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May 1st, 2016

Our God Is A Prayer Hearing God Psalm 65:1-4

We are putting aside the gospel of John this morning because this Thursday May 5th is the National Day of Prayer. Thursday will mark the 65th observance of the National Day of Prayer since President Harry Truman signed it into law in 1952. Oh may our country fall on it’s face and beg God for repentance and mercy. We as an American people, like other nations around the world, have acted very wickedly before such a holy God. Judgment has begun. The American experiment is on the precipice of implosion. There has never been a greater need in my lifetime anyway to pray for our leaders. God commands that we do so. 2 Timothy 2:1-4 “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Paul tells us that prayer is for two things in this passage 1) peace; and 2) the propagation of the gospel. Meaning that prayer is for our joy and for the joy of all peoples. This message is not going to be about praying for our leaders however, we’ll do that on Thursday night. This message is going to be about how our God is a prayer hearing God. Only when we see how it is God’s very nature to be favorably disposed to the cries of His blood-bought people, will we be encouraged to come and commune with Him in prayer.

Doctrine Our God is a prayer hearing God

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I. Our God is a Prayer Hearing God Overview of Psalm 65 Psalm 65 begins by saying “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.” This verse controls the rest of this psalm. David is considering all the happiness that God pours out on planet earth from His kind heart. In vv.2-4 we see the particular happiness that God gives His church: v.2 God is a prayer hearing God v.3 God is a sin atoning God especially when our iniquities prevail against us v.4 God is an electing God who bring us near to Him and satisfies us with His goodness and holiness Then in vv.3-13 we see the common happiness that God gives all mankind: v.5 God is the hope of all the ends of the earth v.6 God established the mountains with His strength v.7 God stills the roaring of the seas v.8 God makes the sunrise and the sunset shout for joy v.9-10 God waters all the earth providing all grain v.11-13 God crowns every year with bounty so that all creation girds themselves with joy. Therefore, v.1 “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion…” It is in God’s very character to hear our prayers Our focus is on v.2. Praise is due to God (v.1) because He hears our prayers. “O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come.” David speaks prophetically here of Christ’s future kingdom when not just Jews but also Gentiles—all flesh— would come to God. Why? Because this God hears prayers. “O you who hear prayer.” God hearing our prayers is an indispensable part of His glory. He would have to deny that He is the one true God before He could close His ear to our prayer. The prophet Elijah mocked such pretended gods that could not hear

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prayer. He called all the people of Israel to gather at Mt. Carmel. He built an alter for Yahweh, and the false prophets built one for Baal, and whatever God answered their prayers by sending fire from heaven, he would be God. But Baal could not hear their prayer. 1 Kings 18:26-27 “And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” Notice Elijah’s mockery was an attack against Baal’s attributes. Baal wasn’t omnipresent, and therefore he must be preoccupied with some other business which accounts for his not answering. But our God is an omnipresent eternal Spirit. Jeremiah 23:24 “Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.” It is His very nature to hear our prayers. On this basis the psalmist cries out: “O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you.” Psalm 38:9 The Puritan Thomas Brooks says “We cannot get into any blind hole, or dark corner, or secret place, but the Lord has an eye there, the Lord will keep us company there.”1 What does it mean that God hears our prayers? There is a great comfort in knowing God hears all our prayers.2 As the Psalmist says “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it He also said “The eye of God is not confined to this place or that, to this company or that; God has an eye upon his people as well when they are alone, as when they are among a multitude; as well when they are in a corner, as when they are in a crowd. Diana’s temple was burnt down when she was busy at Alexander’s birth, and could not be at two places together. But God is present both in paradise and in the wilderness, both in the family and in the closet, both in public and in private at the same time. God is an omnipresent God; he is everywhere. Non best ubi, uni non best Deus [there is nowhere God is not].” Thomas Brooks, The Secret Key To Heaven, (Carlisle, PA,: Banner of Truth Trust, 2009), pg. 61 & 63 respectively 1

In fact, God knows every prayer, spoken or unspoken, of every saint that has ever and will ever pray. Matthew 6:8 “…your Father knows what you need before you ask him” 2

