Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications! Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness! ...I stretch out my hands to You; my soul longs for You, as a weary land... Answer me quickly, O LORD, my spirit fails... Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; for I trust in You; teach me the way in which I should walk; for to You I lift up my soul... Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; let Your good Spirit lead me on level land. For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble. And in Your lovingkindness cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who afflict my soul; for I am Your servant.
Have you ever tried to hold God to anything? Say what? Yes! This is what King David is doing in this Psalm. He prays this pleaful prayer on the basis of a commitment God has made; and He appeals to that commitment, putting God under a sense of obligation if you will. David's sense of expectancy is based on a Levitical law that allowed a "freed" slave to give himself back to his owner as a "bond-slave"; a freed slave who now freely gives himself back to his owner, committed to him for life; even to die for his owner if necessary. The owner in turn committed himself to care for the slave, but now on a different and unique basis; one of love rather than law, which is the basis of David's prayer, laid down in verse 12: "And in Your lovingkindness cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who afflict my soul; for I am Your servant." O the beauty of prayer based on love. Love has reason to expect from the other, simply because there is the commitment of love to one another. There are certain things lovers can expect of one another, without reservation, because those in love are committed to giving of themselves to each other unreservedly. This is the "right" of love! This is the passage of love! This is the prayer of love! Thus David can say, in what almost sounds demanding to one who does not know this relationship, in words flowing out of love and appealing to love, "Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications! Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness! ...I stretch out my hands to You; my soul longs for You, as a weary land... Answer me quickly, O LORD, my spirit fails... Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; for I trust in You; teach me the way in which I should walk; for to You I lift up my soul... Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; let Your good Spirit lead me on level land. For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble. And in Your lovingkindness cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who afflict my soul; for I am Your servant." A lover's prayer is a powerful prayer. It feels! It longs! It seeks! It appeals! It expects! It trusts!
Have you ever tried to hold God to anything? Say what? Yes! This is what King David is doing in this Psalm. He prays this pleaful prayer on the basis of a commitment God has made; and He appeals to that commitment, putting God under a sense of obligation if you will. David's sense of expectancy is based on a Levitical law that allowed a "freed" slave to give himself back to his owner as a "bond-slave"; a freed slave who now freely gives himself back to his owner, committed to him for life; even to die for his owner if necessary. The owner in turn committed himself to care for the slave, but now on a different and unique basis; one of love rather than law, which is the basis of David's prayer, laid down in verse 12: "And in Your lovingkindness cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who afflict my soul; for I am Your servant." O the beauty of prayer based on love. Love has reason to expect from the other, simply because there is the commitment of love to one another. There are certain things lovers can expect of one another, without reservation, because those in love are committed to giving of themselves to each other unreservedly. This is the "right" of love! This is the passage of love! This is the prayer of love! Thus David can say, in what almost sounds demanding to one who does not know this relationship, in words flowing out of love and appealing to love, "Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications! Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness! ...I stretch out my hands to You; my soul longs for You, as a weary land... Answer me quickly, O LORD, my spirit fails... Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; for I trust in You; teach me the way in which I should walk; for to You I lift up my soul... Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; let Your good Spirit lead me on level land. For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble. And in Your lovingkindness cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who afflict my soul; for I am Your servant." A lover's prayer is a powerful prayer. It feels! It longs! It seeks! It appeals! It expects! It trusts!
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