Our Father Knows
Jesus taught his disciples how to pray in Matthew 6:7-13. He didn’t just teach them a model prayer, but He taught them who God is.
Gentiles who did not know God thought they could get His attention if they used a lot of words.
Jesus said don’t be like them. For your Father knows what you need before you ask. God is your Father. He is not an absent Father. He is present. He is informed. He knows you and knows what you need. He has all the resources, all the means necessary to provide exactly what you need. Because this is who God is, thus we pray.
Does this truth drive and encourage us to pray?
It is clear through the psalms, that God wants us to know this. David’s example teaches us to turn to God in every situation. In great joy and great trial, turn to God. He is our Rock and our Refuge. Thus David prays to Him and calls us to do the same.
We don’t like to admit very often, but we are a needy people. We daily need God’s mercy, grace, and provision. We need His instruction and counsel.
In our great need, Psalm 28 teaches us how we should pray…
The Prayer of the Needy
1. Pray for God’s
David’s prayer demonstrates utter dependence on God’s mercy. Verse two is a clear prayer of desperation. David is not going through the motions of a quiet time. He is crying out to God for help. He does this because he knows his need. He knows who can supply for his need.
Would you agree with me that we do not like to feel or appear needy? We struggle to ask for help. We don’t really like to talk about our struggles. Struggle has a way of making us feel isolated.
Yet the common message of the Bible is that we are a lot more similar in our struggles than we are different. The hard things we are walking through, are more common to man than we might feel or realize in the moment.
When we minimize our need for God’s mercy, the tragedy is we can also minimize how amazingly merciful our God is. But when we hold to our need for mercy and see how great God’s supply of mercy is; we see our lives and our struggles through a different lens.
God is merciful, so we pray for mercy!
2. Pray for God’s
But for God’s mercy, David would be numbered with the workers of evil. He continues to pray that God would protect and preserve him from that.
Then David prays that those who do reject and rebel against God’s good and right way be given according to their work. God bring your justice upon those whose works deserve it. This psalm shows a clear contrast between the works of the evil ones and the works of the Lord. The works of those who are out of line with God’s work will be torn down.
Do you know one of the most repeated descriptions of God in the Old Testament? The first time God describes at length who He is happens in Exodus 34:6-7, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Num. 14:18; Neh. 9:17; Ps. 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jon. 4:2; Nah. 1:3). No wonder David could confidently pray as he did!
When we pray for God’s justice, we are praying for God to set all things right. The Bible is clear from beginning to end, all rebellion will be judged.
As we pray for God’s justice, at least 3 things that take place:
We are reminded of our own
We are filled with
We are motivated in
David had taken refuge in God. He had turned to Him for mercy. Thus he could pray for God’s justice and then praise God for hearing his prayer.
3. Praise God for
The situation facing David is not clear in this psalm. But he is in great need. He is bothered or concerned by those around him and cries out for God’s mercy and help. But from this place, David still praises God for hearing.
David turns even in the midst of his neediness to praise God. This praise is not based on David’s circumstances but on who he knows God to be. David has prayed to God according to the character of God, so he has great confidence in God’s answer and care.
The character and works of God were just as real and fresh to him as the crisis he was facing.
4. Trust God’s eternal
This is our confidence. God is our strength. He is the refuge for those who have entered in by faith. In Christ, we have received His promised salvation and blessing. We have the assurance that our Good Shepherd will shepherd us and carry us, both now and for eternity.
In our great need, we pray for mercy! We pray that God will set all things right. We praise Him because of who He is even in our circumstances. We trust in His eternal care for us.
Content in Our Weakness
The apostle Paul prayed that God would remove his weakness. Have we ever prayed that way?
Not just once, but Paul prayed three times. Finally, Christ answered him:
2 Corinthians 12:9-10: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Boasting is typically discouraged, but Paul boasts gladly of his weakness. Because in his weakness, the power of Christ is demonstrated. The same is true for us. In our weakness, we get to see and experience the power of God sustaining and strengthening us.
Thank You Father for Your mercy!