Prayer Found in the Heart
(No. 2869)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1904.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
JANUARY 16, 1876.
"Therefore has Your servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto
You." 2 Samuel 7:27.
It is a very blessed thing for a child of God to be anxious to glorify
his Heavenly Father, whether his wish is realized or not. The strong
desire to magnify God is acceptable to Him and is an indication of
spiritual health. It is certain, in the long run, to bring blessing to
our own souls and I have frequently noticed that when we earnestly
desire to do something special for the Lord, He generally does
something for us very much of the same kind. David wished to build a
house for God. "No," says Jehovah, "you have been a man of war and I
will not employ a warrior in spiritual business. But I will build you a
house." So, although David may not build a house for God, it is well
that the plan of it is in his heart and God, in return, builds up his
house, and sets his son and his son's son upon the throne after him.
But, my dear Friend, if you should not find an opportunity to do all
that is in your heart, yet, nevertheless, it is well that it is there.
Carry out the project if you can, but if you cannot, it may be that as
you have desired to deal with the Lord, so will He deal with you. If
you have sown sparingly, you shall reap sparingly. If you have sown
liberally, you shall reap largely, for, often and often, the Lord's
dealings with His own people are a sort of echo to their hearts of
their dealings with Him.
Sometimes it happens that God will not let His servants do what they
would most of all like to do. David had long been storing up gold and
silver in great quantities that he might build that house for the Lord.
It had been the great project of his life that he might make a fit
sanctuary for the Ark of the Covenant. "I dwell," he said, "in a house
of cedar, but the Ark of God dwells within curtains." The dream of his
life was that he might build a magnificent temple which would be
supremely gorgeous for architecture and rich in all the treasures of
the ends of the earth–that there the Ark of his God might be
appropriately housed. But the Lord would not have it so. David might
pray about it and think about it, and plan about it and save his money
for it, but the Lord would not have it so. It was not in that
particular way that David was to serve his God.
And I have known some good Christian young men who felt that they must
be preachers. They had not the proper gifts and qualifications for the
ministry, but they felt that they must preach–so they have strived
very hard, but at all points they have met with rebuffs. People who
have heard them once, have been quite satisfied, but have not desired
to hear them again. Doors have been shut against them, no conversions
have followed their efforts and thus God has said to each one of them,
"Not so, My son. Not in that way shall you serve Me." And there are
others who have had other plans in their heads–Brothers and Sisters
who have arranged wonderful schemes and plans which they have dreamed
over and said, "Thus and thus will we serve God." Yet, hitherto, my
Brother, you have had to keep to the workman's bench. And you, my
Sister, have had to keep to nursing those little children. Up till now
you have not been very successful in any special path of usefulness, or
that which is commonly thought to be the path of usefulness. But God
knows best and He has uses for all the vessels in His house–and it is
not right for any one vessel to say, "I will be used here, or there, or
not at all." It is for Godto use us as He pleases!
Every private soldier would like to be an officer, but it is only a
very few who ever will be. And if every private soldier coulddbe an
officer, what sort of an army would it be where all were officers and
none were men in the ranks? So we would, perhaps, each of us, like to
do something more remarkable than we havedone, but it is for our great
Commander
to say to this man, "Stand here," or to that man, "Go there." And it
ought to be equally a matter of contentment to us whether God permits
us to serve Him, here or there. I think it was good Mr. Jay who used to
say that if there were two angels in Heaven and God wanted one of them
to go and be the ruler of a kingdom, and the other to sweep a crossing,
the two angels would not have the slightest dispute as to which post
they would have, provided that they knew they had the Lord's command to
occupy either position. Brother, if ever the Lord should rebuff you and
seem to refuse that which you desire to offer Him, do not sulk–do not
get into a bad spirit, as some have done in similar circumstances–but
know that the very essence of Christian service is to be willing notto
serve in that particular way if, by not serving, God would be the more
glorified! Be willing, O vessel in the house of the Lord, to be hung up
on a nail in the wall. Be willing to be laid aside in a corner if so
God would be glorified, for thus was it with David. God would not let
him erect the temple which he wished to build, but He gave him great
blessings in return for his desires. And then David, instead of sulking
and saying, "Well, then, as I cannot have my own will, I will do
nothing at all," went in and sat before the Lord and blessed and
praised Him–he never uttered one grumbling or surly word–but blessed
the name of the Lord from the beginning of his meditation even to its
close. Oh, to have a heart molded after the same fashion!
