Teach Us to Pray
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A few weeks before 4th-6th Grade Church camp, the camp deans sent out a desperate email asking if there were any brave camp sponsors willing to teach a class.
I thought, “Well, there’s a not a lot I can do at church camp other than be there, but I can probably teach a class.” There were two classes they needed teachers for: one class on how to read the Bible and the other class on how to pray.
They replied to my email, telling me they had assigned me to teach one of the class sessions on how to pray, and I can honestly say I regretted offering to teach (for a moment). If they would have assigned me the ‘how to read the Bible’ class, I would have been over the moon.
But for some reason, teaching a class on how to pray didn’t overly excite me. To be honest, it kind of scared me.
I read a story of two 19th Century preachers in Scotland. One of the ministers, Alexander Moody Stuart asked his friend John Duncan to preach for him.
Duncan replied, “I’ll be glad to preach if you’ll take the prayers; I’m not able to pray at present, but I can preach a bit, and would like it.”
It’s hard to figure what he means and why he would say he wasn’t able to pray at the time. Duncan assumes (and rightly so) that preaching is easier than praying (and preaching ain’t easy).
Praying is hard.
Praying—really praying—requires more than a few churchy words and turns of phrase.
Even Jesus’ disciples understood praying is hard:
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
“Lord, teach us to pray...”
There are several sections of the Bible the Holy Spirit uses to teach us to pray. And I suspect that in His file cabinet, there’s a folder labeled ‘instruction in prayer’ and inside, among others, is a copy of Psalm 5.
>If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) please turn with me to Psalm 5. If you are able and willing, please stand for the reading of God’s Holy Word:
For the director of music. For pipes. A psalm of David.
1 Listen to my words, Lord,
consider my lament.
2 Hear my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
3 In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait expectantly.
4 For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness;
with you, evil people are not welcome.
5 The arrogant cannot stand
in your presence.
You hate all who do wrong;
6 you destroy those who tell lies.
The bloodthirsty and deceitful
you, Lord, detest.
7 But I, by your great love,
can come into your house;
in reverence I bow down
toward your holy temple.
8 Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness
because of my enemies—
make your way straight before me.
9 Not a word from their mouth can be trusted;
their heart is filled with malice.
Their throat is an open grave;
with their tongues they tell lies.
10 Declare them guilty, O God!
Let their intrigues be their downfall.
Banish them for their many sins,
for they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
12 Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous;
you surround them with your favor as with a shield.
May God add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last Sunday, Jim referred to Psalms as “a complete worship book.” I think that’s a great description of what this book is. It’s not just a bunch of songs; it’s songs and prayers and laments and proclamations and theology; it’s individual as well as corporate. It really is “a complete worship book.” (I like that phrase very much. I’m stealing it; it’s mine now).
As “a complete worship book” Psalms deals with the ups and downs of life. It’s not all cheery, warm & fuzzy, feel-good worship songs. This is a very real, very honest, walking-with-God-through-the-hills-and-valleys, “complete worship book.”
In this section of the book, David teaches us how to pray. And as David prays, he leaves behind directions for our prayers.
Prepare Your Prayer (vv. 1-3)
Prepare Your Prayer (vv. 1-3)
Notice to whom David addresses his prayer. He is not praying to a distant stranger. Verse 1: Listen to my words, ____.
LORD. This seems really generic to us; “LORD” is a word we throw around a lot. It’s right up there next to “God”.
But this word—LORD—in small capital letters stands for the personal name of the Creator: Yahweh.
This is Yahweh, the redeeming God who is there for His people. Yahweh has brought David into a personal bond with Himself.
On this basis, prayer can begin.
David is not praying to some stranger, some distant deity. Not at all.
You know, a good number our country’s founding fathers were deists; that is, they believed in an impersonal god, a distant god, a god who wound the clock of history and then stepped-back and let creation do its thing. Their picture of God is not the God of the Bible.
David is no deist. David believes in a personal God who is with His people, and as such David can pray; he can lament and cry for help. Those are the words David uses to describe his prayer.
His prayer consists of words and lament (or murmuring, groaning; nothing that can be put into words). I have a lot of words, and then there are times when I have no words.
David uses his words and his wordless groans to pray to God, and trusts God will understand; he believes God will hear.
