Prayer
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“Hear me, Lord…listen to my cry…hear my prayer…I call on you, my God, for you will answer me…turn your ear to me and hear my prayer...”
Have you ever prayed that prayer or a prayer like that? I’m guessing you have. Maybe not with these exact words, but with the same intent: asking God to hear you, to listen, to answer you, to pay attention.
If you’ve prayed like that, I suspect you’re in good company. I know you’re at least in league with David, the king of Israel, a man after God’s own heart.
Psalm 17 is the first psalm in the Psalter that is designated as a prayer. “Psalm 17: A prayer of David”—that’s what it is.
It’s a model prayer. It teaches us. It’s instructive. We’re privileged to get a glimpse into the prayer life of God’s servant, David. David, we read, is a man after God’s own heart, and, in large part, this is because David is a man of prayer.
The Psalm begins with David addressing the Lord. We don’t know the situation yet, but we observe David’s stance before God:
1 Hear me, Lord, my plea is just;
listen to my cry.
Hear my prayer—
it does not rise from deceitful lips.
What we see from the outset of the psalm is a man who is engaging with God, a man who knows he can turn to God and bare his soul before God. In this way, as we approach this psalm, David teaches us a few things about prayer. He teaches us, firstly, to:
Cry Out to God
Cry Out to God
Like a child who runs to Mom or Dad when something is wrong, tears in their eyes and choke in their throat, David runs to his Heavenly Father: “Hear me…listen to my cry…hear my prayer.” He believes God hears him. David gets to speak with the God who hears.
This is one of the most incredible miracles; and yet it’s often overlooked and downplayed. We take this immense privilege and write if off as just another spiritual task, another box to check on our checklist of religious duties: “Guess I better pray today...”
I must admit, prayer is not always my first reaction; I don’t always pray first about whatever’s going on. Just this week, I was having a hard parenting moment and what did I do? Meghann and I talked about it a lot, we sat the kids down for a family meeting, and I called Carla and vented to her. Do you know what I didn’t do? I didn’t cry out to God; I didn’t think, initially, to pray about it. I’m beyond thankful for my wife. And I’m glad I can call Carla anytime and she’ll listen, advise, and correct.
But why wasn’t prayer my first move? I get around to prayer eventually, but it’s not always my go-to.
By the way, Carla’s cell is 660-555-3993. Call her any time!
If it makes you feel a little bit better about your prayerlessness, I don’t believe prayer was always David’s first move.
Instead of praying when he was tempted by the pretty lady bathing on the roof, David gave in. And then, instead of praying and confessing after his affair with Bathsheba, he tried to cover it up, taking matters into his own hands and even had her husband killed. Prayer at multiple points in that saga would have redirected David’s feelings and actions, I’m sure.
David’s inclination is not always to pray first. And we know that this—prayer—is not the natural first step for God’s people at all times. I know it’s not for me, and I’m assuming it’s not what you do first all the time, is it?
After 400-ish years in slavery God’s people finally cry out to Him for help, for relief, for redemption:
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.
The Israelites finally come to their senses (and finally come to the end of their rope) and finally do what they should have done long before: they cry out to God and God hears.
24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.
Further on in the history of God’s people as recorded in the book of Judges (probably my favorite book I’ve preached through, by the way), there’s a consistent refrain:
9 But when they cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, who saved them.
15 Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.
3 Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.
7 When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian,
In the time of the Judges, the people of God keep doing whatever they please, it routinely gets them in a jam, and eventually—e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y—they will cry out to God.
And what does God do? He hears their cry and gives them a deliverer to deliver them—every time. Every. Single. Time.
It’s mercy upon mercy, grace upon grace. Why do we wait to cry out to Him? Why is this a pattern among the people of God? Why don’t we learn to make this—crying out to God—our first move, our knee-jerk reaction, our immediate response?
I don’t know what it is you might be facing, but I’m certain you’re up against something. Family struggles, drama with a friend, health concerns, financial worries; maybe the Enemy is after you, tempting you and discouraging you and feeding you lies.
Life is hard. David is here, as on every page of the psalms, facing something. His mortal enemies (v. 9) have him surrounded. It’s not a good situation, whatever it is. And so he cries out to the Lord in prayer.
I don’t know how long it took him to get there, but I can see David dropping to his knees, falling facedown on the ground, crying out and pleading his case to the Lord:
3 Though you probe my heart,
though you examine me at night and test me,
you will find that I have planned no evil;
my mouth has not transgressed.
