Psalms To See Me Through Psalm 30: Rescue Me

Thanksgiving for Rescue from Death. A Psalm; a Song at the Dedication of the House. A Psalm of David.

Well, it is that time of year in which we begin to anticipate Thanksgiving; it is just around the corner. Though this is just the first day of November, the holiday season will soon be upon us. I have written before, and many others have as well, how vital thanksgiving to God is in our life. We should be thankful for all the Lord has done for us through all of our days, not just at Thanksgiving time. Though this prayer also, is a song for the dedication of the House of the Lord, we don’t have to wait until church on Sunday to give Him thanks. We can start now in our home cultivating a theology of thanksgiving throughout the year.

This Psalm is yet another in the category of thanksgiving Psalms in which the one praying is saved from distress. This song is a beautiful illustration of what our thankfulness to God should resemble. In this particular Psalm, David is thanking the Lord for saving him from death’s grip. In these times, saving from death’s grip does not seem distant from us. Disease, sickness, and the like are in our world and touch us all. David here rejoices once again that the Lord has snatched him from the clutch of his enemies.

I will exalt You, Lord, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my enemies rejoice over me {v.1}.

The Lord has lifted him up. The Hebrew verb used here is daloh. This word is used for drawing water from a well.[1] The Lord saved him from the deep pit of despair, and we know that we can have the same confidence when we cry out to God, He hears us and will draw us up from despair. The language here may indicate that his enemies may not have caused his despair, but rather that they gloat that death or despair has him in its clutches. Either way, the Lord has lifted him out and he seeks to thank the Lord for His goodness and mercy; David exalts the Lord and praises Him. I will extol your virtues with the highest of praise.[2] How can you praise the Lord today? This week? This month? Let’s become grateful today and cultivate a heart that is thankful and worshipful. The Lord is pleased when we fully depend on Him and He not only hears our cries, but He welcomes them. This confidence, this belief that God answers when called upon is essential to the “prayer Psalms” and this Psalm celebrates its vindication.[3] David did not want to give the enemy the last laugh.

Lord my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me. Lord, You have brought up my soul from Sheol; You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit {vv. 2-3}.

David’s despair was so deep that he believed he was literally in hell. The word used here in Hebrew is miyordey but means the speaker felt he had gone down to death.[4] Have you felt this way? That your despair has been your hell and there is no way out? I have experienced that level of despair in sickness and hardships—in myself and loved ones—but there is a way out; call on the Lord our God, who like David, rescues us from the pit of whatever trial we are in. He gives us the strength to endure whatever trial we are facing. We may not always get the outcome we desire, but He will rescue us and lift us up. David praises the Lord because though he was in the grave, he was raised up.

 Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones, And praise the mention of His holiness {v.4}.

God is so good. How can we utter anything worthy of Him? He is holy, mighty, good, love. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” {Is. 6:3}. How can we mortals ever thank Him for all He has done for us? We must, by recognizing His glory, His attributes. No name truly describes God, for His essence is beyond our comprehension.[5] As I said above, we must cultivate a thankful heart and worship the Lord for His goodness in our lives, and that is necessary for our personal devotional life. It is also important to worship Him before all believers in the house of the Lord. The psalmist is calling us to praise as a lesson for the congregation that in our sufferings, there is God’s deliverance.[6]

For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning. {v. 5}.

Ellicot’s commentary speaks so beautifully of this:

“Sorrow is the wayfarer who comes to the tent for a night’s lodging, but the metaphor of his taking his leave in the morning is not carried on, and we have instead the sudden waking with a cry of joy, sudden as the Eastern dawn, without twilight or preparation. Never was faith in the Divine love more beautifully expressed.”[7]

 The apostle James encourages us,

“Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing {Jas. 1: 2-4 NASB}

God’s anger lasts only for a short time. But when we cry out in prayer, repent, and pray for mercy, we can expect joy once again. We can have joy now even when it is dark. Though it is dark this side of the trial on the other side is exceeding joy! 

Everything David has he recognizes as God’s favor on his life. He knows that without the Lord he would have nothing. The Lord anointed him king and gave him riches and honor; this was not David’s doing but the Lord’s. Our hearts should resemble the psalmist’s in that we acknowledge before the Lord that all we have, the roof over our head, the clothes on our backs, the breath in our lungs…is from the Lord and He deserves our thankfulness and praise. We must constantly be aware that no matter how hard some of our trials are, that life is a gift from God, and what better way to acknowledge this than through our worship.

Now as for me, I said in my prosperity, “I will never be moved.” Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain to stand strong; You hid Your face, I was dismayed {vv. 6-7}.

David is explaining here that while everything seemed to be going his way, that nothing could shake him. But then he was shaken. This happened to me and can happen to all of us. Just when things seem to be fine, they can change in a moment. The Lord sometimes uses the trials and hard times that we experience to shake us out of reliance on the things of this world and to shift our focus back to Him—the only place our security is found. But it was during this trial in the deep pit of despair that caused David to feel as though God had turned His face from him and as we see in verse 8, David sought Him in prayer.

 To You, Lord, I called, And to the Lord I pleaded for compassion: “What gain is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness? “Hear, Lord, and be gracious to me; Lord, be my helper.” You have turned my mourning into dancing for me; You have untied my sackcloth and encircled me with joy, That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever. {vv. 8-12}.

We will all be faced with hard times and trials. It is in these hard times that we need to seek the Lord. When hard things hit our lives we have two choices; either turn away from God or turn to God. When we trust in Him there is deliverance; not always from the trial itself (though that may happen) but from the power that it has over us. We can say like David that “I will not be shaken.” In agony, David cried out to God and bared his soul. We read that he had indeed secret wrestlings with God; he had his complaints and objections, cries, and pleadings. His rhetorical questions are a part of those wrestlings. Yet, God still heard Him and rescued Him from the pit. He prayed in the dark. We must pray while it is dark. Prayer is a constant source for us. When we are at the end of our rope and the end of ourselves the mercy seat awaits us. For we have this confidence that we can approach the throne of grace to obtain all that we need {Heb. 4:16}. Though an earthquake erupts and shakes our mountain, God’s throne of grace remains sure and will always welcome us to seek refuge in His presence. Always turn to prayer and have faith that He hears and answers. When He rescues do not forget to praise Him. He deserves our worship. He is worthy of all glory, honor, and praise {Rev. 4:11}.

David reminds the Lord that he cannot praise him or tell others of His marvelous works if he does not rescue him. The Lord heard him and rescued David from the pit. David asked that he could live to sing His praises.

