A Prayer Request
Monday (October 6)
A Prayer Request
Psalm 6:9
The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer.
Don’t you love the transparency and vulnerability of David’s prayers? He never tries to save face before God or his readers. He’s such a strong, warrior-like king, a killer of giants, the sort of guy whose probably got the heads of hunted grizzlies and panthers and wolves mounted next to his fireplace, yet, he’s full of empathy and compassion and deep expression of feeling. We saw his compassion on display when he spared Saul’s life in the cave, even though Saul had been murderously hunting him down without cause. And we also saw his compassion after Saul died, when David showed mercy to Saul’s grandson Mephibosheth, a limp beggar living in hiding on the outskirts of town. That’s why I love David’s wording here in Psalm 6:9. He uses a strong, guttural word like ‘plea’ to describe his cry to God. No sugar-coating it. No crying behind closed doors but then coming back out to with dry eyes to look unmoved. A godly saint isn’t content to merely ask for help. He pleads for it. He wrestles through his desperation like Jacob on that midnight hillside. He asks the hard questions like Abraham before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He agonizes over the painful will of God like our very Lord in the shadows of those olive groves in Gethsemane, lifting up an anguished, exhausted cry to the Father, “Take this cup from Me! But not My will but Yours be done.”
I wonder if the reason we sometimes feel as though Heaven isn’t answering our prayers or perhaps even listening to our prayers is because we aren’t praying in earnest. When was the last time we prayed to God for hours and got up a little ashen and dirty from having our head down in the ground for so long? I know that’s graphic, but it’s a picture the Scripture conveys over and over again. I’m ashamed to think how often I only offer those short-and-sweet, one-sentence sort of prayers before a meal or when I’m getting in my car or when I’m tucking my kids into bed at night or right before I write a devotional, and how little I go through the spiritual toil of pleading with the LORD.
Well, now’s a better time than any to change that!