In the midst of David's memorable address to God, we meet with this
suggestive expression–"Your servant has found in his heart to pray
this prayer unto You." I am going to speak upon that subject in this
way. First, concerning David's prayer–how did he come byit?Secondly,
how came this prayer to be in his heart? And thirdly, how may we get
into such a condition that we shall find prayers in our hearts?
I. First, then, HOW DID DAVID COME BY HIS PRAYER? He tells us that he
found it in his heart–"Your servant has found in his heart to pray
this prayer unto You."
Then it is pretty clear that he looked for it in his heart. How many
men seem to begin to pray without really thinking about prayer! They
rush, without preparation or thought, into the Presence of God. Now, no
loyal subject would seek an audience of his sovereign, to present a
petition, without having first carefully prepared it. But many seem to
think there is no need to look for a prayer, or to find one, when they
approach the Mercy Seat. They appear to imagine that they have only to
repeat certain words and to stand or kneel in a certain attitude–and
that is prayer. But David did not make that mistake. He found his
prayer in his heart. David and his heart were well acquainted–he had
long been accustomed to talk with himself. There are some men who know
a thousand other people, but who do not know themselves! The greatest
stranger to them in the whole world is their own heart. They have never
looked into it, never talked with it, never examined it, never
questioned it. They follow its evil devices, but they scarcely know
that they have a heart, they so seldom look into it. But David, when he
wanted to pray, went and looked in his heart to see what he could find
there–and he found in his heart to pray this prayer to God.
This leads me to say, dear Friends, that the best place in which to
find a prayer is to find it in your heart. Some would have fetched down
a book and they would have said, "Let us see–what is the day of the
month–how many Sundays after Advent? This is the proper prayer for
today." But David did not go to a book for his prayer–he turned to his
heart to see what he could find there that he might pray unto God.
Others of us would, perhaps, have been content to find a prayer in our
heads. We have been accustomed to extemporize in prayer and so,
perhaps, bowing the knee, we would have felt that the stream of
supplication would flow because we are so habituated to speaking with
God in prayer. Ah, dear Friend, it is no worse to find a prayer in a
book than to find it in your head! It is very much the same thing
whether the prayer is printed or is extemporized–unless it comes from
the heart–it is equally dead in either case.
How many, too, have found a prayer upon their lips! It is a very common
thing with those who pray in Prayer Meetings and those of us who pray
in public, for our lips to run much faster than our hearts move. And it
is one of the things we need to cry to God to keep us from, lest we
should be run away with by our own tongues, as men are, sometimes, run
away with by their horses which they cannot restrain. And you know the
horse never goes faster than when he has very little to carry. And,
sometimes, words will come at a very rapid rate when there is very
little real prayer conveyed by them. This is not as it ought to be with
us. We must look into our hearts for the desire to pray–and if we do
not find it in our hearts to pray a prayer, let us rest assured that we
shall not be accepted before the Throne of God.
How was it that David found this prayer in his heart? I think it was
because his heart had been renewed by Divine Grace. Prayer is a living
thing–you cannot find a living prayer in a dead heart. Why seek you
the living among the dead, or search the sepulcher to find the signs
and tokens of life? No, Sir, if you have not been made alive by the
Grace of
God, you cannot pray! The dead cannot pray and the spiritually dead
cannot pray. But the moment you begin to pray, it is a sign that life
has been given to you. Ananias knew that Saul was a living soul when
God said to him, "Behold, he prays." "It is all right," said Ananias,
"for the Lord must have quickened his heart." David found this prayer
in his heart because his was a living heart!
And he found it there, also, because his was a believing heart. How can
a man pray if he does not believe in God, or if he merely thinks that
there maybe a supernatural Being, somewhere or other in the universe,
but that He is not near– and cannot be made to hear–or is not a
living personality, or, if He is, He is too great to care about us, or
to listen to the words of a man? But when the Lord has taught you the
Truth of God about His own Existence and His real Character–when He
has come so near to you that you know that He is the Rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him–then, in that believing heart of yours,
prayer will spring up as the corn springs up in the furrows of the
field! The Lord, who has sown in your heart the seed of faith, will
make that seed to spring up in the green blade of prayer. It must be
so, but, until you believe in God, you cannot pray. It would be useless
for me to say to some men, "You should pray," when I recollect that
Christ has said, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth." And that is what these men cannot
do. How can they, therefore, pray acceptably? "He that comes to God
must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him." Where there is that true faith in God, there is
fervent prayer in the heart, but nowhere else!