I love Matthew Henry’s words on praise and worship to the Lord:

“We ask aright for life, when we do so that we may live to praise him. In due time God delivered the psalmist out of his troubles. Our tongue is our glory, and never more so than when employed in praising God.”[8] 

 

 

To read all the Psalms in this series click here: Psalms To See Me Through

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[1] Robert Alter, The Book Of Psalms (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007), 102.

[2] Avrohom Chaim Feuer, trans., Nosson Scherman, and Meir Zlotowitz eds, Tehillim Vol.1 (Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1995), 360.

[3] Craig C. Broyles, Understanding The Bible Commentary Series: Psalms (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999), 155.

[4] Alter, 102.

[5] Tehillim, 362.

[6] Broyles, 154.

[7] Charles John Ellicott, An Old Testament Commentary For English Readers, Vol. 4 (London: Cassell and Company, 1897),129.

[8] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary On The Whole Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997), 479. 

Sabbath Sanctuary: Crucible Hill—Living Through A Crucible

I intended to write a Lenten devotion, Crucible Hill to study and reflect on the sacrifice of Jesus leading up to Resurrection Sunday, yet I find myself in a crucible quite unexpected; my attention focused elsewhere {I am still penning Crucible Hill, just for the Lent season next}.

Oxford Dictionary defines crucible as a situation of severe trial, or in which different elements interact, leading to the creation of something new. I find myself in such a trial. 

My view from my husband’s hospital room is the magnificent Rocky Mountains which serve as a reminder of the Majesty and Awesomeness of God.

“I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple” {Is. 6:1 NASB}.

I gaze out over the parking lot and the buildings toward the majestic peaks and it is peaceful, even though I know that the bustling world below continues to spin— unaware of the pain from behind the window.

We have found ourselves in a place we never anticipated. My husband had a seizure for the first time in his fifty-six years on this earth. He was found at church unconscious, laying on the floor {he is the building superintendent at the church we attend}. I was there that day as well and ran to where he lay unconscious. Though his eyes would open intermittently, he was not home; he was completely unresponsive. He was rushed to the emergency room and the CT revealed a brain tumor. A brain tumor. This is something one hears happens to other people; one never imagines that this happens in their own family.

While having the seizure he somehow broke his left ankle. Surgery was imminent—within twenty-four hours. The tumor too, immediate removal. Two surgeries in two days. His left ankle cannot sustain any weight-bearing pressure (he can not use or walk on it) and the right is numb caused by the seizure, tumor, and surgery. The whole tumor could not be removed surgically, now radiation is next every day for six weeks.

Life can change in a day. There were no symptoms, no red flags, nothing indicating this was coming. One day he is fine, the next he is seizing and bed-ridden. Life can change in a moment. He was in a meeting one moment and feeling fine, and ten minutes later, unconscious on the floor. Our whole world turned upside down.

I don’t know how this happened—how we got here to this place. I don’t know why we had no warning and why our world changed so drastically. What I do know is that God is good; true; just; faithful; righteous; gracious; lovingkindness; sovereign; holy; merciful; patient; love; omnipotent; omniscient; omnipresent; omnibenevolent; all-powerful; all-mighty; and immutable—the same yesterday, today and forever {Heb. 13:8}. I know that we are in His strong hand and nothing can snatch us from Him. I know that to know that you have faith in God means that faith is tested—forged in fire to bring forth gold.

“So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” {1 Pet. 1:7 NASB}

How do you know you have faith if you never have to fight? How do you know God as your healer if you are never sick?

I know that we live in a fallen world where sometimes bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people.

“…for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” {Matt. 5:45 NASB}.

I may not understand everything this side of eternity but I can trust in His goodness and mercy which He poured out in abundance in all that transpired that day. The previous week he was on the roof fifty to sixty feet in the air in which he could have fallen from during the seizure or laid there for hours without anyone knowing where he was and without aid, and was also forty feet up in a lift changing light bulbs in the sanctuary. He made it to the top of the flight of stairs before having the seizure instead of half-way which would have incurred a brutal fall. Just an hour before, he drove both of us to church—thankfully it did not happen while driving. Numerous scenarios could have made this more tragic than it was. God is so good; we both felt His protection through and through—and now feel His grace more than ever.

I believe God is a healer. I pray for my husband’s healing every day. I prayed while awaiting the paramedics; I prayed in the car on the way to the ER; I prayed while waiting for the CT scan, MRI, X-rays, and blood tests. I prayed while waiting for surgeons to fix his broken body. I believed God that this was not a tumor but something small and that he would emerge from surgery with nothing on his brain baffling doctors. Though I did not receive the outcome I prayed for I know that whatever is ahead for us God will walk with us through this crucible of faith...The Lord is my Shepherd… God is good regardless of whether I receive the outcome I desire.

We await the pathology on the portion of the tumor the docs were able to remove, whether it is malignant or benign. I am believing that the tumor is not malignant and I stand on God’s healing power. I believe that though his healing is for our good, it is for His glory…to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Crucible; a severe trial…leading to the creation of something new.

Regardless of the path ahead and the news we receive, we are in the grip of His grace and He will strengthen us and do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. I know that my Redeemer lives.


“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him...” {Job. 15:15 KJV}

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Psalms To See Me Through Psalm 28: He Hears and Answers Prayer

David prayed this psalm when Saul and others, including his own son Absalom, declared their loyalty to David yet their hearts were set on destroying him. This psalm continues the theme from Psalm 26 and Psalm 27 in prayer to the Lord for deliverance. David once again follows his petition with praise to God for answering his prayer. David knew how to reach Yahweh.

A Psalm of David.

To You, O Lord, I call; My rock, do not be deaf to me, For if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You for help, When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary {vv. 1-2}.

God’s holy sanctuary. David does not neglect the sanctuary for it is where he finds God’s presence and is filled with grace. Let us boldly enter the throne of grace {Heb. 4:16}. Don’t forget the sanctuary, run to God and as you lift your hands in worship—like David—you too will find the grace you need. God has manifested himself to man in His word, so when we are afflicted we can fix our hearts on Him. God should be the object of our faith, hope, and prayer. The Lord encourages us through his servant the prophet, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know” {Jer. 33: 3}. He is our Rock—“there is no rock like our God” {1 Sam. 2:2}. 

Do not drag me away with the wicked And with those who work iniquity, Who speak peace with their neighbors, While evil is in their hearts.  Requite them according to their work and according to the evil of their practices; Requite them according to the deeds of their hands; Repay them their recompense. Because they do not regard the works of the Lord Nor the deeds of His hands, He will tear them down and not build them up {vv. 3-5}.

