It’s midnight. The lights are off. A storm is blowing outside and the wind is howling like a faraway wolf. The piano music plays an eerie couple of notes over and over again slowly building in volume. You sit on your couch with the popcorn bowl on your lap and you holler at the teenage girl on the screen. “Don’t go down those stairs! Why would you go down to the cellar?! Your friends all just got their skin ripped off by a giant superhuman mutant zombie and all you have is a flashlight! Don’t go down there!”
You know the scene, right? Sometimes the zombie jumps out of the shadow as she opens the door. At other times, the director tries to make you relax and it’s just a cat that scampers off when she opens up the door to the cellar. So then the actress turns around in relief and says, “It was only that silly ca…”. And THEN the zombie jumps out and stabs her with a trident or something. I hate those shows. I don’t do scary movies. I would much rather watch something funny than scary.
But I wonder sometimes how often we go to God like that teenage actress opened the door to the cellar. We go to God in prayer not sure of how we will be received. We know He is loving but we also know that He is holy. We know He is near and that we were made in His image but we also know that He is so different from us and that we can never totally understand Him. He rightfully scares us but He also tells us to call Him “Abba”Father. We call God up and sometimes we’re not sure what we will find on the other line.
I find myself praying sometimes and trying to be real particular about how I pray. I sometimes pray like a politician answers a question. I’m very careful about what words I choose. “God, please give me patience BUT please don’t give me more trials. I just want patience for what I’m going through now. And Lord, please help me to be more generous. BUT I know what you did last time I prayed that. I lost all of my stuff. So, please just help me to be generous with what I have.”
Do you ever pray like that? You pray like you’re praying to a lawyer. You have to use exactly the right words and cover all your bases or God might answer your prayer in a way that is technically what you asked for but not really what you wanted. I, Todd Blair, the party of the first part would like to petition the Holy Deity, here foreword to be referenced as “God” or “Dear Lord” for blessings for said party but not at the expense of another party. And that such blessings would come at a date no later than 90 days from commencement of stated request and if blessings should as such be delayed then they will be prorated out according to a 30-day month multiplied by 12. If it so please the court…or God”
But that is not how the Bible tells us to come to God. In fact, in the book of Psalms, David, who knows a thing or two about praying, tells us that we should rejoice when we go to God. It’s true that prayer changes things. And it’s true that the fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. It is also true that God is sovereign and that He will answer our prayers in a way that is best for us, best for His Kingdom and will give Him the most glory. And no, I don’t know how He is able to do all of that at the same time but it has something to do with His being God.
Which, in itself, is reason enough for us to rejoice when we pray. Because if He is God, and we know He is, then He has proven Himself trustworthy. And if He has proven Himself trustworthy, and we know He has, then we should know that however He chooses to answer our prayer, be it yes, no or wait, that it will be good; that it will be best, that it will be exactly what we need. You’re not praying to a lawyer or a politician or a used car salesman who is trying to trick you into something. You are praying to Holy God Who loves you passionately. So rejoice!
Let’s look at the passage that tells us to rejoice when we pray. It is found in Psalm 105:3. Let’s read verses 1-5 to keep it in context.
Give thanks to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. 2 Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.3 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. 4 Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. 5 Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced.
“Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.” You remember from last week that David wrote this as the special music, if you will, for a celebration they were having, much like what we had last Sunday night. And it is a song of great joy. And who doesn’t like a happy song?
I have to admit that I like some country music but not all of it. I never have been able to listen to all those songs about how his baby left him and now he’s just in the bar drinking. Who wants to listen to that? By the way, do you know what has 79 legs and 42 teeth? The front row at a country music concert. Oh dear, now some of you are offended because you like country music and the others are offended by the corny joke. Oh well.
David’s song would never have been played on the country stations because it is joyful and happy. He says to “glory in His holy name.” That word “glory” means to praise. It is actually related to the word that the Hebrews used for the Book of Psalms. They saw the whole book as a book of praises. David often started his psalms with thanksgiving and praise because he was grateful.
This is a psalm of thanksgiving, of gratefulness and joy. It starts out saying to “give thanks” or “give praise” and it is a thread that runs all through this psalm and I would dare say all of the psalms, especially David’s. And I realize that is a big claim because sometimes that thread of thankfulness gets pretty bare in some of David’s psalms. But I want you to see something.
I want you to see what David did and what we should do when we go to God in prayer.
1) David was thankful to God because of Who God is.
2) David was thankful to God because of who David was.
First we see that David was thankful to God because of Who God is. David says to glory in His holy name. We talked last week about God’s name being a manifestation of His character. Every name God has reflects Who He is and how He works and the better one knows God the more one is thankful to God. Why should I give praise to God’s holy name? I give Him praise because Genesis calls Him salvation. Psalm 23 calls Him a shepherd. Exodus calls Him the healer. Jeremiah says our righteousness. Judges says He is peace. Isaiah says everlasting. Genesis says He is the strong one! And I love John 14 that says He is the Comforter.
And we can all give God glory for all of those things. In fact, it’s pretty easy to praise God for being our healer and our righteous comforter. But what about passages like Acts 10:36 that say He is Lord of all? You say “amen! Lord of All!” But do you really mean it? Do you mean that you can give SOVEREIGN God praise; not only in the good times and for the good things He does for us, but also in the bad times? If He is Lord of all then He is Lord of ALL, the good and the bad times.
