save me

Prayer is the shield, spear, thunderbolt, defense – this is for you

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Psalm 70 captures my attention today mainly because of a quote from Martin Luther. He said that “prayer is the shield, spear, thunderbolt and defense against every attack of fear, presumption [and] lukewarmness…which are especially dominant today.” The quote was written by James Montgomery Boice but I could not find its source.

This plea, here in the Psalm 70, is for deliverance but it is also one of remembrance of the many times God had already delivered.

Save me, O God!
    Lord, help me now! – Psalm 70:1 GNT

I wonder if I even come close to praying with such a sense of urgency. If I had maybe I would be praying more often.

“The petitions in this form of the psalm emphasize the urgency of the matter. There is not a moment to lose; or so it appears.” Kidner

“The circumstances were those of suffering…made more poignant by the gloating gladness of enemies…The troubled soul knew that help was only to be found in God. His difficulty was that God did not seem to be acting with sufficient speed. (God) was at least leisurely, when the need seemed pressing; He was not hastening, in spite of the urgency. So it appeared to this troubled heart, and so it has constantly appeared to those who have suffered. One of the supreme glories of the Psalter is that it gives us a song like this, expressing a common human experience, even though it reveals a mistaken conception of God. God never needs to be called upon to hasten. He is never tarrying uselessly or carelessly. Indeed, we may say that often: “Through the thick darkness He is hastening,” that is, through the very darkness which makes us imagine He is inactive, or unduly delaying His help. Nevertheless, He understands our cry. We may use any terms in our prayers, if they are directed to Him, knowing that He will understand, and in His understanding, interpret our faulty terms by His own perfect knowledge, and give us His best answers to our deepest need.” – G. Campbell Morgan

May those who try to kill me
    be defeated and confused.
May those who are happy because of my troubles
    be turned back and disgraced.
May those who make fun of me
    be dismayed by their defeat. – Psalm 70:2-3 GNT

“The psalmist prays for his enemies’ fall and shame in accordance with the principles of justice and with the promise of God to curse those who cursed his own.” – VanGemeren

“For success in evil encourages even more evil and establishes the evil doer in his or her ways. The kindest thing we can pray for people who do wrong is that their plans will fail, for it may be that in their frustration they will see the folly and true end of evil and be reached for God.” –  James Boice

Peter offers an additional perspective – a post evil – or maybe it is an attitude that gets me through it so that when I am delivered I am wiser and better for it.

But after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who calls you to share his eternal glory in union with Christ, will himself perfect you and give you firmness, strength, and a sure foundation. – 1 Peter 5:10 GNT

There is a calmness to Peter’s prayer – maybe it is one of confidence that He trusts God to answer. It is an exhortation that I am encouraged to pray for those who are suffering – and the good news is there – this is for them.

“When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ (Matthew 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance”. – Martin Luther

 

 

 

Always pray, pray for everything and sometimes ask for nothing

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Sometimes when I am praying, I find myself in a place where asking is not my primary mode of conversation. Sometimes I like telling God all the things I love about Him. In a way I am declaring my confidence and my trust in Him.

David does this too, although we do not see it that often. In times of trouble this is how he starts one of his journals. It is full of faith and trust, absent of fear, despair and petition.

I wait patiently for God to save me;
I depend on him alone.
He alone protects and saves me;
he is my defender,
and I shall never be defeated. – Psalm 62:1-2 GNT

“There is in it throughout not one single word (and this is a rare occurrence), in which the prophet expresses fear or dejection; and there is also no prayer in it, although, on other occasions, when in danger, he never omits to pray.” – Amyraut, cited in Spurgeon

But even here he is sure to remind us all to pray.

Trust in God at all times, my people.
    Tell him all your troubles,
    for he is our refuge. – Psalm 62:8 GNT

Isaiah gives us a description of what Jesus will look like and I think that helps when we have prayer times like this.

The spirit of the Lord will give him wisdom
    and the knowledge and skill to rule his people.
He will know the Lord‘s will and honor him,
    and find pleasure in obeying him. – Isaiah 11:2 GNT

Wisdom and knowledge speak of authority. It is the ability to give good and right advice and skill to the ability to carry them out.

He will not judge by appearance or hearsay;
    he will judge the poor fairly
    and defend the rights of the helpless. – Isaiah 11:3 GNT

I see Jesus life as one who wants to walk with me, just like He did with Nicodemus. He speaks into the ABC’s of spiritual life, truth that could never come from human wisdom. He describes how angels live, what happens after death, how prayer works, and even how the devil works. He examplied what and who I want to be and live. What does a prayer of faith look like?

James talks about that and he does so in the arena of healing and in the encouragement to pray in all circumstances.

Are any among you in trouble? They should pray. Are any among you happy? They should sing praises. Are any among you sick? They should send for the church elders, who will pray for them and rub olive oil on them in the name of the Lord. This prayer made in faith will heal the sick; the Lord will restore them to health, and the sins they have committed will be forgiven. So then, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed. The prayer of a good person has a powerful effect. Elijah was the same kind of person as we are. He prayed earnestly that there would be no rain, and no rain fell on the land for three and a half years. Once again he prayed, and the sky poured out its rain and the earth produced its crops. – James 5:13-18 GNT

This is a place where I take all that trust I mentioned before and exercise it. I might see a physical healing, but I also might see an emotional or spiritual healing too. I look to Jesus, with His wisdom and understanding, and I know that with Him as my source of healing, He will know best how these healing should look like.

I like how James ends a session on discipleship with this call to pray with faith.

Prayer, true prayer, does not allow us to deceive ourselves. It relaxes the tension of our self-inflation. It produces a clearness of spiritual vision. Searching with a judgment that begins at the house of God, it ceases not to explore with His light our own soul. If the Lord is our health He may need to act on many men, or many moods, as a lowering medicine. At His coming our self-confidence is shaken. Our robust confidence, even in grace, is destroyed. The pillars of our house tremble, as if they were ivy-covered in a searching wind. Our lusty faith is refined, by what may be a painful process, into a subtler and more penetrating kind; and its outward effect is for the time impaired, though in the end it is increased. The effect of the prayer which admits God into the recesses of the soul is to destroy that spiritual density, not to say stupidity, which made our religion cheery or vigorous because it knew no better, and which was the condition of getting many obvious things done, and producing palpable effect on the order of the day. There are fervent prayers which, by making people feel good, may do no more than foster the delusion that natural vigour or robust religion, when flushed enough, can do the work of the kingdom of God. There is a certain egoist self-confidence which is increased by the more elementary forms of religion, which upholds us in much of our contact with men, and which even secures us an influence with them. But the influence is one of impression rather than permeation, it overbears rather than converts, and it inflames rather than inspires. This is a force which true and close prayer is very apt to undermine, because it saps our self-deception and its Pharisaism. The confidence was due to a lack of spiritual insight which serious prayer plentifully repairs. So by prayer we acquire our true selves. – P. T. Forsyth, Soul of Prayer