We all have people who say they love us. They promise to be our friend for life—that they have our back—only to find that they stab us in the back when it serves their purpose. David experienced many such people. He knew their actions to be wicked and he prayed that he would not be swept away with them and suffer their punishment. He didn’t want to be punished along with them and I think, he also did not want to get swept away by the same behavior. He did not want to love people to their face yet turn his back on them when it served him. He knows the Lord warns against being double minded and unstable{James 1:5-8}.

Blessed be the Lord, Because He has heard the voice of my supplication. The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him. The Lord is their strength, And He is a saving defense to His anointed. Save Your people and bless Your inheritance; Be their shepherd also, and carry them forever {vv. 6-9}.

David always follows his prayers with praise to God knowing that He will answer. Yahweh is faithful to him. Yahweh is always faithful when we pray. The outcome may not be what we asked for but He will always answer with exactly what we need.

David declares that the Lord is His strength and shield. Strength is often associated with the Ark of the Covenant, the pure gold ark symbolized the presence of God. It was also a reminder that He is the covenant-keeping God. The cherubim who adorned the lid of the ark symbolized strength and power. They were assigned to guard the Garden of Eden with flaming swords after Adam and Eve were exiled. The glorious sound of their wings is likened to the voice of God Almighty when He speaks {Ezek. 10:5}. A sound so loud and marvelous it was heard in the outer court of the temple. They surround the throne of God in Revelation. They bring fear and awe and yet they are not as strong and powerful as Yahweh. The Lord is David’s strength and He is our strength as well. He is a strong tower for us to run and find refuge. God is not only David’s strength, He is also a refuge. He is a fortress of salvation for His anointed—here it is referring to David or one of the priests—now it is for all of us. Salvation is available to all who will run to Him.  

The Tabernacle in the wilderness had many covers of protection. They protected from storms and weather. They protected from wild animals and intruders. This represents God protecting His anointed people. We can run to Him for protection and safety. He is faithful and trustworthy. He will never leave us or forsake us. Don’t be complacent in your relationship with the Lord though. David worshiped Him and trusted and believed in Him. He promises to be with us always, but we must do our part. Worship is the key to God moving in your life. Cultivate a life of prayer and a life of worship. He is our Shepherd and will give us rest.

To read all the Psalms in this series click here: Psalms To See Me Through

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Sabbath Sanctuary: He Holds Our Breath

God is wise and all-powerful. Who has opposed Him and come out unharmed?  He removes mountains without their knowledge, overturning them in His anger. He shakes the earth from its place so that its pillars tremble {Job 9: 4-6 HCB}.

He commands the sun not to shine and seals off the stars. He alone stretches out the heavens and 

treads on the waves of the sea. He makes the stars: the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky. He does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number {Job 9: 4-10 HCB}.

The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind {Job 12:10}.

Don’t you know that ever since antiquity, from the time man was placed on earth, the joy of the wicked has been brief and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment? {Job 20: 4-5}

Take it from a man {Job} who was enduring terrible grief and suffering, that though the wicked seem to be wreaking havoc, and the universe appears to be a spinning ball of chaos⸺a place where mercy and justice are fleeting⸺The Almighty is in control. 

Rest in God this Sabbath weekend. Sit in His presence; admire His creation and offer Him worship for the mighty works of His hand. He has done great things for you.

Psalm To See Me Through: Psalm 27: Courageous Trust

A Psalm of Fearless Trust in God.  A Psalm of David. 

The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life;
Whom shall I dread? {v.1}

When I was fourteen, I chose this verse for my confirmation graduation. I did not realize it at the time, but as I look back, this verse radically described my life. Elementary school is hard for most kids, but I had a particularly rough time. I spent my grade school years being ruthlessly picked on. My memories of second through eighth grades are miserable, with few exceptions. I remember feeling at the time, that God was my only friend.

As terrible as grade school was, and as mean as some of the kids were, they did not make death threats against me; I did not fear for my life. David faced real threats—threats that would have proved fatal had they succeeded. But David knew that the Lord was his light and salvation, he knew with all his heart that God was his defense. His confidence dispelled all fear. Whom shall I fear? is a rhetorical question. God was the defense of his life; nobody could harm him.

When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, In spite of this I shall be confident {vv.2-3}.

The reason David has full confidence in God to protect Him, is that the Lord has proven Himself faithful time and again. He is speaking about those who came against him in the past tense. He is declaring what God had done for him before in defeating his enemies; this fuels his praise and bolsters his conviction. The imminent threat will not move him, he remains confident that even if his enemy broke through the wall and came in, he trusts the Lord without fear. I shall be confident—the Hebrew means literally “in this I trust.”[1]

One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord And to meditate in His temple {v.4}. 

When I read verse four, it causes me to think of a beautiful place, with a gorgeous view, one in which I could gaze for a long time, one that brings me rest and peace. David speaks of God’s sanctuary in this way. The house of the Lord is a place of peace and rest, and is also a place of refuge—a place to feel safe. David desires to spend the rest of his days in this beautiful house of peace and safety, and to gaze on the beauty of the Lord. To gaze on the Lord does not mean to catch a glimpse of Him once or twice, but it is rather a steady, sustained focus on the Lord and who He is—His person, not His hand; who He is, not what He can give. This is the best antidote for the fears that try to take our eyes of the One True God.  

“Note the singleness of purpose (one thing)—the best answer to distracting fears (cf. 1-3)—and the priorities within that purpose: to behold and to inquire; a preoccupation with God’s Person and will. It is the essence of worship; indeed of discipleship.”[2]

For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; In the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, And I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord {vv. 5-6}.