Let’s take a moment here to give thanks for Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
David prepares his prayer well. Verse 3 shows us how he does this.
In the morning—not a prescription, but a purposefully set time. You don’t have a set time of prayer in the morning if that’s not your time; but please do have a time you set on purpose to do what David does.
David lays [his] requests before the Lord. This speaks to a certain order, like the priests would do in Leviticus.
7 The sons of Aaron the priest are to put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. 8 Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, on the wood that is burning on the altar.
The Message translation of Psalm 5 actually paints a very accurate picture:
3 Every morning
you’ll hear me at it again.
Every morning
I lay out the pieces of my life
on your altar
and watch for fire to descend.
The word used in Leviticus to denote order is the word David uses here—arrange, order, lay out. Just as the priests are setting the morning sacrifice , arranging it in order, so David is getting together and ordering his prayer, arranging his prayer—laying out the pieces of [his] life.
David is preparing his prayer.
Jot it down. Keep a journal. Download an app to record your prayer requests. Use Wanda’s prayer chain emails to help you order your prayer. Buy a copy of The Valley of Vision—a collection of Puritan prayers. Pray through a Psalm a day. Pray the prayers of Paul (Desiree helped me teach the class on prayer at church camp and this was one of her recommendations).
Be purposeful in prayer. Prepare your prayer.
Know Your God (vv. 4-6)
Know Your God (vv. 4-6)
There’s an important word that connects verse 4 to verse 3. It’s the word “for”. We could put the word “because” there, if we like that better. If your Bible leaves out the “for”, go ahead and stick it in there. It’s meant to be there.
These verses are giving the reason for David’s expectant waiting (v. 3). David makes a point to purposefully order his prayer and, after praying, he waits expectantly.
Like a kid on Christmas Eve, David knows he’s going to receive something from his Father, the Lord Yahweh.
And so, David waits with expectation.
Why is David waiting expectantly?
David is waiting, expecting God to act, because He knows who God is. David knows what God is like. David knows God’s character.
And what a character God is! Verses 4-6:
He is not pleased with wickedness.
Evil people are not welcome with Him.
The arrogant cannot stand in His presence.
He hates all those who do wrong.
He destroys those who tell lies.
He detests the bloodthirsty and deceitful.
If this rubs against your view of God, remember, friend, God is holy and that’s how we want Him to be.
God is not tame. He is firm in His righteousness.
These verses sort of blow up the myth about God “hating sin yet loving the sinner.”
God does not hate the evil done, but the evildoer.
God does not hate the wrong committed, but the one committing the wrong.
God does not detest the bloodthirsty deed or the deceitful act, but detests the bloodthirsty person and deceitful person.
I struggle with this. But the truth about who God is confronts us here: God hates sinners.
God’s wrath isn’t poured out against sin; God’s wrath is poured out against sinners.
Sin is not punished in hell; sinners are punished in hell.
Jesus didn’t die for sin; Jesus had to died for sinners.
God hates sinners. And God loves sinners.
Let’s take a moment to here to thank God for Jesus.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We were His enemies. We were hostile to Him. There existed enmity/hostility between God and us. A Holy God must hate sinners; but our God loves us so, He sends Jesus to die for us.
We do not pray to a bland, vanilla god. The Lord Yahweh has character.
David knows Yahweh’s character—knows what the Lord loves and what the Lord hates—and because he knows what he knows about God, David can pray with real hope that God will come to his rescue.
“My enemies are wicked, evil people—I know you hate the wicked and the evildoer. They are deceitful and bloodthirsty—I know you detest them. So I pray, waiting expectantly for you to act, and I know you will because I know your character.”
David knows his God.
Do you? Does it show in your praying?
Do you pray in concert with His will; or with your own selfish desires in mind?
Do you pray that God’s will be done, in His time, according to His plan; or do you pray wanting for yourself that which a just, righteous, holy God would never give?
David knows his God and so David can make some very particular requests (vv. 10-11, for example).
We pray for suffering Christians to be delivered because we know God cares about them and sees the affliction of His people.
We pray for the believers and other churches here in town and around the area, because they belong to the Lord. We don’t pray for their downfall, but for their success, so that the Lord would be praised through them.
Know your God.
Make Your Request (vv. 7-9)
Make Your Request (vv. 7-9)
David makes his request on the basis of grace and with reverence.