4 Though people tried to bribe me,
I have kept myself from the ways of the violent
through what your lips have commanded.
5 My steps have held to your paths;
my feet have not stumbled.
In this instance, David has not messed up. He is innocent here, not perfectly innocent of all wrongdoing, but innocent of what his enemies are charging him with.
David’s plea, he says, is just (v. 1). He’s not being deceitful (v. 2). David is in the right. He’s keeping himself on the straight and narrow.
There are times, maybe often, when you can honestly say, “I’ve done nothing wrong here! Why is this happening? What’s going on!”
Rather than getting angry with God, David pleads his case and presents his arguments. In this instance, David’s life is not a barrier to the Lord’s hearing (something the psalmist alludes to in Psalm 66)—
18 If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;
This should lead us to a very candid self-examination as we pray.
Am I being disobedient to the Lord? Am I being selfish? Is there a wrong I need to make right? Have I offended my brother or sister? Are my priorities in order?
We can always cry out to the Lord. But when we’re able to cry out and argue our case with integrity and without deceit, we can expect to meet the God who hears.
>David continues praying, crying out to God, all the while teaching us to pray and why to pray:
6 I call on you, my God, for you will answer me;
turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.
7 Show me the wonders of your great love,
you who save by your right hand
those who take refuge in you from their foes.
8 Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings
9 from the wicked who are out to destroy me,
from my mortal enemies who surround me.
Why do we pray? Why should we?
Cry Out to God Because He Loves You
Cry Out to God Because He Loves You
Okay, let’s not get all sentimental, all gushy and cutesy. It’s not enough to say that God loves you. It sounds nice. It’s a sweet thought. But if God loves you in the way that you “love” cheesecake or in the way you “love” your JH boyfriend, you don’t have much.
It’s not enough to say that God loves you. We need to try to express what David’s getting at in verse 7; verse 7, you see, is the heart of the psalm. David prays:
7 Show me the wonders of your great love,
you who save by your right hand
those who take refuge in you from their foes.
“Great love” is not a bad translation, but it’s not enough; it doesn’t quite get there.
This word “great love” is the word hesed—that is, this is the covenant love of God, the lovingkindness of God, the faithful love of God.
So, to express it, we need to say something like this:
Cry Out to God Because He Loves You Steadfastly
Cry Out to God Because He Loves You Steadfastly
If God only loves you as much as you “love” going to the movies, there’s nothing there to write home about and certainly nothing to stake your life upon.
God loves you steadfastly. God loves you with a covenant love, a love based on His promise. “Ain’t no love like God’s love, cuz God’s love don’t stop.”
David’s prayer teaches us to:
Cry Out to God Because He Loves You Steadfastly
Cry Out to God Because He Loves You Steadfastly
David has absolutely no doubt that will answer him. And so David asks for God to show off His great, hesed-love. “Show me,” says David (almost as if he’s a good Missourian!), “Show me!”
So confident in God’s steadfast love is David that he can be calm in the face of danger. David knows in God’s love, there is salvation and refuge. There is protection and shelter for God’s people.
Indeed, God keeps His people as a hen gathers her chicks. They are safe under the shelter of His wings. God keeps His people and He protects them as the apple of His eye—the pupil, probably the most sensitive part of the body.
It’s almost impossible to keep your eyes open even for eye drops or that fun dilating fluid the doctor uses. Reflexively, you close your eyes and/or turn your head to protect anything from happening to your pupil. This is something even the 3 Stooges understood.
We are His children, His treasure, His most prized possession.
God’s hesed, His great love, His faithful and steadfast love is certain. David anchors himself to the great truth of God’s great and steadfast love. He has docked his ship here.
You see, David knows that God has kept His covenant in the past so He can be expected to do the same for all His people, for David, for you. God has kept His covenant and will keep on expressing His covenant love.
It’s who He is. It’s not because you deserve it. It’s part of Him. It’s His nature. And for His people who belong to Him by faith in His Son, there is no chance He ever gives up.
The steadfast love of God has never been illustrated any more clearly than it was one Friday two-thousand years ago, where Jesus, the God-Man, the Only Son of God, perfect and spotless sacrificial Lamb, carried His cross and our sins upon His tattered, torn, and beaten back; where Jesus gave up His life of His own accord because He loved us—not flippantly, not carelessly, not halfheartedly, not with an “I love pizza” kind of love—but loved us completely and while we were yet hostile to Him. He loved us so. He loved His enemies—those who would be given grace to believe—He loved with a steadfast, unending, never-giving-up kind of love.