The sanctuary is a hiding place; a place of refuge. David knows the Lord will hide him there from the raging chaos of the world; the evil men that come against God’s anointed king. You and I should think of God and His sanctuary in the same way. It is His sanctuary where we gather to praise and worship Him for all He has done for us, and all that He will do in the future. We too, can trust Him without fear and in full confidence. It is by worshiping the Lord and praising Him for His faithfulness, and coming before Him in awe and wonder at who He is, that we are lifted up on a rock, above our enemies. Those who come against us lose when we approach the sanctuary, offer sacrifices to the Lord, and sing His praises with joy. The tent David speaks of is the Tabernacle of David which he pitched on Mt. Zion—it housed only the Ark of the Covenant—the place where God’s glory dwells.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, And be gracious to me and answer me. When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.” Do not hide Your face from me, Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation! For my father and my mother have forsaken me, But the Lord will take me up {vv.7-10}

David began his prayer with confident trust and unswerving faithfulness, even though his life was being threatened by a host of enemies. Something changed in David’s disposition {v.7}; he began to pray anxiously that God would not forsake him. Who has not encountered a day like David? One moment we are full of faith, and the next we are crashing on the rocks. I have. But David reaches inside and encourages himself in the Lord in whom he has placed his trust many times. He prays that God not forsake him as his mother and father had. Most scholars agree that David’s mother and father forsaking him is most likely hypothetical. But it speaks to David’s mindset, he truly believes the only refuge he has is the Lord—everyone else has left him. How can a mother forget her son? Isaiah’s words come to mind:

Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you {Is. 49:15 NASB}.

The Lord will take him up. This promise should encourage you as well. God will not forsake you or forget you. His love is far-reaching and never-ending.

Teach me Your way, O Lord, And lead me in a level path Because of my foes. Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence. I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord {vv. 11-14}.

David’s confidence once again surfaced in the face of adversity. He encouraged himself to wait on the Lord. He knows God is faithful—and this goodness kept him from fainting under the oppression of the attack. David is not only a worshiper who seeks God’s face, but he is also a committed to following His statutes. He wants to live the way God wants him to, and he prays for the Lord to keep him on the right path.

David holds on to his faith in the Lord. Many of the psalms end with a victory praise, or an answered prayer, but here the psalmist stands in God’s sanctuary with his faith—his trust—to wait on the Lord. Here David exhibits courageous trust. There are times in life when it seems like all you have to hold on to is your faith; believing and trusting in God’s faithfulness. It takes courage to stand on your faith, and have confidence because you know the Lord and trust that He will not forsake you, even when you face adversity. Be strong and take courage…wait on the Lord.

To read all the Psalms in this series click here: Psalms To See Me Through

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[1] Craig C. Broyles, Psalms (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999), 142.

[2] Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72 (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2008), 138.

Psalms To See Me Through: Psalm 18—The Psalm Worth Repeating Part II

Then the earth shook and quaked; And the foundations of the mountains were trembling

And were shaken, because He was angry. Smoke went up out of His nostrils, And fire from His mouth devoured; Coals were kindled by it.  He bowed the heavens also, and came down with thick darkness under His feet (vv.7-9). 

When first reading this prose, it seems out of place from the first six verses. The poetic praise of David for God’s deliverance begins as a beautiful time of worship. David is thankful for all the deliverances he has experienced from the hand of God. The intro to this Psalm reads; A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul; David cultivated a grateful heart. He abruptly ends his time of worship with a discourse describing an angry God. However, upon deeper reflection, we have insight into who God is angry with—it is not David, but David’s enemies that incur God’s wrath.  

He rode upon a cherub and flew; And He sped upon the wings of the wind (v. 10).

I searched extensively for an accurate portrait of the cherubim; I searched in vain. The most accurate is the description of them on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant. The glory of God rested between the cherubim when He spoke to Moses or when the high priest was ministering in the Holy of Holies. They are mostly portrayed as babies with wings, flying through the air with their bow and arrow, likened to cupid. They guarded the Garden of Eden with flaming swords. Cherubim are not baby angels, they are mighty warrior angels;

As is the case with many heavenly realities, their character and appearance is so far beyond human imagination and present comprehension that they must be described in earthly terms obviously designed to convey something surpassingly supernatural (Ezek. 1: 5, 14; 28: 12-14).[1]

It is no wonder then that I could not find an accurate picture (except the Mercy Seat). My imagination is awake with a vision of God riding on a cherub with the wings of the wind to rescue me. He is my Rescuer. My Defender. My Saviour. My Refuge. My Strong Tower.

Your locks will be iron and bronze, And according to your days, so will your leisurely walk be.  “There is none like the God of Jeshurun, Who rides the heavens to your help, And through the skies in His majesty. “The eternal God is a dwelling place, And underneath are the everlasting arms; And He drove out the enemy from before you, And said, ‘Destroy!’  “So Israel dwells in security (Deuteronomy 33:25-28a emphasis mine).

Just as the Lord heard the cries for help from Israel, and from David, He hears you and me. He rides the heavens in all His Majesty and Glory to rescue His people when they cry out to Him. He defeats our enemies and brings us to safety. Trials will still come; enemies will still attack, but God empowers and strengthens us with His grace to defeat them and to overcome.

How can we have confidence like David? David cultivated a grateful heart, and a worshipful spirit. The Psalms penned by David reflect his heart toward God. He worshiped God through every trial; He was the One David called upon at the first sign of trouble. Sometimes the prose of figurative language can cause us to read over David’s poetic praise, and not understand how it can apply to us. David’s description of God’s power and wrath is colorful indeed, but it is important to remember, that David’s words are figurative. He did not actually see God ride through the heavens on a cherub. He did not see the earth shake and the foundations of the mountains tremble. He did not see smoke out of His nostrils, and fire from His mouth. He did not see God come down from heaven with thick darkness under His feet. He did not see these events literally, but through God’s wondrous and majestic creation, and through metaphoric language, as well as through the eyes of the Spirit, he describes God’s character and His deliverance from how well He knows God, to describe for us what God is doing behind the scenes that we cannot see. Moses and David both saw God riding through the heavens through spiritual eyes.

Let’s travel to 2 Kings: 6 and meet up with Elisha and his servant. They are taking shelter in a house in a stand-off with the Arameans who aim to capture Elisha. The man of God and his servant are completely surrounded. Elisha is completely confident in God; the servant is petrified. Elisha attempts to comfort his servant with his trust in the Lord to deliver them from this situation, but the servant believes it to be impossible. Elisha prays to God for the eyes of his servant to be opened so that he can see that the army of God’s angels actually have the enemy surrounded; Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them (v.6).

The Lord will do the same and more for us. We may not see mountains tremble, but Christ declared that we can cast mountains into the sea (Mark 11:23). He has given us power to trample on serpents and scorpions (Luke 10:19). He has empowered us to have power over the enemy; He said we will have trials, but that He has overcome them all (John 16: 33).

He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. From the brightness before Him passed His thick clouds, Hailstones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, And the Most High uttered His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire. He sent out His arrows, and scattered them, And lightning flashes in abundance, and routed them (vv. 11-14).

Then the channels of water appeared, And the foundations of the world were laid bare

At Your rebuke, O Lord, At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils. He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me(vv.15-19).