David's was also a serious heart. Some men's hearts are flippant,
trifling, full of levity. God forbid that we should condemn holy
cheerfulness! As oil to the wheels of a machine, so is cheerfulness to
a man's conversation, but there is a frothiness, a superficiality, a
frivolity which is far too common. Some men do not seem to think
seriously about anything. They have no settled principles. They are
"everything by starts, and nothing long." "The Vicar of Bray" is their
first cousin. Perhaps they have scarcely as much principle as he had,
for they do not so steadily seek their own interests and scarcely seek
any interest at all but that of the transient pleasure of the hour. If
that is your case, I do not wonder that you cannot pray! A man says, "I
cannot find prayer in my heart." No, how could you? Yours is a heart
full of chaff, full of dust, full of rubbish–a heart tangled and
overgrown with weeds–a sluggard's heart, where grow the nettles of
evil desire and unholy passion–where live the docks and thistles of
idleness and neglect. Oh, may God grant us the Grace to have serious
hearts–hearts that are in solemn earnest–hearts that are
intense–hearts that can really give due heed to things according to
their merits and that give to eternal things their chief concern,
because eternal things deserve them best. David's heart was a serious
heart and, therefore, he found this prayer in it.
And, once again, David's was a humble heart, for a man who is proud
will not pray. A man who is self-righteous will not pray, except it is
in the fashion of the Pharisee, and that was no prayer at all. But a
man, humbly conscious of his soul's needs, and realizing the guilt of
his sins–that is the man to pour out his heart in prayer before the
living God! I pray the Lord graciously to break our hearts, for, unless
our hearts are broken in penitence, we shall never find in them a real
prayer unto God.
There are some of you who have got on wonderfully since your Lord
called you by His Grace. You were wretched enough when He looked at
you, cast out in the open field, covered with blood and filthiness. And
He washed you, clothed you, nourished you and now He has even begun to
use you in His service and you are already beginning to be rather proud
that He has given you some success. I charge you, Brothers and Sisters,
not to pilfer any of the Glory that belongs to God alone! Never begin
to throw up your caps and to cry, "Well done!" It is all up with us if
we do that. Stay down low, my Brother. Stay down low, my Sister. The
lower we are and the more we fear and tremble–not through unbelief,
mark you, (that kind of fear I denounce with all my heart), but with
that really believing trembling and believingfear that grows out of
genuine love to Christ and is not inconsistent with that love–the more
we have of that sort of fear, the more securely shall we walk and the
more will it be safe for God to trust us with His goodness! When your
ship floats very high upon the water, I hope that you will not have
much sail spread, or else the vessel will almost certainly go over. But
when it floats low, almost down to the Plimsoll line, you may crowd on
as much sail as you like. If you carry but little ballast and you have
huge sails up aloft, the first gust of wind will topple you over. But
if you are well ballasted–that is to say, if you are weighed down with
a sense of your own unworthiness–you will weather any gale that may
come upon you, God the Holy Spirit being in the vessel with you and
holding the helm!
I pause here a moment just to ask each one–Do you pray? Do you present
to God prayers that come from your heart? I do not ask whether you use
a form of prayer, or not, but does your heart really go with the prayer
you offer? I think I hear someone say, "I always say my prayers." Ah,
my dear Friend, there is as great a difference between saying prayers
and really praying as there was between the dead child and the living
one that were brought before Solomon! Saying prayers is not praying!
Why, you might as well say your prayers backward as forward unless your
heart goes with them! It is quite extraordinary how some people can use
a form of prayer without any thought whatever as to its meaning. Some
time ago, a man, 70 years of age, was asked if he prayed. He replied
that he always had prayed, and he would tell the enquirer the prayer he
used. It turned out that he still persisted in repeating what his
mother taught him when he was a child, "Pray, God, bless Father and
Mother, and make me a good boy." He had got those words so deeply
engraved upon his memory that he still kept to them at his advanced
age! Naturally, you smile at the story, yet it is very pitiful. It may
be an extreme instance, but still it is a clear instance of what I
mean–that there is a way of merely saying prayers which is rather a
mockery of God than a real approach to Him such as He desires.
