THURSDAY 13th
Psalm 116
Prayer
NIV (v4) ‘Then I called on the name of the LORD: “LORD, save me!”’
ESV (v4) ‘Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!”’
As we have gone through the psalms, it has been obvious that the ‘precepts’ of the LORD were important to the psalmists, (as we will see again with Psalm 119) ‘praise’ along with worship was also important, and as we see from our verse today, ‘prayer’ was also an important factor in their relationship with God. How often have we read ‘I cried out’ or I called out’ as the psalmist had come to prayer, to petition God. In our text today (ESV) it says, ‘O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul’. We don’t need to investigate what it was that was going on in the life of the psalmist for him to call out in prayer, but to simply acknowledge that he knew that whatever the crisis or the circumstance he could come to the LORD God and cry out or call out to him in prayer.
It was the hymn writer who wrote in the well-known hymn ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’, ‘Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear’, and why? ‘All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.’ When we contemplate these words, we must wonder how much have we carried needlessly because we have failed to pray, even how much have we missed out on because we have failed to pray?
I spent a little time just looking at some of the hymns in the prayer section of ‘Making Melody’ I quote just some of the lines from the various hymns:
‘We seek, dear Lord, your presence, in Jesus’ holy name, our needs to lay before you, your promises to claim.’
‘Then lead us out, dear Master, in interceding prayer, for those who do not know you, for those who do not care.’
‘At the blessed hour of prayer, trusting him, we believe, that the blessings we’re needing we’ll surely receive.’
‘O send to us thy quickening power, all guilt and dross remove; O let our waiting hearts be filled, dear Saviour with thy Love.’
‘Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? Precious Saviour, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.’
‘Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, that calls me from a world of care, and bids me at my Father’s throne make all my wants and wishes known.’
‘Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed! The motion of a hidden fire that trembles in the breast. Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, the Christian’s native air: his watchword at the gates of death, he enters heaven with prayer.’
May we begin to realise perhaps like never before the importance of prayer, and I want to emphasise its importance for us corporately, going back to the words from ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’ I wonder how much we are losing out on as Church because we fail to be together in corporate prayer, seeking God together for his blessing to be poured out upon us.
I started by saying we don’t need to investigate why the psalmist called out to God in prayer, sufficient to know he knew to pray. We need to investigate and answer the question why do we need to pray?—especially corporately, and the reason is this, we cannot expect God to bless us as if it is an automatic right, we need to come before him and pour our hearts out to him, we need to come and to empty ourselves and allow him to come and to fill us afresh with his presence so that his glory may fill the sanctuary. We need to pray, we need to seek God, we need to call out to him, we need him to come and to visit us again with an overwhelming sense of his presence, we need to move forward together in unity so that he can command his blessing upon us.
It is James who says in his short epistle, ‘You have not, because you ask not’ and then Peter who says, ‘His ear is always open’, may we grasp the urgency of the hour and come together to pray – God will hear us, and he will answer.