The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, And have not wickedly departed from my God.  For all His ordinances were before me,  And I did not put away His statutes from me.  I was also blameless with Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes. With the kind You show Yourself kind; With the blameless You show Yourself blameless; With the pure You show Yourself pure, And with the crooked You show Yourself astute (vv.20-26).

David finishes his Psalm of worship painting a majestic picture of God’s deliverance. Though David’s enemy was strong, and could overpower him, he continued to trust in God’s deliverance. He saw in the natural when he was finally free from Saul.  He saw it spiritually because of His trust in God’s faithfulness, His deliverance, and His nature and character. He Knew God. He knew God intimately because he nurtured his relationship with God in thanksgiving and worship. That is how we can know God intimately too, through His Holy Writ, and by nurturing a thankful heart, and a worshipful spirit.

---

[1]Terry Law, The Truth About Angels (Lake Mary: Charisma House, 1994), 115.

Don't forget to check out my book, A Life That Sings: Finding Your Song In The Midst of Brokenness

Piper's Pen and Prose: Learning How to Pray

I just finished reading Andrew Murray’s With Christ in the School of Prayer . What a wonderful classic that every Christian should read. It is impossible for me to quote the entire book, so I shared the prose that pricked my heart in a good, powerful way. I pray you are encouraged by them too.

I pray that these few musings will ignite in you a desire to communicate with your Heavenly Father, to know Him and to experience Him in a powerful way.~

Preface

~The more we abide in Him, and grow unto His likeness, will His priestly life work in us mightily, and our life become what His is, a life that ever pleads and prevails for men.

~It is only when the Church gives herself up to this holy work of intercession that we can expect the power of Christ to manifest itself in her behalf

Lesson I

~Though in its beginnings prayer is so simple that the feeblest child can pray, yet it is at the same time the highest and holiest work to which man can rise.   It is fellowship with the Unseen and Most Holy One.

~Nothing delights Him more than to find those whom He can take with Him into the Father’s presence, whom He can clothe with power to pray down God’s blessing on those around them, whom He can train to be His fellow-workers in the intercession by which the kingdom is to be revealed on earth. 

~Jesus never taught His disciples how to preach, only how to pray.

Lesson II

~From the connection it is evident that the words ‘in spirit and truth’ do not mean, as is often thought, earnestly, from the heart, in sincerity.

~Jesus says, ‘The hour is coming, and now is;’ it is only in and through Him that the worship of God will be in spirit and truth.

~A man, who seeks to pray earnestly in the church or in the closet, spends the greater part of the week or the day in a spirit entirely at variance with that in which he prayed.  His worship was the work of a fixed place or hour, not of his whole being.  God is a Spirit:  He is the Everlasting and Unchangeable One; what He is, He is always and in truth.  Our worship must even so be in spirit and truth:  His worship must be the spirit of our life; our life must be worship in spirit as God is Spirit.

And in truth.  That does not only mean, in sincerity.  Nor does it only signify, in accordance with the truth of God’s Word.  The expression is one of deep and Divine meaning.  Jesus is ‘the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’  ‘The law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.’  Jesus says, ‘I am the truth and the life.’  In the Old Testament all was shadow and promise

~And so worship in spirit is worship in truth; actual living fellowship with God, a real correspondence and harmony between the Father, who is a Spirit, and the child praying in the spirit.

Lesson III

~There alone, but there most surely, Jesus comes to us to teach us to pray.

~A teacher is always anxious that his schoolroom should be bright and attractive, filled with the light and air of heaven, a place where pupils long to come, and love to stay.  

~The first thing in closet-prayer is:  I must meet my Father.  The light that shines in the closet must be:  the light of the Father’s countenance.

~Do not be thinking of how little you have to bring God, but of how much He wants to give you. 

~O do what Jesus says:  Just shut the door, and pray to thy Father which is in secret.  Is it not wonderful?  To be able to go alone with God, the infinite God.  And then to look up and say:  My Father!

Lesson IV

~The little child may ask of the father only what it needs for itself; and yet it soon learns to say, Give some for sister too.  But the grown-up son, who only lives for the father’s interest and takes charge of the father’s business, asks more largely, and gets all that is asked.  And Jesus would train us to the blessed life of consecration and service, in which our interests are all subordinate to the Name, and the Kingdom, and the Will of the Father.  O let us live for this, and let, on each act of adoration, Our Father! There follow in the same breath ThyName, Thy Kingdom, Thy Will;—for this we look up and long.

Lesson V

~It is one of the terrible marks of the diseased state of Christian life in these days, that there are so many who rest content without the distinct experience of answer to prayer.  They pray daily, they ask many things, and trust that some of them will be heard, but know little of direct definite answer to prayer as the rule of daily life.

Lesson VI

~And so the lesson we have today in the school of prayer is this:  Live as a child of God, then you will be able to pray as a child, and as a child you will most assuredly be heard.

~This is the one chief thought on which Jesus dwells here, and which He would have all His scholars take in.  He would have us see that the secret of effectual prayer is:  to have the heart filled with the Father-love of God.

~He tells us the first is the highest lesson; we must learn to say well, ‘Abba, Father!’  ‘Our Father which art in heaven.’  He that can say this, has the key to all prayer.  In all the compassion with which a father listens to his weak or sickly child, in all the joy with which he hears his stammering child, in all the gentle patience with which he bears with a thoughtless child, we must, as in so many mirrors, study the heart of our Father, until every prayer be borne upward on the faith of this Divine word:  ‘How much more shall your heavenly Father give good gifts to them that ask Him.’

Lesson IX

~How little Christians really feel and mourn the need of labourers in the fields of the world so white to the harvest.  And how little they believe that our labour-supply depends on prayer, that prayer will really provide ‘as many as he needeth.’  Not that the dearth of labour is not known or discussed. 

~O give us to see aright the spiritual realities of which Thou hast been speaking.  There is the harvest which is so large, and perishing, as it waits for sleepy disciples to give the signal for labourers to come.  Lord, teach us to look out upon it with a heart moved with compassion and pity.  There are the labourers, so few.  Lord, show us how terrible the sin of the want of prayer and faith, of which this is the token.  And there is the Lord of the harvest, so able and ready to send them forth.  Lord, show us how He does indeed wait for the prayer to which He has bound His answer.  And there are the disciples, to whom the commission to pray has been given:  Lord, show us how Thou canst pour down Thy Spirit and breathe upon them, so that Thy compassion and the faith in Thy promise shall rouse them to unceasing, prevailing prayer.