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altogether.” Psalm 139:4 But is that all our text is saying? Does Psalm 65:2 merely mean that God hears our prayers? Is David saying that praise is due to God (v.1) merely because He can hear us? I don’t think so. If Monica is speaking to me, and she knows that I’m not paying attention to her words, that is not praise worthy. I can hear her, but if I’m not with her, present, in the moment, she will not praise that conversation. David means something deeper, more foundational than God simply hearing our prayers. He means at least two things. 1) When God says He hears our prayers, He means He accepts them. 2)When God says He hears our prayers, He means He acts upon them.3 When God says He hears our prayers, He means He accepts them God accepts true prayer because true prayer says ‘Without Christ I can do nothing!’ True prayer abandons all hope of haven or happiness in self, and clings to Christ for everything. True prayer is the celebration that Christ is all sufficient to supply our every need. When Father sees prayer like this, He is glorified, because the giver gets all the glory. If we come to Him as desperately needy, He gets to display His infinite bounty, and this glorifies Him. This is the only type of prayer that God accepts. If we are coming to God in prayer thinking that we are going to help God out, rather than coming to Him desperately seeking help, God is not honored. One pastor puts it like this: “The difference between Uncle Sam and Jesus Christ is that Uncle Sam won’t enlist you in his service unless you are healthy and Jesus won’t enlist you unless you are sick: Mark 2:17 “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Christianity is fundamentally convalescence (“Pray without ceasing” = Keep buzzing the nurse).” 4 Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 2, (Carlisle, PA,: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009), pg. 114 3

John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, (Colorado Springs, CO,: Multnomah Books, 2003), pg. 171 4

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God hears that type of prayer. Proverbs 15:8 “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.” The NASB says “…the prayer of the upright is His delight.” God delights when we come to Him as needy beggars, because He loves to glorify Himself in being the giver. Psalm 50:15 “…call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” This is why prayerlessness is such a sin. Because it fundamentally says “I am well, I don’t need help.” Prayerlessness is the declaration: “I can do all things without Christ.” David lists prayerlessness as one of the chief marks of the reprobate in Psalm 14:4 “Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat up bread and do not call upon the LORD?” God only hears, or accepts those prayers that see Christ as all-sufficient. When God says He hears our prayers, He means He acts upon them Again, if Monica is speaking to me, she will only see my listening as praiseworthy, if I am present with her in the moment. Only if I commune with her as she is speaking with me, will she walk away from that conversation satisfied. This is what David means when he says that God hears our prayers. Please turn to Proverbs 15:29 where we can see this more clearly. I’m claiming that when David says God hears our prayers, one thing he means is that God draws close to us in a special way when we pray. So here’s the verse: “The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.” God deals with the wicked in one way, namely, He is far from them; and He deals with the righteous in the opposite way, namely, that He hears their prayers. But these are opposites, Solomon could have justly said, ‘..the LORD is far from the wicked, but he is close to the righteous.’ Why then does he insert God hearing our prayer instead? Because God hearing our prayer is the way that God draws close to us. James 4:8 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”5 That’s at least one thing that David means when He says that God hears our prayer, God draws close to us with his special presence to bless. In true 5

cf. 1 Peter 3:12

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prayer, God often blesses with us new discoveries of His grace (His special presence). A new taste and sight of holiness and sovereignty, and sufficiency, and His kind Fatherly heart in sending us Christ. When God meets us in prayer like this, we leave changed, even if our circumstances do not. It is God’s special presence that overcomes our worry and anxiety, and it makes us joyfully accept whatever He chooses. God uses prayer to help us see that His providences are perfect and good. This is what Paul meant by the peace that surpasses all understanding. Philippians 4:6-7 “…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” This peace is not some unfelt, unexperienced thing. It can’t surpass our understanding if we don’t experience it. It is a real discovery of God’s special presence—His nearness.6 This is why Thomas Brooks called prayer “the secret key to heaven.”7 It is God’s presence manifested this way in prayer that leaves childless, hopeless mothers in a state of peace. Hannah discovered God like this. In the opening chapter of 1 Samuel, she was childless and hopeless, and ruthlessly persecuted by her opponent Peninnah. 1 Samuel 1:10 says “She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly.” When God met her in prayer, v.18 says “Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.” What accounts for this? Her circumstances did not change. There was no absolute promise from God that she would indeed give birth to Samuel. So what happened. God’s special presence to bless met her in prayer. Now this doesn’t always happen in every prayer. David prays in Psalm 143:7 Answer me quickly, O LORD! My spirit fails! Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit.”8 There were times where David felt like God was hiding his face from Him. He felt distant from God. There have been times where I have been pacing around this sanctuary in earnest prayer, 6

