Psalm 17 - Bold Prayer: How and when we should pray boldly.
vs.1-6 - Opening Statement
Have you ever read a prayer in scripture and thought, “I would never pray that.”
Sometimes it’s because the prayer is too circumstantial, sometimes it’s that it’s too intense... and sometimes, as is the case with this Psalm, it appears to be wandering near the boarder lands of blasphemy.
David plays the part of a defense attorney in this prayer, standing before the ultimate judge, defending himself.
Let’s hear his opening statement, vs.1-2
This is an urgent appeal from the defendant for the judge to listen.
In vs.1 alone there are 3 pleading statements, “Hear,” “attend to,” and “Give ear.”
Then David very blatantly says, “You will find me innocent.”
David continues with his strong defense in vs.3
David essentially says, “You know that there’s no evidence against me.”
And then there’s the oath, “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help me You.”
Now, in vs.4, David states his reason for making such a bold proclamation, vs.4
“I’ve done everything you’ve asked of me, followed every rule right down to the letter.”
And in vs.5 David says, “I’’m asking you to keep me innocent both now and in the future, by Your power.” vs.5
Then vs.6 repeats what vs.1 said, vs.6... again David pleads, “hear me,” “incline Your ear,” and “hear.”
What we are witnessing, in this Psalm Prayer, is an appeal... an argument by David to God concerning the reasons why God needed to answer David’s request.
This seems radically out of place to us.
We’ve been taught to pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us.” (Luke 11:4) and to say, even in our triumphs, “We are (at best) unworthy, humble servants.” (Luke 17:10)
But David doesn’t take this approach... instead he argues his case before the Lord and demands justice based on God’s promises and God’s character.
This argumentative approach is something which preachers used to encourage members of the congregation to do, Spurgeon, McClaren, and Bonhoeffer to name a few.
These men would constantly recommend arguments in prayer, not because God needed to be persuaded but because preparing an argument forces us to carefully think through what we are asking and why we are asking for it.
Spurgeon said of David, “David would not have been a man after God’s own heart if he had not been a man of prayer. He was a master in the sacred art of supplication.”
We’re going to leave the Scriptures here tonight because we’ve had a lot of heavy information over the past few times we’ve gathered... and tonight I think we would benefit from some heavy application.
Let me ask you... how do you prepare for prayer?
Now... there are many different types of prayer... there’s prayers of worship which are often a sporadic response to something.
There are prayers that I like to refer to as exterminator prayers... you see a bug you squash it, you zap it with your zapper... a problem or person comes to mind and you say a quick prayer in response to this leading.
There are prayers of desperation... when you’re at a breaking point and you’re simply reaching something to grab on to... to give you some stability, to give you some hope.
Then... there are prayers that are focused, routine, daily... these prayers have lists... these prayers take planning... these prayers are intentional.
How do you prepare to pray? In any situation, in any circumstance... how do you prepare to stand before a holy, righteous judge to make your requests known.
I think that it would be a fair assessment to say that most of the time there is very little intentional preparation when it comes to our prayer lives.
Mostly we rely on the Holy Spirit to give us the right words to say.
This isn't a bad thing... it isn't a wrong thing to rely on God for some leading.
But, may I submit to you, that it is much more powerful, much more God honoring, much more effective... to prepare ourselves before entering into the presence of the King of kings... before open our mouth in praise or petition to the Most Holy God.
There are multiple levels to this preparation:
- There's personal preparation and self realization... this is the time where we remind ourselves who we are before God and to God.
Who are we before God?
We are sinners. We are unworthy, unwitting, undeserving, and broken servants coming before a Just and Righteous King.
Who are we to God?
We are beloved children. We are sons and daughters.
When God looks at us... He sees the brokenness... He sees the imperfection... He sees the weakness and imperfection... and He loves us.
God is a loving father and we are beloved children.
- There's perspective preparation.
this is the time where we come to a place of joy and trust, even in the midst of sorrow.
This doesn't mean that we slap a smile across our face and sandwich our prayers with compliments and words of empty worship.
This is a time to remember and reflect on the fact that God is sovereign over everything. That regardless of current circumstance and regardless of God's response to our requests, God has a plan and a purpose for all things and that God's plan and purpose is to work all things together for good for those who serve Him.
A while back there was a movie about dodgeball featuring a rag tag group of misfits from Average Joe's Gym.
Peter LaFleur, owner of Average Joe’s, had lost his mortgage rights to the owner of Globo-Gym, the gym across the street where the beautiful people workout.
LaFleur is told that he has to come up with $50,000 in order to save his gym from becoming overflowing parking for Globo-Gym.
As the plot of the movie roles along LeFleur discovers a dodgeball tournament in Las Vegas, that has a $50,000 payout to the winner.
So, a group of unlikely, picked last in gym class, candidates from Average Joe's sign up for this contest.
However, in the preliminary qualifying match Average Joe's end up loosing to a team of girl scout.
Despondent they hang their heads in shame until it's miraculously announced that one of the girl scouts was taking a low grade fever tranquilizer, which counted as steroid use, and so they were disqualified from the tournament making Average Joe's winners by default.
Aware that they desperately needed some help the team hires a coach named Patches O’Houlihan, who’s my favorite character in the whole movie.
Patches is a retired dodgeball champion and he comes in to teach them the skills they need to win at dodgeball.
Patches knows what it takes to be a champion, but it doesn’t take long to realize that Patches is a whole cup of crazy.
He gives these ridiculous drills for these guys to do and one of them is, he takes a sack of wrenches and starts heaving it at them and he says, “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.”
And it makes so little sense to them, it’s the dumbest drill ever, but they go through with it because they realize that Patches perspective is better than theirs.
Patches O’Houlihan knows what it takes to be a dodgeball champion more than anyone else at Average Joe’s gym, so they trust him because they have no choice but to trust him.
Sometimes it feels like God is a God who chucks wrenches at us.
Yes... sometimes He puts us through painful drills in order to help our performance in order to refine us and make us more righteous.
Scripture, however, tells us that we do not have a Father who will throw stones when we ask for and need bread.
When we pray it's helpful to realize that our perspective is not as great as the One we are praying to.
- Finally, there's mental preparation... this is the time where we think about what we are going to say to the King before we say it.
I received this advice a lot as a kid, "Think before you speak. Make sure that what you are about to say is really what you want to say and what you mean to say before you say it."
Why is this a good idea? How can this help us to pray boldly and more effectively?
I think that the answer is that, most of the time, we know what we want but we have no idea what we really need.
Scripture tells us that God will meet our needs, not give us everything we want.
When you are able to articulate exactly what you need and you know the reasons why you are asking for it, your prayers become focused, they become intentional.
When you know the words that have been spoken by the One that you are praying to and you know the heart of the One that you are praying to, it is easier to phrase your request in a way that you can be confident will receive a response.
This is what David does... this is the heart of and the purpose for preparation before prayer.
Can I challenge you to spend some time, even tonight in your groups, spend some time preparing to go before the King of kings.
Think about what you are about to say, pray with purpose, pray with intent... speak as if every word that you have to say is important and necessary.
Do this... and see what God will do.