Lesson XIX

~The Lord gave the wonderful promise of the free use of His Name with the Father in connection with the doing of His works.  It is the disciple who gives himself wholly to live for Jesus’ work and kingdom, for His will and honour, to whom the power will come to appropriate the promise.  He that would fain grasp the promise when he wants something very special for himself, will be disappointed, because he would make Jesus the servant of his own comfort.  But to him who seeks to pray the effectual prayer of faith, because he needs it for the work of the Master, to him it will be given to learn it; because he has made himself the servant of his Lord’s interests.  Prayer not only teaches and strengthens to work:  work teaches and strengthens to pray.

~let us with the small measure of grace already received, give ourselves to the Master for His work:  work will be to us a real school of prayer.

~It was when Moses had to take full charge of a rebellious people that he felt the need, but also the courage, to speak boldly to God and to ask great things of Him (Ex. xxxiii. 12, 15, 18).  As you give yourself entirely to God for His work, you will feel that nothing less than these great promises are what you need, that nothing less is what you may most confidently expect.

~Believer in Jesus!  You are called, you are appointed, to do the works of Jesus, and even greater works, because He has gone to the Father to receive the power to do them in and through you.

~Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name, that will I do.  Give yourself, and live, to do the works of Christ and you will learn to pray so as to obtain wonderful answers to prayer.  Give yourself, and live, to pray and you will learn to do the works He did, and greater works.  With disciples full of faith in Himself, and bold in prayer to ask great things, Christ can conquer the world.

Lesson XX

~THAT the Father may be glorified in the Son: it is to this end that Jesus on His throne in glory will do all we ask in His Name.  Every answer to prayer He gives will have this as its object:  when there is no prospect of this object being obtained, He will not answer.   It follows as a matter of course that this must be with us, as with Jesus, the essential element in our petitions:  the glory of the Father must be the aim and end, the very soul and life of our prayer.

~For the sake of God’s glory, let us learn to pray well.

~No wonder that there are so many unanswered prayers:  here we have the secret.  God would not be glorified when that glory was not our object.  He that would pray the prayer of faith, will have to give himself to live literally so that the Father in all things may be glorified in him.

Lesson XXII

~To offer a prayer—to give utterance to certain wishes and to appeal to certain promises—is an easy thing, and can be learned of man by human wisdom.  But to pray in the Spirit, to speak words that reach and touch God, that affect and influence the powers of the unseen world,—such praying, such speaking, depends entirely upon our hearing God’s voice.  Just as far as we listen to the voice and language that God speaks, and in the words of God receive His thoughts, His mind, His life, into our heart, we shall learn to speak in the voice and the language that God hears.  It is the ear of the learner, wakened morning by morning, that prepares for the tongue of the learned, to speak to God as well as men, as should be (Isa. l. 4).

~According to Thy word;’ in such expressions they showed that what God spake in promise was the root and the life of what they spake in prayer. 

Lesson XXIII

~What we need is to realize that in our relationship to the Infinite Being whom we call God who has created and redeemed us, the first sentiment that ought to animate us is that of subjection:  the surrender to His supremacy, His glory, His will, His pleasure, ought to be the first and uppermost thought of our life.  The question is not, how we are to obtain and enjoy His favour, for in this the main thing may still be self.  But what this Being in the very nature of things rightfully claims, and is infinitely and unspeakably worthy of, is that His glory and pleasure should be my one object.  Surrender to His perfect and blessed will, a life of service and obedience, is the beauty and the charm of heaven.  Service and obedience, these were the thoughts that were uppermost in the mind of the Son, when He dwelt upon earth.  Service and obedience, these must become with us the chief objects of desire and aim, more so than rest or light, or joy or strength:  in them we shall find the path to all the higher blessedness that awaits us.

~It is the man who is entirely consecrated to God and His will who will find the power come to claim everything that His God has promised to be for him.

~O how often we have sought to be able to pray the effectual prayer for much grace to bear fruit, and have wondered that the answer came not.  It was because we were reversing the Master’s order.  We wanted to have the comfort and the joy and the strength first, that we might do the work easily and without any feeling of difficulty or self-sacrifice.  And He wanted us in faith, without asking whether we felt weak or strong, whether the work was hard or easy, in the obedience of faith to do what He said:  the path of fruit-bearing would have led us to the place and the power of prevailing prayer.  Obedience is the only path that leads to the glory of God.  Not obedience instead of faith, nor obedience to supply the shortcomings of faith; no, but faith’s obedience gives access to all the blessings our God has for us.  The baptism of the Spirit (xiv. 16), the manifestation of the Son (xiv. 21), the indwelling of the Father (xiv. 23), the abiding in Christ’s love (xv. 10), the privilege of His holy friendship (xv. 14), and the power of all-prevailing prayer (xv. 16),—all wait for the obedient.

Lesson XXIV

~WHATSOEVER ye shall ask in my Name, that will I do.’  Jesus means the promise literally.  Christians have sought to limit it:  it looked too free; it was hardly safe to trust man so unconditionally.  We did not understand that the word ‘in my Name’ is its own safeguard.  It is a spiritual power which no one can use further than he obtains the capacity for, by his living and acting in that Name.  As we bear that Name before men, we have power to use it before God.  O let us plead for God’s Holy Spirit to show us what the Name means, and what the right use of it is.  It is through the Spirit that the Name, which is above every name in heaven, will take the place of supremacy in our heart and life too. 

~Disciples of Jesus!  Let the lessons of this day enter deep into your hearts.  The Master says:  Only pray in my Name; whatsoever ye ask will be given.  Heaven is set open to you; the treasures and powers of the world of spirit are placed at your disposal on behalf of men around you.  O come, and let us learn to pray in the Name of Jesus.  As to the disciples, He says to us, ‘Hitherto ye have not asked in my Name:  ask, and ye shall receive.’  Let each disciple of Jesus seek to avail himself of the rights of his royal priesthood, and use the power placed at his disposal for his circle and his work.  Let Christians awake and hear the message:  your prayer can obtain what otherwise will be withheld, can accomplish what otherwise remains undone.  O awake, and use the name of Jesus to open the treasures of heaven for this perishing world.  Learn as the servants of the King to use His Name:  ‘WHATSOEVER ye shall ask in my Name, THAT WILL I DO.’ 

~Lord!  Teach me what it is to pray in Thy Name.  Teach me so to live and act, to walk and speak, so to do all in the Name of Jesus, that my prayer cannot be anything else but in that blessed Name too.

