be afraid?” Prayer renews our courage to trust Christ despite our fears, our struggles, our doubts, our setbacks, our disappointments in life. Paul says in Romans 8 if God is for you who can be against you? When God renews our confidence through prayer, our fears and concerns of this world diminish.
If anyone understood this, the author of this psalm did – King David. His life was plagued with hair-raising fears and heart-breaking disappointments. As a young sheepherder he single-handedly faced a lion and a bear killing them with nothing more than a small rock and a sling. This was the same David who confronted the 9’9” giant Goliath challenging him in a battle to the death with nothing more than his simple sling. This was the same David whose heart was broken when his young wife he loved deeply was torn from his life. This was the same David whom God made the promise he would be the king of Israel, but before God’s promise became a reality, he had to endure years of running and hiding for his life. Whenever you walked into the post office David’s picture was at the head of Israel’s ten most wanted list. If anyone understood what it means to live under the weight of false accusations and constant death threats, it was David.
Often, we look at someone God has used greatly, and we make the mistake of thinking, “The reason so and so was so successful is because he didn’t have to deal with the failures, the setbacks, the challenges, the disappointments, and the doubts in life like I’ve had to. Everything came easy for him.” Some people, in fact, go so far as to think if you were to look up the definition of “disappointment” or “failure” in the dictionary you’d see their name. The truth is David’s life was anything but a smooth road to success. It was constantly plagued with heart-pounding fears. But it was those faith-challenging years in which God prepared him to become Israel’s greatest king.
Now, looking back David’s heart is filled with overwhelming gratitude for God. It was with this tone he wrote these words: I will give You thanks with all my heart; I will sing praises to You before the gods. I will bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word according to all Your name. On the day I called, You answered me; You made me bold with strength in my soul(Psalm 138:1-3).
A couple things I want you to notice about David’s praise for answered prayer. Circle “before the gods.” What does he mean? Did he believe in more than one God? No. We need to remember David lived in a culture that believed in many gods. David is making a bold frontal attack on the paganism of his day.
He did the same thing when he confronted Goliath on the battlefield. Goliath had been mocking the armies of Israel (in doing so, he was ridiculing the God of Israel) (1 Sam. 17:10). When David heard this 9’9” giant step out into the battlefield and defy Israel and thereby Israel’s God, David was furious with holy anger. Selecting five smooth stones from the nearby brook, David confronted Goliath saying, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of the Israel, whom you have taunted…this day…all the earth will know…the battle is the LORD’s and He will give you into our hands” (1 Sam. 17:45, 46, 47). This is what David is doing in this Psalm – giving bold praise in the face of the enemy. Where did David find this kind of courage? He was a man of prayer. He understood the secret of renewed confidence of in the face of overwhelming odds was prayer. Prayer was essential to David’s walk and usefulness in the hands of God. Oswald Chambers:We are ill-taught if we look for results only in the earthlies when we pray. A praying saint performs far more havoc among the unseen forces of darkness than we have the slightest notion of.
In Vv. 1-3 David is giving bold thanks God for answering his prayer and renewing his confidence. Why pray? Prayer refuses to allow our fears, our disappointments, and doubts to dominate our lives. Through prayer, God renews our confidence in Him. Second, through prayer…
- God strengthens our witness for Him. Listen to David’s words: All the kings of the earth will give thanks to You, O Lord, when they have heard the words of our mouth. And they will sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. For though the Lord is exalted, yet He regards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar (Psalm 138:4-6). He says all the kings of the earth will give thanks when they have heard the words of God. Many see this as a prophecy in the same vein as the Apostle Paul’s declaration that one day every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is LORD (that He is God) (Phil. 2:10-11).
Leaders of the world typically have little sincere regard for God. David’s desire is that all the kings of the earth would be like him: acknowledging and praising the one true God. David cared for the souls of other kings! He recognized that as a king, he had a unique opportunity to share his faith among other kings where the things of God are rarely heard or acknowledged.
Have you ever thought that God put you where you’re at for the sake of others? There are people around you who have never heard the gospel (and there are many!) and God has put you right where you’re at in life to share who He is with them. There are people you rub shoulders with every day that God wants you to share your faith in Christ with.
