Sermon Tone Analysis
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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:
“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:
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)
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.
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.
The Message translation of Psalm 5 actually paints a very accurate picture:
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)
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.
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