“Romans 8:16 “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

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Thomas Brooks, The Secret Key To Heaven, (Carlisle, PA,: Banner of Truth Trust, 2009)

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cf. Psalm 27:9; 69:17; 102:2

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and my sense was that the ceiling was a granite slab. All my prayers felt like they were falling to the ground and I felt nothing from God. I felt alone. Desperately alone. God’s face was hidden. Psalm 143:7 never comes so alive for me than in those moments: ‘O God, hide not your face from, lest I die.’ Surely you have felt this way before? But don’t you see, these experiences of David and all the saints proves that God does visit us in prayer! David experienced God’s closeness in prayer at times and said things like this “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.” (Psalm 36:7-8) Other times David felt alone “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1) This was Job’s experience. Throughout the book, he prays and prays and prays to God and senses nothing. No answer. No special presence of God. What happens at the end of the book? God shows up and speaks to him. And Job speaks back. This was prayer. God finally sent His special presence, and all became well with Job’s soul. Remember Job didn’t know God was going to give him his possessions back, yet nonetheless Job was recovered after he prayed. Why? Because God met with him, and gave Him a glimpse of His infinite power and wisdom and holiness and mercy. And this glimpse of God was the very medicine that Job’s soul needed. Job 42:5 “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” It is this that David is praising God for in Psalm 65. That through prayer, we have real spiritual communion with God. 9 This is what God intends prayer to be—communion with Him. This is what we should hope for in every prayer, the special presence of God. There is nothing sweeter on earth than this. “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed. O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come.”

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Psalm 119:32

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Application Our Doctrine: Our God is a prayer hearing We saw from our passage three things. 1) That it is God’s very nature to hear our prayer. Our prayers need not be audible for God to hear them. Hannah prayed in her heart, and God met her in 1 Samuel. 2) When God says He hears our prayers, He means He accepts them. True prayer is the cry of the heart “Without Christ I can do nothing!” God accepts these prayers, because He is most glorified when we recognize Him as the supplier of all our needs. 3) When God says He hears our prayers, He means that He acts upon them. God calls us to pray that we might discover new and fresh views of His mercy, and holiness, and happiness. The prize of prayer is not that He would always answer our specific requests. No. The prize of prayer is that God Himself would meet with us. This is what the Psalmist prayed for over and over again. “Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name.” (Psalm 119:132) “I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.” (Psalm 40:1) “Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy! Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan.” (Psalm 55:1-2) The Psalmist prayed like this because God truly and experientially met with him in prayer. And God met with Paul like this as well. That’s why Paul said to pray, so that “…the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:6-7) Are there times when God doesn’t hear prayer? Yes. Proverbs 28:9 “If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.” God doesn’t hear the prayers of unbelievers. If you have no regard for God’s law, God has no regard for your prayers. No one has access to God apart from the promises that He has laid down in Scripture. Father has promised that His Son Jesus Christ would purchase a people with His own blood, and that through faith in Him, we can be forgiven and brought

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to the Father. abomination.

If one turns away from that, and prays, their prayer is an

Does God always listen to the prayers of believers? No. Psalm 66:18 “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”10 The Psalmist is not making sinlessness a prerequisite for prayer. Otherwise none of us would be able to pray. To cherish iniquity is to be insincere in approaching God. It is to be harboring the practice of sin with no repentance. God doesn’t listen to these types of prayers. It is true that we are all sinners, and in that sense God only hears the prayers of sinners. But when we confess our sin, God cleanses us (1 John 1:9). When we are aware of our sin and grieved by it, God is pleased. But when we treasure it in our heart, and come to Him in prayer, asking Him to bless what we know to be evil, God will not listen.

Our Duty:

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with

thanksgiving. (Colossians 4:2) For me, outside of fasting, prayer is the most difficult spiritual discipline. One of the Puritans once said “..it is sometimes so with me that I will rather die than pray?”11 How do we pray when God doesn’t respond to us with an audible voice? How do we raise our own spirits up to God in prayer when it is the last thing we feel like doing? 1. Pray to pray Ask God to usher you in to prayer. Romans 8:26 ‘Lord, Your word says “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we

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cf. Isaiah 59:1-2

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http://www.sounddoctrine.net/Classic_Sermons/Alexander%20Whyte/die_pray_whyte.htm

