Watchful Prayer.

Psalm 5:1-3

The Psalmist offers up his desires in prayer to his God and King. He has learnt to be watchful in prayer with thanksgiving. He desires to come to His mercy seat, and as a result he is watchful. He does not merely come to dump his feelings so that he himself feels better, although that is often times a consequence and benefit. Instead his prayers are directed toward God whereby he desires to take hold of Him by faith. This, again, makes him watchful. Sincere prayer brings with it a sense of anticipation, an eager hope of what God may do, as a child does when presenting a request to their parent. Hope rests itself in the stability of God’s character. His well-meaning toward us is the basis for such anticipation. Those who sleep anticipate the dawning of a new day; the employee anticipates ongoing employment, the child a need for food. In each case a stable hope is present and serves as the soil-bed of anticipation. Prayer that is offered with anticipation is a pleasing, delightful aroma to our heavenly Father, made acceptable through our mediating Holy Priest. The fragrance of heaven is filled with such sacrifices. It is a bridge that connects heaven and earth. Be reminded therefore that the King awaits you; indeed knowing it to be good for us, He even summons us to come to Him, so as to experience His loving provision. In so doing He renews our earthly palette with the heavenly taste of his blessedness. Therefore be watchful in prayer, and see what the Almighty may do.

Who will Show us Some Good?

Man is a vast deep, whose hairs you, Lord, have numbered, and in you none can be lost (Matt 10:30). Yet it is easier to count his hairs than the passions and emotions of his heart. – St Augustine of Hippo.

Psalm 4.

The Psalmist’s concern here was related to his men. He was distressed over his men of rank who seemed to be weakening the brotherhood and ultimately the mission they’d been called to carry out. David saw this as dishonoring, and it unsettled and grieved him.

The symptoms he saw around him were a ‘love of vain words’ and a ‘seeking after lies’. What he sees is that his men have employed an unhealthy use of words with little substance. They are words of levity and frivolity, without any nourishing benefit or value. They fail to have any real purpose for the building up of others. They’re words of mere existence at best, destructive at worst, and were failing to impart life and increase vitality toward one another. In short, they failed to exercise grace.

But that’s not the only symptom. Another symptom lay in a seeking after lies. They were failing to seek the truth. Lies have a way of cloaking the truth, they do their best work in the darkness of one’s soul, and in isolation from the truth. David saw that his men were actively seeking after lies. He sensed a relativistic spirit in his men that gave the impression that there was no real need for accountability, and as a result that one need not count. In short they failed to exercise truth.

And so David reminds his men of their purpose. God has set them apart for himself. He has brought them into a blessed position and they mustn’t forget that. As a result the LORD hears David when David offers up his desires to him. It brings him peace.

But as a leader who knew his men, he foresees that there maybe some anger upon hearing such truth. He also knows something of the nature of anger, and so he counsels them that if they do feel some initial agitation toward him, then to make sure that they risk falling prey to sin by externalizing it. Instead he counsels them to internalize it. He counsels them to take their anger and to ponder his observations in their own hearts, on their beds, and to be silent in doing so. He would have them avoid further discord in the form of slander, backbiting or quarreling. By pondering his words in solitude, he hopes that they might be led to ask deeper questions, such as: Why am I going after these things, What is my purpose in doing so? What am I believing at this moment about God that would have me go after vain words and cause me to seek after lies? This may lead them on the path to a remedy, and renewed life and direction.

David then counsels them to offer right sacrifices and to put their trust in the Lord. He emphasizes ‘right’ sacrifices because he knows that failing to provide a a correct diagnosis will bring no remedy. David knows that a misdiagnosis won’t bring them healing. They may offer sacrifices, but they wouldn’t help.

So what was a right sacrifice? Rom 12 helps provide some color to this question as new covenant believers. “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice; holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

The Psalmists concern was not for his men to seek mere moral conformity as a remedy to his truth-telling, it was holiness. Holiness brings with it joy and animation and is heavenly. Mere moral conformity is lifeless, burdensome and earthly. The answer lay in their trust in the LORD. Were they asking the LORD to grant them an ever-delighting joy in Him, One full of grace and truth, and to taste his glory? Were they conscious of the joy of their salvation? David concludes that one reason for their love of vain words and pursuit after lies, lay in their somewhat downcast state. Their desire was to see some good in the land of the living. This is a noble desire. And yet the problem lay in that they were seeking to have this desire fulfilled by ‘taking the edge off’ with excessive food and wine. To do so is one way to deal with a desire to see good, and yet the fruit of an untethered love of pleasure leads to a moral laxity, a loss of militancy toward the powers of evil that do not sleep, and the mission that one is called to engage in as God’s people.

It was leading his men to lose sight of the joy that they possessed in the LORD and the blessed fellowship of participating in his mission.

The Psalmist offers the remedy. “Lift up the light of your face upon us O LORD. You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.” Seeing the glory of the Lord brought more joy to David, than even the merriest of fellowship with his men! Exulting worship is what enabled him to sanctify this desire. And so he asks afresh for their inner spirits to be enlivened not by drink or food, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17).

Indeed the joy of the Lord is truly our strength! (Neh 8:10)