A number of years ago my wife and I visited a woman in a care facility in Coeur d’ Alene. She had been waiting for a second surgery on her leg and the doctor said he wouldn’t consider a second surgery until they took another x-ray five to six weeks down the road. This doesn’t sound so difficult until you realize she’d already spent 44 days away from home in a hospital bed! For her this meant spending Thanksgiving and Christmas and possibly New Year’s in a hospital away from family. That’s a long time! This is not where she wanted to spend her holidays. But that’s where God had her. As she shared all this with us, she pointed to her guitar leaning in the corner of the room and cheerfully said, “But I am not without a ministry here. God has me here for a purpose.”
No matter where we are at in life, we have been called to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a dying world. A lot of people say, “I would like to share, but I’m afraid.” Or “I don’t know enough about the Bible.” People are not ultimately interested in you or how much knowledge you have of the Bible. Who they are really interested in is Jesus. Billy Graham used to say, “I’m just one beggar telling another where there is bread.” That’s really what’s happening when we point someone to Jesus.
The famous writer Robert Lewis Stevenson, who was very ill as a child, recorded a childhood incident in his diary. Seated by a window at nightfall he watched the lamplighter light the streets below. His nurse came into the room and asked him what he was doing. He replied, “I’m watching a man make holes in the darkness.” God has placed you right where you’re at in life for the sake of others. Why pray? Through prayer God renews confidence in Him and He strengthens our witness for Him. Third, through prayer…
- God increases our awareness of Him. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive
me; You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me. The LORD will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O LORD, is everlasting; do not forsake the works of Your hands (Psalm 138:7-8). Even though God dramatically answered David’s prayer so that his confidence and strength were increased, he understood all too well that he still had to live in a difficult and unrelenting world. God had answered his prayer, but that didn’t mean all of his prayer concerns were behind him. There would still be challenging times ahead. But the difference is David now had a renewed sense of God’s presence and strength in his life. In other words, David doesn’t look to at his future pacing his throne room or wringing his hands with worry. Why? He gives us a third reason to pray: Prayer increases our awareness of God.
Three times in these two verses David refers to God’s hand. You will stretch forth Your hand against my enemies, Your right hand will save me…do not forsake the works of Your hands. David is saying in effect, “Prayer increases my ability to see the faithfulness of God at work in my life. I see His handiwork of protecting, providing, loving, accomplishing. For this reason, even though I know I walk in the midst of trouble, I am not afraid of the future. I know whose hands it is in.” How many of us are worried about the future? God says, “Don’t worry. I’ve already got it take care of.”
Have you ever wondered why God allowed David to top the list of Israel’s ten most wanted? Why He allowed him to live as fugitive under the constant threat of death; not knowing who to trust or where to go find safety? I think it is because God wanted to instill in David what He wants to instill in us as well – a life that really matters, a life that is really fulfilled is not a life of esteemed titles we hang on our name, or impressive accolades we hang on our wall, or prestige, or power, or wealth – all of the things the world aspires as important, but a life that understands what it means to be in love with and to depend on God. David needed to learn, and we need to learn, that without having a complete dependence on God none of those things would really matter. Why pray? God renews our confidence in Him, 2) God strengthens our witness for Him, & 3) God increases our awareness of Him.
Our biggest problem with prayer is we don’t take it serious enough. We don’t see it for what it really is – oxygen to our souls, essential to our next breath of life in God. That’s why God tells us to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). One of our problems is we’re too independent. We think we can skip through life without God. Our biggest problem when it comes to prayer is truthfully admitting we need Jesus Christ. The truth is the reason many of us don’t pray is prayer costs. It costs us honesty. You have to be honest with yourself – “My life is empty. No matter what I fill it with, I still feel empty.” You have to be honest with God – “God, I admit I am inadequate. I really do need You; Your guidance, Your forgiveness, Your healing, Your help. I really do need You as my Savior and Lord.” As long as you think you’re self-sufficient, prayer will have little meaning for you. Prayer is an act of humble confession: “God, I admit I need You in my life.” He wanted David to learn what we need to learn as well: If you have God in your life, you’re the richest person in the world, but without Him nothing you have can fill that hollow place in your life, no matter how much you have or how secure you feel, only Jesus Christ can fill the void in your life.
The other day I found a little bookmark entitled: THE DIFFERENCE. I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day. I had so much to accomplish that I didn’t have time to pray. Problems just tumbled about me and heavier came each task. “Why doesn’t God help me?” He answered, “You didn’t ask.” I tried to come into God’s presence: I used all my keys in the lock God gently and lovingly chided, “My child you didn’t knock.” I woke up early this morning and paused before entering the day: I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray.
