Psalms – Prayers of Honesty
If we are truly honest before God we will tell him about the mess we are in and how we think we got there. We first blame others because that seems to come easily and is natural for a human. We are honest with our feelings before God. We pour out our grievances of the evil actions of others upon our lives. We tattle on the enemy and the way evil works in the lives of the people around us making life miserable and challenging for us. We don’t always just pray “may Your will be done”, we honestly tell God what we think His will should be. He will listen. But God will act in ways that are best for our growth, our deliverance, our salvation. God makes things right…with HIS perspective.
God is always at work. We must wrap our heads around that thought and truth. We pray when we see the need. He is already working on what we need most before we ask. So why should we ask? Because we need to sort it out, see the circumstance the way God sees it and rely on God in full faith that He will help us. I am reminded of the old gospel song, “Just a Little Talk with Jesus makes it right.”
In praying, we get to know God more. It’s like our conversations with our best friend on earth. We know we can be honest with a friend who listens without responding to us immediately with an answer. God truly listens and waits for us to “talk it out” with Him until WE see His right way to go. We see that David does that readily. David is a “man after God’s heart” as he is described by God in scriptures, so David is comfortable with being honest before God. Psalm 7, The Message
A David Psalm
1-2 God! God! I am running to you for dear life;
the chase is wild.
If they catch me, I’m finished:
ripped to shreds by foes fierce as lions,
dragged into the forest and left
unlooked for, unremembered.
3-5 God, if I’ve done what they say—
betrayed my friends,
ripped off my enemies—
If my hands are really that dirty,
let them get me, walk all over me,
leave me flat on my face in the dirt.
6-8 Stand up, God; pit your holy fury
against my furious enemies.
Wake up, God. My accusers have packed
the courtroom; it’s judgment time.
Take your place on the bench, reach for your gavel,
throw out the false charges against me.
I’m ready, confident in your verdict:
“Innocent.”
9-11 Close the book on Evil, God,
but publish your mandate for us.
You get us ready for life:
you probe for our soft spots,
you knock off our rough edges.
And I’m feeling so fit, so safe:
made right, kept right.
God in solemn honor does things right,
but his nerves are sandpapered raw.
11-13 Nobody gets by with anything.
God is already in action—
Sword honed on his whetstone,
bow strung, arrow on the string,
Lethal weapons in hand,
each arrow a flaming missile.
14 Look at that guy!
He had sex with sin,
he’s pregnant with evil.
Oh, look! He’s having
the baby—a Lie-Baby!
15-16 See that man shoveling day after day,
digging, then concealing, his man-trap
down that lonely stretch of road?
Go back and look again—you’ll see him in it headfirst,
legs waving in the breeze.
That’s what happens:
mischief backfires;
violence boomerangs.
17 I’m thanking God, who makes things right.
I’m singing the fame of heaven-high God.
SOMETHING TO CHEW…
At first reading, we might accuse David of being “bipolar” in his prayers. But then we think of ourselves. We are the same. We cry out wondering where God is in times of trouble then praise him in a few hours or days when our problem is solved in ways we would never think or imagine.
Praying to the God who knows everything does not have to be elegantly said with flowery Bible words. God is looking for a sincere, honest heart. When when call to Him, our heart is the first thing He looks into as He listens. He must smile when we pour out what is troubling us because He knows He is already solving it for us or making a way through it. His work in us is to get us to see life His way.
HEART PROBE…David cried out for justice. We cry out for justice.
Why? Do we really want God to step in and judge the situation and find we might be at fault, too? If we are perfectly honest, we need some work, too.
“You get us ready for life: you probe for our soft spots; you knock off our rough edges.”
Do we think because we go to church, volunteer with God’s church and work in the community that we can get by with sloppy living away from the church scene? “Nobody gets by with anything. God is already in action–” He is working on us as He leads us through troubled waters.
David closes his prayer with praise for God. He knows God well. He trusts that God has heard him. He thanks God “who makes things right.”
How grateful are we to the God who makes things right? In what ways have you seen God at work lately?
Did you praise and thank Him?
How honest are we?
Dear Heavenly Father,
Many thoughts come to mind this morning as we read the prayer of a troubled heart surrounded by the enemy. We see, with humble hearts, that you are God and we are so not. We are talking to You, who never sleeps, to make things right. We know You more and more each day. And we are grateful for the relationship that is growing between us. We repent of running ahead of you in this life. Instead, I run to you, Yahweh, for dear life.
In Jesus Name, Amen
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 