Prayer Leads to Worship (11 March)

Over the past few weeks I have spent many mornings reading the Psalms and sharing what the Father is speaking to me with my dad. I haven’t written them, but the Father continues to grow and stretch me through this time as well. This morning I have some extra time, so I thought I’d share with you what Papa and I read and talked about this morning. We were in Psalm 70.

Outline:
Psalm 70:1 David’s cry for help.
Psalm 70:2-3 David’s request against his enemies.
Psalm 70:4 David’s lifting up for the Father to keep his promise.
Psalm 70:5 David’s rest and confidence.

Psalm 70:1. Please, Father, rescue me. Come quickly, Lord, and help me.

David knows the Father to be his help. In Psalm 44:6-7 David said, “I’ve learned not to trust my bow, nor to count on my sword, because you alone are the one who gives me victory.” David is saying, “I’m coming to you again. Rescue me as only you can. Come quickly to help me.”

This is just a simple prayer, but because of David’s awareness of the Father, there’s much hope in these words.

Psalm 70:2-3. Father, I know you are strong and no one is greater. Father, you see what’s happening.

• Psalm 44:23. David said, wake up, O Father. Why are you asleep? Don’t look the other way.
• Psalm 69:19. David said, you see it all. You know what I’m feeling. You see all that they are doing to me. Father, just turn their evil back on them. Don’t let their evil succeed.

I asked similar things in the midst of what was going on with JBC, but for some reason, Our Father still let it happen. I can’t answer why. Now with Dad’s health. I know that he’s been asking for things similar to this, and those things may not happen. So how do we respond? What should our attitude be toward the Father when it appears he’s not answering what we ask?

Psalm 70:4 But may all who search for you be filled with joy and gladness in you. May those who love your salvation repeatedly shout, Our Father is great.

How does David come to this conclusion? He was just complaining about the things that the Father was not doing. So how does he come out and say, we all need to repeatedly shout that our Father is great. I believe David returned to his fortress (Ps 61:2-3). He’s returned back to that high tower, surrounded by the Father’s unfailing love and the faithfulness. Our Father is still great, no matter the outcome of this situation.

Psalm 70:5. As for me, I am still poor and needy. Father, please hurry to my aid. You are still good. You are my helper and savior. That won’t change, even if you don’t help me right now. But please, Father, don’t delay.

David wasn’t afraid to pray for rescue, nor was he afraid to pray specifically for what he wanted the Father to do. Did the Father always do what David prayed? I don’t think so. But, did that affect David’s faith? Did it affect his confidence in the Father?

Psalm 70:4 I believe shows us that it didn’t! He says, “May all who search for you be filled with joy and gladness, and may those who love your salvation continually shout, our Father is great.” It doesn’t appear that the Father’s delay in rescuing him, nor Father not doing the specific things that David asked for, changed David’s perspective of the Father. Can we draw the conclusion here that what David prayed isn’t as important as the fact that he did pray? That his need threw him on the Father, and that’s the point. David went to his high tower. He sought the Father he knew was omnipotent, omniscient, and unfailing in love. He reflected on our Father’s character, and he believed in our Father’s goodness and his greatness because he has seen it over and over in the past.

Lifting up his requests caused him to reflect on those things. David, going to the Father and lifting those things up, brought these things to mind, and he found peace under the shadow of the Father’s wings of love and faithfulness.

Dear Father, may this be the basis of our requests. May our confidence in lifting things up not be in what we’re asking our Father to do, but in what you are doing in our hearts as we ask. And may the more we go to you, draw us more and more closer to you. Father, you called David a man after your own heart, because he sought you with all his heart in every circumstance. May that be the testimony of my life and the lives of those around me.

Psalm 70:4 May all who search for you be filled with joy and gladness in you. May those who love your salvation, those who remember your love and all that you’ve done in the past, according to your omnipotence and your omniscience and love, may they continually shout, Our Father is great, because they believe it and they’ve seen it.