Mensa Otabil - Direct Your Prayer to God
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Psalm number five, and we are looking at verse number three. My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord. In the morning, I'll direct it to you, and I will look up.
When you're reading the Scriptures, it's important to pay attention to certain events that happen in a verse. And when I say events, I mean the way a word or words are used; they are very important. One of the first things that you should notice when you read a verse like this is repetition. The word "morning" is repeated twice. David says, "You shall hear my voice in the morning. In the morning, I'll direct it to you." Why does he say that? Why does he use "morning" twice?
You know, in those days, there were no capital letters or exclamation marks. So, when you wanted to emphasize something, you didn't capitalize, use exclamation marks, or underline; you repeated the words, sometimes in different forms. Here, the emphasis is on "morning," and it is believed that this was a psalm that was sung in the morning or was part of the morning sacrifice or morning worship. David is talking about approaching God very early in the morning. But it also means that this attitude of prayer was a priority in David's life. It is something he did very early in the morning.
Something I want you to notice is what he says. He says, "In the morning, I will direct it to you." In the morning, I will direct my prayer to you. He states he will direct his prayer to the Lord. Now, when you read it ordinarily, it might seem as if David means he will address his prayer to you. That's one way of understanding it. However, that word "direct" has a deeper meaning. It means to set something in order or to arrange something. It was a word that was used for the way the altar was arranged before a sacrifice was made or the way they would place the bread on the showbread table in the holy place each morning.
So, when David says, "I'll direct my prayer to you," he's not just saying you would be the focus of my prayer. He also means, I will arrange my prayer. I will set it in order. I'll put my prayer in the right sequence, in the right order, before you. Therefore, prayer must be offered with a certain sense of order and a certain sense of sequence. We don't just say whatever we want to say; there has to be a certain order in how we pray. For us as Christians, of course, we don't go to the temple to erect altars to pray or to put bread on the table as they did in the Old Testament. We pray differently because of what Christ has given us.
There are three things I want to suggest to help you arrange your prayer well, whether in the morning or evening. First, we must pray according to God's word. Prayer, although it's our word, should be our word in agreement with God's word. The foundation of our prayer is what God has said and what God has promised. God's word is God's voice speaking to us; therefore, prayer must be arranged in accordance with God's word.
Secondly, we must pray with trust in God's faithfulness. When we're praying, we're not talking to the air. We are not just speaking words. We are speaking to a faithful God. Another way to arrange your prayer is to come with faith that God is faithful. You may not have all the faith in the world, but God has all the faith in the universe. He is faithful, and our faith is not in ourselves; our faith is in Him. We count Him faithful who has promised us.
We arrange our prayer by praying according to God's word, praying with trust in God's faithfulness, and thirdly, praying with authority in the name of Jesus. The name of Jesus is our key that gives us access to the presence of God. Just as they did in the Old Testament, they arranged their prayer as they did with the altar. In the New Testament, this is how we arrange our prayer: we pray according to God's word, we pray because we trust in God's faithfulness, and we pray invoking the name of Jesus, which gives us access to the presence of God. I hope that you will be able to arrange your prayer well as you come before the Lord this day.
Let us pray. Say with me, "Heavenly Father, you are faithful in all your ways. I come before you fully confident that you hear me. In Jesus' name, Amen." And amen.