David doesn’t compare himself to the evildoer, the wicked, the arrogant. He doesn’t hold up his resume to the Lord; he doesn’t parade his morality.
David knows that it’s only by Yahweh’s great love that he can approach the Lord. David comes only by grace.
And David comes with reverential fear. He bows down, knowing Yahweh is superior—far superior—to him.
This is true worship—knowing we are where we are in relation to God because of the grace He has shown us, and coming before Him with reverence, fear, and trembling.
We don’t saunter into His presence with a casual nod and then plop down on the sofa and expect Him to bring us a Dr. Pepper from the fridge. We come by invitation only, through the blood-bought grace of God only; we take off our shoes, remove our hats, bow our heads, and thank Him for allowing us to be in His presence.
Dale Ralph Davis puts it beautifully: “David is both lured by grace yet sobered by fear—just the right packaging for worship!”
It’s more than halfway through the psalm before David makes his petition, before he makes his request.
8 Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness
because of my enemies—
make your way straight before me.
David is in danger. This drives his prayer.
But what David is most concerned with is to be lead in the Lord’s righteousness, to walk on the path the Lord would have him walk, to go the way Yahweh wants him to go.
Walking in righteousness is more important than walking in safety.
What a powerful request! What a simple request!
“Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness…make your way (not mine!) make your way straight before me.”
This is David admitting that he does not know where to go. David has no idea to get through whatever situation he’s going through.
I spend half of my life baffled. It’s an easy 50%. I have no idea how to deal or where to go.
But the Lord does!
The Lord knows best for me, especially when I’d like to move ahead arrogantly, selfishly, sinfully (you’ve been there—you’ve taken something into your own hands because you felt you knew best, you felt you deserved something so you took it).
How much heartache and pain would we avoid if we submitted and prayed: “Lord, lead me. Lord, lead me in your righteousness. Lord, make your way straight, make it clear, help me to walk with you. Lord, lead me.”
David knows his enemies cannot be trusted (v. 9)—their mouths, their hearts, their throats, their tongues—liars all.
But the Lord can be trusted. So David places his hand in the Lord’s and makes his request, praying, “Lead me along your righteous path.”
Make your request.
Express Your Confidence (vv. 10-12)
Express Your Confidence (vv. 10-12)
David continues to pray and he’s gaining confidence as he goes along.
Verses 10-11 contain two petitions: prayer against his enemies (who are also Yahweh’s enemies) and prayer for God’s people—for their joy and protection.
Have you ever prayed as David does in verse 10? Or does it make you uneasy to pray things like that?
You see, though, in order for God’s people to be protected, for the joy of God’s people, the enemies of God and God’s people have to be destroyed.
The request in verse 11 cannot be answered unless the request in verse 10 is also. They have to go together.
David sets down his confident assurance in verse 12;
12 Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous;
you surround them with your favor as with a shield.
David does not know precisely when or how this will be done, but he knows Who will see to it.
Surely, Lord, you—the ‘you’ is emphatic, emphasized.
YOU will bless the righteous.
This security extends to the individual (righteous is singular here, not plural).
This security is complete (the word for shield [sinna] is not a hand-held shield, but large body-sized).
This security is close (Yahweh wraps him ‘round, surrounds him.
The enemy might be closing in, but Yahweh is closer. He’s right here with you, complete shielding you, wrapping you up, safe and secure, held tight.
If that doesn’t inspire confidence, I don’t know what will...
I had some big friends in college. I was, well, not big. I weighed about “a buck-thirty” dripping wet. I thought it would be fun to walk into downtown Manhattan, KS with Derek and Will and Mike behind me, pick a fight, and then just step behind my three intimidatingly large friends. I knew for a fact there was no danger to me as long as they were there to protect. No one could do anything to me, surrounded as I was by 1,000 lbs of brute strength.
What are you facing that can stand against the Lord Yahweh? Nothing.
That’s confidence. Go ahead and express your confidence in prayer.
David ends his prayer with the confidence that nothing can finally hurt the righteous, for the favor of the Lord will always surround him/her.
In the meantime, whilst we live in this sinful world, facing one darkness after the other, we turn to the Lord, we trust the Triune God to do what He does, and we keep praying the prayer the Lord has taught us to pray:
8 Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness
because of my enemies—
make your way straight before me.