"Well," says one, "I never pray." I question the truth of that
assertion, but if it is true, there is another thing that I do know and
that is this–the time will come when you will want to pray. Let me
explain what I mean when I say that I question your assertion about
never praying. I have heard men pray who would have thought themselves
insulted if they had been told that they did. What awful prayers they
have presented to God when they have imprecated upon their souls,
bodies, eyes, limbs, children and everything else, the most terrible
curses from God! There are some men who will do this at the least
provocation. O Sirs, mind that God does not grant you your wicked
requests! I am afraid that when an ungodly man prays in that shameless
way, he does find his prayer in his heart–and I am also afraid that
his heart must be full of damnation, or he would not find so many oaths
in it. That which comes out of a man is what is in him, and when you
hear a man swear, you know that there is a deal of "swear" in his
heart, for the language in which he dares to imprecate God's vengeance
proves how alienated his heart must be from God.
I would remind you, who do not pray, that you will need to pray one
day. If there were to be a pledge exacted from you that you never would
pray to God–if you were offered money to never pray–suppose you took
the money and promised never to pray? I know what you would think–you
would say to yourself, "What shall I do with this money? It is the
price of my soul's salvation." It would strike you at once that it was
an awful thing to never be allowed to pray and you would feel that you
had sold yourself to the devil–body and soul–and you would be in dire
trouble. Well, but as you say that you never pray, you might as well
take the money that is offered to you. As you do not pray, I do not see
what use the privilege of prayer is to you. "If it is of any use to
pray to God," you say, "I shall pray at the last." Then pray now, for
you never know what may be your last moment! Who knows how close you
may be to your grave even while you are sitting in your pew? You saw
one friend faint, just now, and we have seen hearers fall back dead
even while gathered in the congregation! God grant that we may not see
it again! Still, the fact that it has happened is a loud call to all of
us bidding us begin to pray!
Thus I have shown you where David found his prayer. He found it in his
heart. II. Now, secondly, HOW CAME DAVID'S PRAYER TO BE IN HIS HEART?
I answer that he found it in his heart because the Lord put it there.
Every true heart-prayer that is accepted of God, first came from God.
The Lord Jesus passed by David's heart and threw this prayer in at the
window and then, when the good man went down to look for a prayer, he
found this prayer lying on the floor of his heart ready for him to use.
How does God put prayers into a man's heart? I answer, first, He
instructs us how to pray. We, none of us, know how to pray aright till
we have been to the school of the Holy Spirit. We know not what we
should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit comes and shows us our
need. Thus we see what to pray for. He also shows us what Christ has
provided for us and thus we see what we may hope to obtain. He shows
us, too, that the way to God is through the precious blood of Jesus and
He leads us along that crimson, blood-sprinkled road and so, by His
instruction, He puts the prayer into our hearts.
In the next place, He puts it there by inclining us to pray. Benjamin
Beddome wrote–
"When God inclines the heart to pray He has an ear to hear"–
and his short hymn contains a great Truth of God. God bends the heart
to pray and, oftentimes, He does this by filling us with sorrow and
then, in the day of our distress, we cry unto Him. But I have also
known Him do it in the sweeter way, as He did with David, by filling
the heart with joy till we have been so glad and grateful that we have
felt that we must pray, as David did on another occasion, when he said,
"Because He has inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon
Him as long as I live."
So, the Lord puts prayer into our heart by instructing us how to pray
and by inclining us to pray.
Then He puts prayer into the heart by encouragement. You notice that my
text begins with, "Therefore." "Therefore has Your servant found in his
heart to pray this prayer unto You." What does David mean by that,
"therefore"? Why, God had promised to do great things for him and, my
Brother or Sister, you may always safely ask for that which God has
promised to give! When He gives you the promise of anything, He does as
good as say to you, "Come, My child, ask for this. Be not slow to come
to Me with your requests." If the Lord has said that He will bestow any
blessing, what greater encouragement to pray can you possibly desire?