Lesson XXV

~Brother!  What we need to pray in the Name of Christ, to ask that we may receive that our joy may be full, is the baptism of this Holy Ghost.  This is more than the Spirit of God under the Old Testament.  This is more than the Spirit of conversion and regeneration the disciples had before Pentecost.  This is more than the Spirit with a measure of His influence and working.  This is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the glorified Jesus in His exaltation-power, coming on us as the Spirit of the indwelling Jesus, revealing the Son and the Father within.  (John xiv. 16-23.)

~It is the Spirit dwelling within us that prays, not in words and thoughts always, but in a breathing and a being deeper than utterance.  Just so much as there is of Christ’s Spirit in us, is there real prayer.  Our lives, our lives, O let our lives be full of Christ, and full of His Spirit, and the wonderfully unlimited promises to our prayer will no longer appear strange.  ‘Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my Name.  Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.  At that day ye shall ask in my Name.  Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my Name, He will give it you.’

Note

~Prayer has often been compared to breathing:  we have only to carry out the comparison fully to see how wonderful the place is which the Holy Spirit occupies.  With every breath we expel the impure air which would soon cause our death, and inhale again the fresh air to which we owe our life.  So we give out from us, in confession the sins, in prayer the needs and the desires of our heart.  And in drawing in our breath again, we inhale the fresh air of the promises, and the love, and the life of God in Christ.  We do this through the Holy Spirit, who is the breath of our life.

~And this He is because He is the breath of God.  The Father breathes Him into us, to unite Himself with our life.  And then just as on every expiration there follows again the inhaling or drawing in of the breath, so God draws in again His breath, and the Spirit returns to Him laden with the desires and needs of our hearts.  And thus the Holy Spirit is the breath of the life of God, and the breath of the new life in us.  As God breathes Him out, we receive Him in answer to prayer; as we breathe Him back again, He rises to God laden with our supplications.  As the Spirit of God, in whom the Father and the Son are one, and the intercession of the Son reaches the Father, He is to us the Spirit of prayer.  True prayer is the living experience of the truth of the Holy Trinity.  The Spirit’s breathing, the Son’s intercession, the Father’s will, these three become one in us.

Lesson XXVI

~The Christian life is no longer the vain struggle to live right, but the resting in Christ and finding strength in Him as our life, to fight the fight and gain the victory of faith.

~His life in us is an ever-praying life.  When it descends and takes possession of us, it does not lose its character; in us too it is the every-praying life—a life that without ceasing asks and receives from God. 

Lesson XXVII

~This prayer is ordinarily divided into three parts.  Our Lord first prays for Himself (v. 1-5), then for His disciples (6-19), and last for all the believing people through all ages (20-26).  The follower of Jesus, who gives himself to the work of intercession, and would fain try how much of blessing he can pray down upon his circle in the Name of Jesus, will in all humility let himself be led of the Spirit to study this wonderful prayer as one of the most important lessons of the school of prayer. 

~First of all, Jesus prays for Himself, for His being glorified, that so He may glorify the Father.  ‘Father! Glorify Thy Son.  And now, Father, glorify me.’  And He brings forward the grounds on which He thus prays.  A holy covenant had been concluded between the Father and the Son in heaven.  The Father had promised Him power over all flesh as the reward of His work:  He had done the work, He had glorified the Father, and His one purpose is now still further to glorify Him.  With the utmost boldness He asks that the Father may glorify Him that He may now be and do for His people all He has undertaken. 

~Disciple of Jesus!  Here you have the first lesson in your work of priestly intercession, to be learned from the example of your great High Priest.  To pray in the Name of Jesus is to pray in unity, in sympathy with Him.  As the Son began His prayer by making clear His relation to the Father, pleading His work and obedience and His desire to see the Father glorified, do so too.  Draw near and appear before the Father in Christ.  Plead His finished work.  Say that you are one with it, that you trust on it, live in it.  Say that you too have given yourself to finish the work the Father has given you to do, and to live alone for His glory.  And ask then confidently that the Son may be glorified in you.  This is praying in the Name, in the very words, in the Spirit of Jesus, in union with Jesus Himself.  Such prayer has power.  If with Jesus you glorify the Father, the Father will glorify Jesus by doing what you ask in His Name.  It is only when your own personal relation on this point, like Christ’s, is clear with God, when you are glorifying Him, and seeking all for His glory, that like Christ, you will have power to intercede for those around you. 

 ~Our Lord next prays for the circle of His disciples.  He speaks of them as those whom the Father has given Him.  Their chief mark is that they have received Christ’s word.  He says of them that He now sends them into the world in His place, just as the Father had sent Himself.  And He asks two things for them:  that the Father keep them from the evil one, and sanctify them through His Word, because He sanctifies Himself for them. 

~Just like the Lord, each believing intercessor has his own immediate circle for whom he first prays.  Parents have their children, teachers their pupils, pastors their flocks, all workers their special charge, all believers those whose care lies upon their hearts.  It is of great consequence that intercession should be personal, pointed, and definite.  And then our first prayer must always be that they may receive the word.  But this prayer will not avail unless with our Lord we say, ‘I have given them Thy word:’ it is this gives us liberty and power in intercession for souls.  Not only pray for them, but speak to them.  And when they have received the word, let us pray much for their being kept from the evil one, for their being sanctified through that word.  Instead of being hopeless or judging or giving up those who fall, let us pray for our circle, ‘Father!  Keep them in Thy Name;’ ‘Sanctify them through Thy truth.’  Prayer in the Name of Jesus availeth much:  ‘What ye will shall be done unto you.’ 

~And then follows our Lord’s Prayer for a still wider circle.  ‘I pray not only for these, but for them who through their word shall believe.’  His priestly heart enlarges itself to embrace all places and all time, and He prays that all who belong to Him may everywhere be one, as God’s proof to the world of the divinity of His mission, and then that they may ever be with Him in His glory.  Until then ‘that the love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.’ 

~The disciple of Jesus, who has first in his own circle proved the power of prayer, cannot confine himself within its limits:   he prays for the Church universal and its different branches.  He prays specially for the unity of the Spirit and of love.  He prays for its being one in Christ, as a witness to the world that Christ, who hath wrought such a wonder as to make love triumph over selfishness and separation, is indeed the Son of God sent from heaven.  Every believer ought to pray much that the unity of the Church, not in external organizations, but in spirit and in truth, may be made manifest. 

