Mensa Otabil - God Hears Your Cry (11/01/2025)
Psalm 3, verse four: I cried to the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. So David knew what to do when he was in trouble. People were saying God had abandoned him, but he says, when all of this was going on, I cried to the Lord with my voice. When we are surrounded by enemies on every side, we have to learn to turn our attention to God. David uses the word " cried.» The word «cried» there means a deep, intense, and passionate expression through his voice. This is not something he’s doing in his head; he’s not internalizing his pain, but he pours it out with his voice. He cries to God; he makes a loud sound to God, and probably, it wasn’t even a sound of prayer; it was a sound of pain where he cries to God and says, «God, look at what I’m going through.» It is intense; it’s not a ritual prayer, it’s not a quiet prayer; this is a very passionate prayer. It’s heartfelt, and David says, «I cry to the Lord with my voice,» not just my spirit, but my voice also expresses what I am feeling.
There are times when we’re going through difficulty and our prayer just becomes an outburst, a cry to the Lord. There is a place for crying out in intensity to God, and there is also a time for praying quietly. Even Jesus had moments when he cried to God and then moments when he prayed very quietly. There are seasons and different ways of expressing our prayer to God. So when your enemies surround you, surround the throne of God with your prayer. They are around you; you too must go around the throne of God with prayer. Many times when we see people turn against us on every side, we become disoriented. We don’t even know where to turn; do we go to the left, or do we go to the right? Do we tell everybody about our problem? Do we cry to our friends? But David knew where to go when he was in trouble, and that was his secret.
Throughout the Psalms, you see that David shows this attitude of always going to the presence of God, going to the Tabernacle of the Lord, just waiting on the Lord when he was in trouble because he knew that, in as much as people around him could help him, his greatest help would come from God. He always surrounded the presence of God, the throne of God, with his prayer, with his cry, and directed his anxiety to God. In verse four, we see the second Selah, and David says, «I cried to the Lord, and the Lord heard me out of his holy hill.» Selah. In other words, there are times that we cry to God with our pain, and then we have peace. But also, there are times when God hears us, and because he hears us, he gives us rest for our soul. Selah. So God hears us, and all the anxiety goes down. It doesn’t mean necessarily that the problem has been solved, but just the assurance of knowing God has heard my prayer.
How do we know that God has heard our prayer? Because we prayed by faith, we prayed according to his will, and we prayed in the name of Jesus. When we pray by faith, according to the written word of God, the will of God, and in the name of Jesus, we know God has heard us. After we have come out of prayer, we should have Selah- the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keeps our hearts and gives us rest. Don’t go out of prayer after you’ve cried to the Lord, after you’ve told the Lord all about your problem, and you’re still crying to other people. There’s no Selah. But after we’ve cried to the Lord and God has heard us, he gives us Selah; he gives us peace.
May the Lord give you peace in every anxious moment of your life. Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, I lift up my heart and voice to you today. Thank you for hearing the voice of my supplication. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»