But this promise, according to the Hebrew, had been given to David in a
very special manner. In our version, it is rendered, "You have revealed
to Your servant," but the marginal reading is, "You have opened the ear
of Your servant." A promise in the Bible is often a promise to a deaf
ear–but the promise, applied by the Spirit of God, goes right through
the outer organ and penetrates to the ear of the soul! I am sure, dear
Friends, that you can never be backward in prayer when God opens your
ear and puts a promise into it. The richness, the sweetness, the
sureness, the preciousness of the promise, when the Holy Spirit seals
it home to the heart, makes a man go to his knees–he cannot help doing
so–and thus the Lord greatly encourages the needy soul to pray.
I will not keep you longer upon this point when I have just said that I
believe God puts prayers into our hearts by a sense of His general
goodness. We see how kind and good He is to the sons of men as a whole
and, therefore, we pray to Him. By His special goodness to His own
chosen people, we see still more of His compassion and tenderness, and
so we are moved to pray to Him. Especially does He put prayer into our
hearts when He gives us a sight of the Cross. We see there how greatly
Jesus loved us and, therefore, we pray. We rightly argue that He who
gave Jesus for us will deny to us nothing that is for our good and,
therefore, again we pray. Often are we stirred up to pray by the
recollection of former answers to prayer and, sometimes, by observing
how God hears other men and other women pray. Anyhow, it is a blessed
thing when the Lord comes by and scatters the seeds of prayer in our
hearts so that when we want to pray, we have only to look within our
own renewed nature and there we find the prayer that we shall do well
to pray unto God!
III. Our last question, upon which I must speak but briefly, is this.
WHAT MUST YOU AND I DO IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO FIND PRAYERS IN OUR
HEARTS?
Ah, dear Friends, I am afraid that some of you can do nothing in this
matter until, first of all, your hearts are renewed by Grace. "Who can
bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" No one. And who can fetch an
acceptable prayer out of an unaccepted person? No one. So, Sinner, you
must first come to Jesus, confessing your sin and looking to His dear
wounds, and finding a broken heart within you as the result of His
pierced heart. And when the Lord has looked upon you in His pardoning
love, then you will find many prayers in your heart!
I asked a young friend, "Did you pray before conversion?" She answered
that she did pray "after a sort." I then enquired, "What is the
difference between your present prayers and those you offered before
you knew the Lord?" Her answer was, "Then, I said my prayers. But, now,
I mean them. Then, I said the prayers which other people taught me. But
now I find them in my heart." There is good reason to cry, "Eureka!"
when we find prayer in our heart. Holy Bradford would never cease
praying or praising till he found his heart thoroughly engaged in the
holy exercise. If it is not in my heart to pray, I must pray till it
is. But, oh, the delight of pleading with God when the heart casts
forth mighty jets of supplication like a geyser in full action! How
mighty is supplication when the whole soul becomes one living,
hungering, expecting desire!
But some Christian people often feel as if they could not pray. They
get into a condition in which they are not able to pray and that is a
very sad state for any child of God to be in. How much do I personally
desire to always possess the true spirit of prayer! When I was at Mr.
Rowland Hill's house at Wotton-Under-Edge, many years ago, I asked,
"Where did Mr. Hill use to pray?" And the answer of someone who had
known him when he was there, was, "He used to pray everywhere." I said,
"Yes, but did he not have a special place for prayer?" The reply was,
"I do not know. I never saw him when he was not praying." "Well, but,"
I asked, "did he not study somewhere?" I was told that he was always
studying,
wherever he went, yet that he was always in the spirit of prayer. The
good old man, at last, had got into such a blessed state of mind that
when he sat down on the sofa, he would be going over a familiar hymn,
and when he walked in the garden, he would be to-tooting something
gracious! You know how they found him, in George Clayton's chapel over
yonder. His carriage had not come, after the service, and he was
walking up and down the aisles, softly singing to himself–
"And when I'm to die, 'Receive me,' I'll cry, For Jesus has loved me, I
cannot tell why. But this I do find, we two are so joined, He'll not be
in Glory and leave me behind!"