It’s this, this, this—the steadfast love of God—this is the reason we can cry out to Him. Cry out to Him! Bare your soul to Him! Not out of religious obligation, but because no one loves you like He does! No one but One loves you perfectly.
The steadfast love of God, no one, nothing, not even you, can change or stop that:
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God loves you steadfastly.
This is true. Twas true for David. And Christian, it’s true—wondrously, gloriously, marvellously, incomprehensibly true—for you.
The prayer continues:
10 They close up their callous hearts,
and their mouths speak with arrogance.
11 They have tracked me down, they now surround me,
with eyes alert, to throw me to the ground.
12 They are like a lion hungry for prey,
like a fierce lion crouching in cover.
Catch the description of his enemies. Talk about some bad mamma-jammas. These people do not care for David, to put it lightly. The problem is urgent; there’s no time for delay. They are closing in, surrounding David, out to destroy him.
This situation is dark and it’s time-sensitive, and it seems like an awful lot, especially when we read what David says next:
13 Rise up, Lord, confront them, bring them down;
with your sword rescue me from the wicked.
14 By your hand save me from such people, Lord,
from those of this world whose reward is in this life.
May what you have stored up for the wicked fill their bellies;
may their children gorge themselves on it,
and may there be leftovers for their little ones.
David’s prayer teaches us to:
Cry Out to God Because He Loves You Steadfastly and Will Fight for You Always
Cry Out to God Because He Loves You Steadfastly and Will Fight for You Always
I don’t have enemies like David does. I am not persecuted. I don’t know what it is to be in trouble. I have lived a really cushy life. I know nothing of the kind of threat David faces here.
If we are able to imagine what David’s up against, we would be shocked to think about him not taking matters into his own hands and fighting back. David doesn’t exercise vengeance himself; he waits for vindication. David knows what is written in the law of God:
35 It is mine to avenge; I will repay.
In due time their foot will slip;
their day of disaster is near
and their doom rushes upon them.”
19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
David doesn’t do the fighting; he trusts God to fight for Him.
And what a prayer! “Rise up, Lord, confront them, bring them down! Curb stomp, ‘em!”
Okay, I added that last part. But I love his prayer; he’s not backing off. He doesn’t want his enemies to succeed. Rather, David is tagging-out and expecting the Lord Almighty to step into the ring and bring [David’s enemies] down!
David trusts that God has something in store for the wicked, for his enemies (enough for them, enough for their children, enough for the little ones).
David knows his enemies have their reward in this life only; and to have everything but God is judgment enough.
What’s more, God will judge the wicked, the enemies of his people. God will punish them, God and God alone; He alone has the right to do it. You don’t get to take vengeance, but God will fight for you.
We need to trust, along with David, that we can place our deepest hurts, our ugliest petitions, our truest thoughts before the Lord and know that He will take care of it in the way that He sees fit.
Letting God handle it is tough, though. There have been times I’d like to give it a go, to fight my own battles, to deck and/or curb-stomp a few people; I think I’d like to dole-out judgment and punishment as I see fit. But that would not be good for anyone, least of all me.
We ought to pray like David, entrusting our lot to God and trusting Him to care for us and take care of the situation.
If God didn’t fight for us, we would have all succumbed long ago. Our Enemy, Satan, prowls about looking for someone to devour. But the Lord, in His steadfast love, protects us, shelters us, and fights for us. Always.
The Lord will fight for David and he knows it. David will be vindicated in the end if nothing else, this he knows, and he’s satisfied.
15 As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face;
when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.
David’s joy, his life, his hope, his expectation is in the Lord, in being with Him and seeing Him face-to-face, as one friend sees another.
What a beautiful end to a beautiful prayer.
>What we do with this psalm is easy, it’s clear. The application is right here for us.
Cry Out to God Because He Loves You Steadfastly and Will Fight for You Always
Cry Out to God Because He Loves You Steadfastly and Will Fight for You Always
Crying out to God is just good common sense. As His children, our Father wants us to turn to Him in our times of need. And we know that He loves us unlike any one else loves us. And He, the Lord Almighty, fights for us—always has, always will, we need only be still.
Why would we turn to anyone else for anything else? The Lord is the One who hears, the One who answers, the One who helps, the One who vindicates His own.
Cry out to God, because He loves you steadfastly and will fight for you always.