~So much for the matter of the prayer.  Now for its mode.  Jesus says, ‘FATHER!  I WILL.’  On the ground of His right as Son, and the Father’s promise to Him, and His finished work, He might do so.  The Father had said to Him, ‘Ask of me, and I will give Thee.’  He simply availed Himself of the Father’s promise.  Jesus has given us a like promise:  ‘Whatsoever ye will shall be done unto you.’  He asks me in His Name to say what I will.  Abiding in Him, in a living union with Him in which man is nothing and Christ all, the believer has the liberty to take up that word of His High Priest and, in answer to the question ‘What wilt thou?’ to say, ‘FATHER!  I WILL all that Thou hast promised.’  This is nothing but true faith; this is honouring God:  to be assured that such confidence in saying what I will is indeed acceptable to Him.  At first sight, our heart shrinks from the expression; we feel neither the liberty nor the power to speak thus.  It is a word for which alone in the most entire abnegation of our will grace will be given, but for which grace will most assuredly be given to each one who loses his will in his Lord’s.  He that loseth his will shall find it; he that gives up his will entirely shall find it again renewed and strengthened with a Divine Strength.  ‘FATHER!  I WILL:’ this is the keynote of the everlasting, ever-active, all-prevailing intercession of our Lord in heaven.  It is only in union with Him that our prayer avails; in union with Him it avails much.  If we but abide in Him, living, and walking, and doing all things in His Name; if we but come and bring each separate petition, tested and touched by His Word and Spirit, and cast it into the mighty stream of intercession that goes up from Him, to be borne upward and presented before the Father;—we shall have the full confidence that we receive the petitions we ask:  the ‘Father!  I will’ will be breathed into us by the Spirit Himself.  We shall lose ourselves in Him, and become nothing, to find that in our impotence we have power and prevail. 

~Disciples of Jesus!  Called to be like your Lord in His priestly intercession, when, O when!  Shall we awaken to the glory, passing all conception, of this our destiny to plead and prevail with God for perishing men?  O when shall we shake off the sloth that clothes itself with the pretense of humility, and yield ourselves wholly to God’s Spirit, that He may fill our wills with light and with power, to know, and to take, and to possess all that our God is waiting to give to a will that lays hold on Him. 

~Into Thy hands I would believingly yield my whole being:  form, train, inspire me to be one of Thy prayer-legion, wrestlers who watch and strive in prayer, Israel’s, God’s princes, who have power and prevail. 

Lesson XXVIII

~Yes, in Him, as He bows there in Gethsemane, I must abide.  As my Head, He not only once suffered for me, but ever lives in me, breathing and working His own disposition in me too.  The Eternal Spirit, through which He offered Himself unto God, is the Spirit that dwells in me too, and makes me partaker of the very same obedience, and the sacrifice of the will unto God.  That Spirit teaches me to yield my will entirely to the will of the Father, to give it up even unto the death, in Christ to be dead to it. 

Lesson XXIX

~In the word the Father has revealed in general promises the great principles of His will with His people.  The child has to take the promise and apply it to the special circumstances in His life to which it has reference.  Whatever he asks within the limits of that revealed will, he can know to be according to the will of God, and he may confidently expect.  In His word, God has given us the revelation of His will and plans with us, with His people, and with the world, with the most precious promises of the grace and power with which through His people He will carry out His plans and do His work.

~But this apprehension of God’s will is something spiritual, and must be spiritually discerned.  It is not as a matter of logic that we can argue it out:  God has said it; I must have it.  Nor has every Christian the same gift or calling.  While the general will revealed in the promise is the same for all, there is for each one a special different will according to God’s purpose.  And herein is the wisdom of the saints, to know this special will of God for each of us, according to the measure of grace given us, and so to ask in prayer just what God has prepared and made possible for each.  It is to communicate this wisdom that the Holy Ghost dwells in us.  The personal application of the general promises of the word to our special personal needs—it is for this that the leading of the Holy Spirit is given us.

~O let us no longer throw the blame of our unanswered prayers on the secret will of God, but on our praying amiss.  Let that word, ‘Ye receive not because ye ask amiss,’ be as thelantern of the Lord, searching heart and life to prove that we are indeed such as those to whom Christ gave His promises of certain answers.  Let us believe that we can know if our prayer be according to God’s will.  Let us yield our heart to have the word of the Father dwell richly there, to have Christ’s word abiding in us.  Let us live day by day with the anointing which teacheth us all things.  Let us yield ourselves unreservedly to the Holy Spirit as He teaches us to abide in Christ, to dwell in the Father’s presence, and we shall soon understand how the Father’s love longs that the child should know His will, and should, in the confidence that that will includes all that His power and love have promised to do, know too that He hears the petitions which we ask of Him.  ‘This is the boldness which we have, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.’

Lesson XXX

~And as the blood gives the right, the Spirit gives the power, and fits for believing intercession.  He breathes into us the priestly spirit—burning love for God’s honour and the saving of souls.  He makes us so one with Jesus that prayer in His Name is a reality.  He strengthens us to believing, importunate prayer.  The more the Christian is truly filled with the Spirit of Christ, the more spontaneous will be his giving himself up to the life of priestly intercession.  Beloved fellow-Christians!  God needs, greatly needs, priests who can draw near to Him, who live in His presence, and by their intercession draw down the blessings of His grace on others.  And the world needs, greatly needs, priests who will bear the burden of the perishing ones, and intercede on their behalf. 

Lesson XXXI

~Because everything is weighed and tested by the one thing that fills the heart—the glory of God, and because the soul has learnt that only what is of God can really be to Him and His glory, the whole life becomes a looking up, a crying from the inmost heart, for God to prove His power and love and so show forth His glory.  The believer awakes to the consciousness that he is one of the watchmen on Zion’s walls, one of the Lord’s remembrancers, whose call does really touch and move the King in heaven to do what would otherwise not be done

~To forget oneself, to live for God and His kingdom among men, is the way to learn to pray without ceasing.

George Muller Prayer and Trust in God

~There are other points on which I would be glad to point out what is to be found in Mr. Muller’s narrative, but one more must suffice.  It is the lesson of firm and unwavering trust in God’s promise as the secret of persevering prayer.  If once we have, in submission to the teaching of the Spirit in the word, taken hold of God’s promise, and believed that the Father has heard us, we must not allow ourselves by any delay or unfavourable appearances be shaken in our faith.

~Patient, persevering, believing prayer, offered up to God, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, has always, sooner or later, brought the blessing.  I do not despair, by God’s grace, of obtaining any blessing, provided I can be sure it would be for any real good, and for the glory of God.