Good old Soul! He had got to find it in his heart to pray always. He
used to wander down the Blackfriars Road with his hands under his
coattails and stop to look in very nearly every shop-window, but, all
the while, he was talking with God just as much as any man could have
done who had shut himself up in a cloister! This is a blessed state of
mind to be in– to find as many prayers in your soul as there are hairs
on your head–to pray as often as the clock ticks–to wake up in the
night and feel that you have been dreaming prayers! And when you rise
in the morning, to find that your first thought is either that of
praising God for His many mercies, or else pleading for somebody or
other who needs your prayers!
How are you to get into this state? Well, I cannot tell you, except
this–live near to God. If you live near to God, you must pray. He that
learns how to live near to God will learn how to pray and to give
thanks to God. Look into your hearts, also, as David did. You cannot
find prayer there if you do not look for it. Think much of your own
needs, for a realization of how many and how great they are will make
you pray. When you see the falls of others, recollect that you also
will fall unless God holds you up–so make that a reason and subject
for prayer. When you see others who are slack in devotion, or who have
become cold in heart, remember you will be as they are if Grace does
not prevent. So, let your own needs drive you to prayer.
Then read the Scriptures very much. Study them–suck the sweetness out
of them, for they are sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. You cannot
fail to be much in prayer if you spend much time in the reading of the
Word. If you will let God speak to you, I am sure you will be compelled
to speak with God. Dwell much upon the Doctrines of the Gospel. Seek to
understand them. Live upon them and upon the promises, too. If a man
were to give me a check, I do not think I should be so foolish as not
to cash it. And if God gives me a promise, which is better than any
man's check, the most natural thing is for me to go on my knees to
Heaven's bank to seek to have it changed–to get the blessing God
really promised He would give me! So, keep hard by the promises, and
still closer to the faithful Promiser! Live to God. Live for God. Live
inGod and you will find prayers come out of your soul as sparks come
out of the chimney of the blacksmith's smithy! If there is a blazing
fire within and the bellows blowing it up and the smith is hard at work
in his calling, the sparks will fly. And in this cold weather, dear
Brothers and Sisters, it is necessary to keep our hearts warm.
Have you noticed thatched cottages and other houses where the snow lies
on the roof? You say, "Yes." But have you noticed where there is a good
fire in the house, anywhere near the roof, how soon the snow is melted?
And if you want to get warm and stay warm in the midst of a cold,
graceless world that chills the very marrow in a Believer's bones, keep
a warm heart inside, for that will tend to make it warm outside, too!
God grant you this blessing and keep you ever abounding in prayer–and
He shall have all the praise.
I do trust that some who never prayed before, will try to pray. Nobody
ever sneers at prayer but the man who does not pray. And nobody ever
denies its efficacy but the man who knows nothing at all about it. And
such men are out of court and have no right to speak upon this matter.
But men who are honest in other things and who would be believed in a
court of law, should be believed when they bear their solemn testimony
that times without number God has heard their prayers! Try it, Friend.
God help you to try it! Especially begin by believing in Jesus and then
shall you rightly seek unto the Almighty and He will be found of you.
Yes, you shall lift up your eyes to Heaven and the Lord will look down
upon you and accept you, and bless you, both now and forever! So may it
be, for His dear Son's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 2SAMUEL 7:18-29;LUKE 18:1-14.
2 Samuel 7:18. Then went king David in, and sat before the LORD. David
desired to build a temple for God and the Prophet Nathan, conceiving
that such a design must be acceptable to the Most High, told the king
to proceed with it. But God's mind was otherwise and Nathan had to tell
David that it was well that it was in his heart, but that God intended
the temple to be built, not by him, but by his son Solomon. However,
the Lord gave to David very large promises and when he had received
them, through Nathan, he was so overcome with gratitude that he went in
and "sat before the Lord." That was his posture in prayer on this
occasion. Good men have been known to pray kneeling, which seems to be
the most natural attitude. Some have prayed with their faces between
their knees, as Elijah did. Some have prayed standing, as the publican
did. Some have prayed sitting, as David did. Probably he was mingling
prayer and meditation when he "sat before the Lord."
18. And he said, Who am I, O Lord GOD? And what is my house, that You
have brought me here?How often has a similar feeling leaped into our
heart! Why should the Lord have dealt so well with us?–
"What was there in you that could merit esteem, Or give the Creator
delight?"