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ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” 2. Recite to God His Word God doesn’t need to be reminded of His Word, but we do. And God loves it when we treasure His word such that we would use it to claim His promises back to Him. “Lord your word says “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11) 3. Memorize His Word When I go to the LORD in prayer, I run out of words quickly. That is why God gave us a prayer book in Scripture. The Psalms is the longest book in the Bible, and it is almost exclusively prayer. Memorize. Memorization gives you prayer handles to call out to God with. God made Scripture to be memorized. As we have pointed out in our Psalm 119 groups, God specifically designed Psalm 119 as an acrostic of the Hebrew alphabet. Each section represents a letter of the alphabet and each line starts with that corresponding letter. Why did God do that? To memorize. If you say “but memorization is so hard.” I agree. But true prayer is more difficult that mere memorization. 4. Fast If you want a break through in prayer—try fasting. Jesus said that His people would fast in Matthew 9:15 “Jesus said to them, ‘Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.’” Fasting is both an act of worship and a sign to our souls. God made the Christian life to be a rhythm of feasting and fasting. When we feast we are to give thanks to God for His abundant supply. And when we fast, we are saying, ‘God I want you more than this food. As my body is hungry for this food, so my soul is hungry for you.’

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Part of the reason why prayer is so difficult is because often times we are not be struck with the feeling of desperation for God. I know some of you are suffering right now, and you feel plenty desperate for God, and no doubt this has increased your prayer life. For others of you, there’s no feeling of desperation, because there is no impending emergency. Praise God for that. But don’t take that as sign that you don’t desperately need Him. When we don’t feel desperate for God, we tend not to pray. Health and prosperity can be a very dangerous enemy to the Christian life. It can lull us to sleep, because it tends to heighten the desires of the flesh rather than the spirit. Calvin says on this point “Our contracted desires is the reason why we do not receive a more copious supply of blessing from God.”12 Or as James says “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (James 4:2-3) If we listen to a message like this, and hear that God meets with His saints in a special way in prayer, and we say to ourselves “I don’t ever sense God meeting me like that.” I would like to ask: Does your prayer life consist of more than just praying at the dinner table? Do you actually set aside time to pray? We are talking about the God of the universe who sent His Son to be slain for us. How does that not excite us to commune with Him? Perhaps God doesn’t meet with us in a special way, because we don’t pursue Him outside of anything other Sunday morning. If I only prayed on Sunday morning I would die. There is no doubt about it. Prayer is war. Sometimes we want to pray and God is hiding his face from us. What do we do? We do what the Psalmist did and keep pressing in. God will not hide His face forever. Other times the hordes of hell, and the passing desires of this world, and our own flesh are pressing us so hard, that we would rather die than pray. What do we do? Ask God to overcome our flesh, and draw us to Himself in prayer.

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John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries Vol. V, (Grand Rapids, MI,: BakerBooks 2009), pg. 458

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Our Delight: Christ died for us to pray; Father elected us to pray I love it when Scripture anticipates all the objections we would have. Let’s turn back to Psalm 65. Right after the Psalmist says in v.2 “O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come,” there is the devil. Not in the text, but in our own hearts. Often in our own hearts, we don’t seek God in prayer because our sin prevents us. We can feel discouraged and unworthy to come to God. Those feelings are right. You and I are unworthy to come to God because we are great sinners. And this often prevents true communion with God. But look at the glory of Psalm 65. In the very next line, David says “When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions.” These verse is not disconnected from the previous one. They are to be taken together. ‘Though our sins prevail against us, and make us deserve to be cast out of God’s sight, God will still hear our prayers because Christ has atoned for our sins.’ That’s the flow of these two verse. God hears our prayers, even when iniquities prevail against us, because Christ has atoned for our sins. Your prayers have been blood bought. There can be no greater encouragement to pray than that. Jesus Christ has spared no expense in order for us to be able to pray. He’s taken away all our sins if you trust Him for it. Which is why the author of Hebrews says “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) We can have confidence to come before God’s throne in prayer. Not because of our performance—our iniquities are prevailing against us; but because of Christ’s performance. Jesus not only purchased everlasting life for all who would believe on His name, but He removes all our transgressions that we might commune with the Father. And that is how our passage ends. Look at v.4 “Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!” Why does God choose to hear our prayers?(v.2) Why does Christ atone for our sin? (v.3) Because He has chosen us—His church (v.4). Prayer is cemented in the Divine Election of the Father. This verse leaves no room for us

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to say that we come to God on our own terms. “We are near Him, not [because of our own doing or because we come to him of ourselves] but because, in his [love] he has stretched out his hand as far as hell itself to reach us.”13

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ibid, pg. 457