Authentic Prayer: Declaring
Psalm 119
You can’t tell by looking, but we are living in a battle zone. Planet Earth is a battlefield between Jesus’ kingdom, and the kingdom of darkness. And what’s at stake in this battle is whether people come to trust God through Jesus, be forgiven for all their sins, and have eternal joy in God’s presence, or whether they stay enslaved in sin, under God’s curse, and face eternal punishment under God’s judgment. Life couldn’t be more important. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
Jesus wages this war through us, the church. And Jesus has given us a powerful weapon for this battle: prayer. When you pray, God hears, and answers. When you cry out: “God strengthen me!” – God will strengthen you. When you cry out: “Encourage my brother in Christ!” – God will encourage your brother in Christ. When you cry out: “Bring your saving power to my family, my neighborhood, my city!” – God will bring His saving power on your family and neighborhood and city. That’s what happens through prayer. Which makes prayer unbelievably important.
But not all prayer. But Jesus taught that to be effective, prayer must be heart-felt. In Matthew 15 he said that if we pray with our hearts far from God, it’s vain. Which means that if prayer is to be effective, our hearts must be near to God; which means it must be heart-felt.
But much of the time, my heart is dull. This past week I had a couple of days where my heart felt spiritually dead. I had little passion for Jesus’ glory, little love for His people, little sense of eternity. And prayer felt lifeless.
So what can we do to bring feeling to our prayer? To answer this, let’s turn to Psalm 119. If you need a Bible go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring a Bible to you. Psalm 119 is on page 512 in the Bibles we are passing out.
I grew up learning that there were four parts to prayer: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and asking. That was helpful for me. But as I have studied and prayed through Psalm 119, I’ve notice that frequently the psalmist prays something that doesn’t fit those four categories: it’s not adoration, it’s not confession, it’s not thanksgiving, it’s not asking.
I had a hard time coming up with a word to describe it – but the word I’m going to use is “declaring.” It’s where he declares to God truth about God or about himself – and in Psalm 119 he does this dozens and dozens of times. And when you look at these dozens of times, you will see why he does this: it’s to make his prayer more heart-felt.
When I was in high school I had a Volkswagen bug. VW bugs are not muscle cars. They’ve got little four-cylinder air-cooled engines that can go 0 to 60 in what usually felt like 2.3 hours. And I was not content with the power of my VW bug, so I bought a “Hot VW’s” magazine at the grocery store to see what could be done. And I was blown away to discover that you could add a turbocharger, which would transform my VW bug. But it was way over my head mechanically, so I never ended up doing it.
But what Psalm 119 teaches us is that there is a way to turbo-charge your prayers, and it’s not over anyone’s head mechanically. If we will sprinkle our prayers with declarations of truth about God and about ourselves, we will turbo-charge our prayers, our prayers will become more heart-felt and persistent, and by God’s grace and mercy, more effective.
So let’s take a look at Psalm 119 and learn about declaring. Let’s start with what the psalmist prays in v.73 –
Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
Focus on the second half. Here the psalmist asks God to give him understanding. Now why is that necessary? Can’t we just open the Bible and read? Yes and no. Yes, we can and need to open up the Bible and read and meditate and think deeply. But, no, there’s sin in us which clouds our minds to the truth of God’s Word. And yet, because of Jesus, God can remove that sin from us so we can see and understand and feel the truth of God’s Word. That’s what the psalmist is asking God to do.
Now look at the first half -- “Your hands have made me and fashioned me.” He’s declaring to God truth about God. He’s telling God that God has made him – that God has created him. This is a crucial truth about who you are and why you are here. You are personally and individually created by God. You are not a random mutation; a cosmic accident. You are the personal creation of God Himself.
But why say this to God? God already knows He’s created you. So why pray it? What difference does it make to add the truth that God has made you? To figure this out, I conducted a little experiment.
First, I prayed just the request by itself without the truth that God created me: just the “give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.” I prayed and asked God to teach me His Word; to overcome my sinfulness and pride so I would understand his truth. I prayed that for a while – and it was good.
Then second, I added in the first part. I talked to God and said: “Your hands have made me and fashioned me. You created me. I am here by your will and for your purpose. You are my Creator. That’s true about you.” And then I added in the request: “give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.” And I repeated this a few times slowly: “Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.”
So what difference did it make to declare the truth that God created me?
First, I felt more faith. I felt more confident that God would do what I was asking. The fact that God made me shows that He loves and cares about me – so I felt more faith that He would give me the understanding I need.
Second, I felt more humility. It struck me that even though God created me, I messed up His creation by turning to sin. This gave me a sense of humility and brokenness.
But then third, I felt more longing. It struck me that since there is a Creator, and I am His creation, it’s crucial that I understand His commands. I’m not here to do whatever I want to do. I’m here by God’s choice for His purposes. So it filled me with longing to have more understanding of His commands.
Do you see how that works? By doing some declaring before asking – I turbocharged my prayer – my faith and humility and longing increased. And because my faith and humility and longing increased – by God’s mercy my prayer was more effective.
Let’s take another example, in v.156 –
Great is your mercy, O Lord; give me life according to your rules.