19. And this was yet a small thing in Your sight, O Lord GOD; but You
have spoken also of Your servant's house for a great while to come. And
is this the manner of man, O Lord GOD?No–man could not have been so
kind as that! The love of Jesus surpasses the love of women and the
love of God surpasses all the kindness of men.
20. And what can David say more unto You? For You, Lord GOD, know Your
servant ' 'What I cannot utter, You can perceive in my heart, though I
cannot express it."
21-25. For Your word's sake, and according to Your own heart, have You
done all these great things, to make Your servant know them. Therefore
You are great, O LORD God: for there is none like You, neither is there
any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
And what one nation in the earth is like Your people, even like Israel,
whom God went to redeem for a people to Himself, and to make Him a
name, and to do for You great things and terrible, for Your land,
before Your people, which You redeem to You from Egypt, from the
nations and their gods? For You have confirmed to Yourself Your people
Israel to be a people unto You forever: and You, LORD, have become
their God. And now, O LORD God, the word that You have spoken
concerning Your servant, and concerning his house, establish it
forever, and do as You have said. That is a very short, but exceedingly
pithy prayer–"Do as You have said." You do not need any larger
promises, Brothers and Sisters, than the Lord has already given
you–could He give you any larger ones?–
"What more can He say than to you He has said, You who unto Jesus for
refuge have fled?"
What you have to do is to take the promises He has given and spread
them out before the Mercy Seat. And then say to Him, "Do as You have
said." What strength there is in this plea! Has He said, and shall He
not do it? "Will He break His promise, or shall His right hand fail to
perform that which has gone forth from His lips? Far be it from us to
think so, but let us say to Him, "Do as You have said." That is the
very essence of prayer! Take care not to forget it.
26-29. And'let Your name be magnified forever, saying, The LORD of
Hosts is the God over Israel: and let the house of Your servant David
be established before You. For You, O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel,
have revealed to Your servant, saying, I will build You a house:
therefore has Your servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto
You. And now, O lord GOD, You are that God, and Your words are true,
and You have promised this goodness unto Your servant therefore now let
it please You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue
forever before You. You see how he clings to God's promise–"You have
promised this goodness unto Your servant." If you get a promise from
the Lord and cling to it as You wrestle with the angel, You will surely
prevail. You will win the blessing if you can plead, as David did, "You
have promised this goodness unto Your servant."
29. For You, O lord GOD, have spoken it How he dwells on it!
29. And with Your blessing let the house of Your servant be blessed
forever Now let us read two of our Lord's parables concerning prayer.
Luke 18:1-8. And He spoke a parable unto them to this end that men
ought always to pray, and not to faint; saying, There was in a city a
judge who feared not God, neither regarded man: and there was a widow
in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of my adversary.
And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself
Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubles
me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual com-
ing she weary me. And thee Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said.
And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto
Him, though He bear long with them? I tell You that He will avenge them
speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of Man comes, shall He find faith
on the earth? The whole force of this parable goes to show the
prevalence of importunity. If You cannot get your desire of God the
first time, go again and, if necessary, go again seven times. Yes, if
need be, in submission to His will, go seventy times seven! I am afraid
there is no fear of our having to be asked the question, "Will you,
also, weary my God?" Oh, no, we do not pray enough for that, neither
are we so importunate as this poor widow was! Let us prove the power of
importunate prayer and rest assured that Heaven's gate must open if we
do but know how to knock and that the blessing must be given if we do
but continue to ask for it, for praying breath is never spent in vain.
9-11. And He spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in
themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went
up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a
publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God I thank
You that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican. And he drew up his skirts and got upwind, for
fear lest any breath that should blow from the publican should defile
his sanctified person!
12. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. It
was not a prayer at all, as you perceive. It was a thanksgiving, but
the thanksgiving was merely a veil for self-adulation!
13. And the publican, standing afar off Not daring to come near to the
inner shrine–
13. Would not lift up so much as his eyes unto Heaven, but smote upon
his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I do not suppose
that he thought he had really prayed. He scarcely dared to call it
prayer. Perhaps, as he went home, he said, "I went up to the temple to
pray, but I was so bowed down with a sense of my guilt that I could not
pray." But that was not our Lord's verdict!
14. I tell You, this man went down to his house justified rather than
the other: for everyone that exalts himself shall be abased; and he
that humbles himself shall be exalted.