Psalm 86:1-17

Prayer is one of the greatest privileges we have as believers.  Sometimes we look at prayer as being a duty and, like many aspects of our walk with Christ, it is also a duty.  However, we must avoid the thinking that prayer is a duty that we must perform in order to somehow “help God.”  We do not pray because God is in need of our help but because we are in need of His help.  David begins this Psalm asking for the Lord to hear his prayer because DAVID is poor and needy.  God does not need anything, He is perfect and complete.  We, on the other hand, need many things because of our physical and spiritual poverty.  This prayer of David’s gives us a good model to follow as we seek to pray in a way that pleases God and helps US.

WE MUST RECOGNIZE OUR NEEDS: David calls out to God because he recognizes that he needs God.  David knows that God is the source of help that he desperately needs and so he declares his dependence on the Lord and comes before Him in prayer.  God is good and He patiently hears our prayer and answers them according to His will and loving-kindness.  Even though we do not deserve His love and have sinned against the Lord many times and in many ways; God is forgiving and is able to lift up our souls before Him that we can once again enjoy the pleasure of fellowship with Him.  God delights in answering the prayers of His children.  Unfortunately, we are often far too busy trying to solve our problems on our own instead of taking time to pray for the Lord to step forward and give us the help that we so desperately need.

WE MUST REJOICE IN HIS GLORY: An important part of prayer is worshiping the glory of the Lord.  God delights in our praise and it is vital that we take time to rejoice in the majesty of His greatness as we pray.  Once again, praising God does not make Him any greater or any stronger.  We praise Him because it delights His heart and because it builds our confidence and faith in Him.  It is easy for us to forget exactly to whom we are praying.  That is why our prayers often sound more like worry sessions than worship sessions.  When we take the time in prayer to admire the greatness of God it builds our faith and it accomplishes the purpose for which we were created: to glorify Him.  David declares that all the nations of the world were created by God and would eventually come and worship at His feet.  This truth alone should fill our hearts with confidence and joy that spills out of our lips in the form of praise to our God.


WE MUST REQUEST HIS HELP: We pray because we need help from the Lord. David has several requests that he makes known to the Lord.  Not that the Lord did not know the requests before but David is requesting help because he is letting God know that he knows.  His first request is for God to teach him His way.  David knows that He needs to live under the teaching of God’s way but the he often falls short of living according to God’s way.  We constantly need to ask God to teach us to live our lives from His perspective and not our own.  David asks that His heart be united to fear the Lord.  Our hearts are often divided wanting God’s ways and our ways at the same time.  We live divided between the fear of the Lord and the fear of man and we desperately need God to unite our hearts so that we will fear Him and Him alone.  Finally, David speaks to the Lord about what was likely the most pressing issue on his heart; he has been surrounded by insolent men that have risen up against him.  Ruthless men are seeking to take David’s life and he wants God to be gracious to him and give him the strength to face this danger in a way that will demonstrate the grace and power of God.  It is important that we prepare our hearts with praise before we begin making petitions to the Lord.  That orders will prevent worry in prayer and promote worship.

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