What do you do at those times when you feel spiritually lifeless? When you feel little love for Jesus, little passion for His glory, little confidence in His goodness? What do you do? The good news is that you are not alone. The psalmist had times like that. Which is why he prayed and asked God to give him life. So when you are spiritually lifeless, pray this prayer -- “Great is your mercy, O Lord; give me life according to your rules” – which means – as You have promised in Your Word.
So why start off by telling God that His mercy is great? God already knows that His mercy is great. So why tell Him that His mercy is great?
This time I’d like us all to feel what difference this makes. First, let’s all individually, by ourselves, pray and ask God to give you life. Go ahead and meaningfully ask Him to give you spiritual life. Take a few seconds right now and pray that.
Now pray it again, but add in the first part. Talk to God and meaningfully say: “Great is Your mercy, O Lord.” Talk to him about how great is his mercy. And then also ask him to give you life.
So what happened? How was it different when you started by telling God that His mercy is great?
It gave me confidence to pray: that even though I’m lacking spiritual life, and therefore don’t deserve to come to Him, because of His mercy I can approach Him.
It gave me faith that God would answer: for God to be merciful means that He does amazing good to unworthy people – so since this would be an amazing good to an unworthy person – I received faith that He would answer.
It gave me boldness to persist. Because God is merciful, it’s right that He gives life to lifeless hearts. So I can humbly press God to do this – because of His great mercy.
Do you see how that works? When you slow down your praying, and think through what you want to pray, and take time to declare to God truth about who He is – you will turbo-charge your prayer. Your confidence in prayer will grow, your faith will strengthen, your feeling will increase.
In v.93 we see a different example --
I am yours; save me, for I have sought your precepts.
Here the psalmist is asking God to save him – but instead of declaring to God truth about God, he declares to God truth about himself – I am yours; I have sought your precepts.
Some of you need to be saved right now: from some bondage to sin; from some temptation; from some discouragement or hopelessness. In fact, if we thought about it, we all have something we’d like to be saved from, right? So this prayer is exactly what we need.
That’s what David is asking for. But notice that he also tells God two truths about himself. “I am yours” – which means, I am trusting You, and therefore through the blood of the covenant I belong to you. And “I have sought your precepts,” which is not a claim to perfection, but is a statement of his heart-commitment to God.
But God already knows this. God already knows that the psalmist is his, and that the psalmist has sought his precepts. So why tell God what he already knows? Because it will turbo-charge your prayer; it will deepen and increase and embolden your prayer.
Here’s what I experienced. I prayed it both ways. But it made a big difference when I declared to God that I was His and that I had sought his precepts:
It gave me confidence that God would save me; since I belong to Him, he will save me.
It lifted a burden: since I belong to God, it’s his responsibility to save me; so it lifted a burden off of me.
It humbled me that because I belong to God, He could save me in whatever He decides is best.
Do you see how that works?
Let’s take one more example – in v.114 –
You are my hiding place and shield; I hope in your word.
Notice that here the psalmist is not asking God to do anything; he’s just declaring to God truth about God – you are my hiding place and shield, and truth about himself – I hope in your word.
Now why do we need a hiding place and shield? It’s because we are all soldiers in the midst of spiritual battle – our remaining sinfulness, and Satan himself, are seeking to destroy us; we constantly have flaming darts of temptation and discouragement and unbelief coming against us.
But God is our hiding place and shield. And we experience that by hoping in His Word – by taking refuge in His promises; by resting in His promises of love and protection and care. That’s what the psalmist is talking about.
But why pray this? God already knows that He is my hiding place and shield and that I am hoping in His Word. So why declare to Him these truths? Let’s find out. Take a few moments and meaningfully tell God that He is your hiding place and shield; that you hope in His Word. Go ahead.
So what happened? What did you experience? What happened in your heart?
I felt more security: I saw that every problem is under God’s control.
I felt more clarity: things became black and white; there’s God’s Word, and there’s everything else – and I’m hoping in God’s Word.
I felt great peace, knowing that nothing would harm me.
I felt more love for God.
Do you see how that works?
This is what I mean by declaring. A huge part of prayer is declaring to God truth about Himself and truth about you. This is what the psalmist does dozens of times in Psalm 119, and you find it in almost all of the rest of the psalms. This is how Jesus prayed in John 17, and how the early church prayed in Acts 4.
And this is how we need to pray as well. So here’s two specific suggestions:
First, pray Psalm 119, and other psalms. Don’t do this in some sort of rote or superstitious way. Do it meaningfully. Make it yours. But as you do this, you will see examples of declaring – declaring to God truth about God and truth about you.
Second, give time and thought to what you pray. The point isn’t to make your prayers sound impressive. The point is to think about how you can pray fervently – what truth can you link to this request that will stir your heart.
Church, we are at war, eternity is at stake, and under God’s sovereignty and through Jesus our prayers can strengthen our own faith, keep our brothers and sisters from falling away, and save the lost – if we pray earnestly and persistently.
And God will use His truth -- as we declare to God truth about God and about us – to stir our hearts to pray earnestly and persistently. So give yourself to earnest and persistent prayer.