CS Lewis wrote in God in the Dock, “In Hamlet, a branch breaks and Ophelia is drowned. Did she die because the branch broke or because Shakespeare wanted her to die at that point in the play? Either – both – whichever you prefer. The alternative suggested by the question is not a real alternative at all – once you have grasped that Shakespeare is making the whole play.”
And once we have grasped that God is making this whole life of ours, then we can better see His true names. His holy names become precious to us even in our trials because we know that God has proven Himself faithful. Does it dry all of our tears and make the world rainbows and lollipops? Of course not but the better we know God the better we understand that we are not here to have rainbows and lollipops. Yes, God is generous and loving but the better we know God the more we are able to say, “Thank you Lord for what has come my way. I can’t wait to see how you turn it to my good and the good of your Kingdom.”
Because that is Who God is and how God works and so we as mature believers and followers of Him WILL be thankful to God for Who He is just like David did.
Look at Psalm 22. Turn in your Bibles there. I want you to see this. Just a quick glance tells you a lot about the man after God’s own heart. This is about the ultimate Psalm for being in despair. David knew despair. David was familiar with heartache and pain all of his life. Look at this. Just a quick glance. He starts out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me?” He continues…I cry out. I am a worm. Surrounded by bulls, roaring lions, dogs. My heart has turned to wax. Strength has dried up. I can count all my bones. Come quickly! Rescue me in verse 21.
But look in verse 22. I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you. Verse 23 says, “You who fear the Lord, praise him!” I want you to know that God had not yet saved David from all that was going on in his life. There was no halftime between verse 21 and verse 22 where God saved him. Verse 22 was IN THE MIDST OF the worst attack Satan could muster. How could David be thankful at a time like that? Because David knew Who God is. Not just a head knowledge but with his whole being, he knew. And that leads me to the next point.
David was thankful to God because of who David was. Back to Psalm 105 and the second part of verse 3. It says “let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.” In the thinking and culture of the time in which David lived, they considered the heart to be the center of one ’s self. They didn’t understand how the brain works like we do today and so they felt that the heart was the place from which came all thought and emotion. It was the place where you felt love and fear and also knew facts and believed things.
We should rejoice as we go to God in prayer with all that we are and all that we have and with everything about us. Aren’t you glad you don’t worship a god that loves you only when you are loveable? Aren’t you glad you don’t have to do something special to get His attention or be clean enough to come to Him?
In the devotional, Walk with God, the author, Chris Tiegreen says, “Our natural tendency, like Adam and Eve, is to hide from God. We don’t necessarily sit behind the bushes hoping He won’t discover us, but mentally we are not entirely open to Him. We dress up our prayers to sound right to Him. We dress up our deeds to appear worthy to Him. And we dress up our worship to appeal to His glory.”
In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus tells the disciples how to pray. And it is the proper and good and appropriate way to come before Holy God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. Jesus gives us the order in which to ask things of God. To me, it is sort of like coming to the throne room of God, knocking on the door and waiting to be allowed in. We then walk in and stand at an appropriate place and tell the King of kings why we love and appreciate Him. At the appropriate time and place we can ask Him for help and for forgiveness and for His blessings. And as a general rule that really is the best way to come before the King.
But there are times that we can just do like David did and bust open the door and run in and jump on His lap screaming, “Father, please help me. Can’t do it. Don’t know how to do it. Don’t want to do it. Don’t understand why I have to do it. Please help me I’m about to die!”
But even in those times; even when we may not be making any sense ourselves and God is not making any sense to us, still, as David is our model, still we can and should have joy. David says to rejoice and he should know. This isn’t coming from me. This isn’t coming from one who likes to think he has seen some pain. In fact, I want you to go through and really look at the Psalms sometime. Read the ones of David especially and make a note of the ones before and after God “crushes” him, to use his words.
Before what I like to call “Bathsheba-gate”, David cried for saving and he had good reason to. But after Nathan told him, “You are that man” and after his baby died and his family rebelled and his world collapsed; after all that you see David differently because he saw God differently. His psalms were less about saving and more about praising, even when it must have been almost impossible to praise.
Do you really want to know God? Do you really want to enjoy God? Do you really want to live an abundant life like is promised in John 10:10? To do those things REQUIRES praise.
Most of you know I don’t really enjoy most sports. I don’t watch football or baseball or basketball on TV ever. But I do enjoy going to watch the Bulls play on Friday evenings in the fall. I have some good friends that always save me a seat right in the front and center and they are serious about their Bull football. I went the first time just to be with them but I want you to know that I started getting into it. It’s hard not to watch a really good play and not get excited when you see it in person and up close. I realized I was a Bulls fan about 3 games into the first season because I found myself giving praise, loudly, to the players when they did well.
And as I did that, I realized I was learning their names and remembering a few stats and really starting to enjoy them instead of just going through the motions. It’s one thing to put a Bull decal on your car and wear a maroon t-shirt. It’s another to holler as loud as you can, “Good job, Gabe! Nice run buddy!”
It’s the same with God. Praising God is not only the right thing to do, it also is how we learn more about Him and then really enjoy Him, when we do it with all of our hearts and when we do it even in the bad times, like David did. So praise His holy name because of Who God is and praise Him with all of your heart because of who you are.
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