The sea saw it and fled; Jordan turned back, the mountains skipped like rams … rocks turned into a pool of water… (Psalm 114:3, 4, 8).
What would cause a sea to shrink?
Or a river to stop flowing? Or mountains and hills to quake in fear?
What could turn flint rocks into puddles?
God’s presence!
Creation recognizes its Creator!
Do we?
Waters and mountains and rocks cannot think or feel or appreciate majesty and beauty—but they can and do recognize their majestic Creator and bow in His presence.
How much more so we who can think and feel and appreciate—how much more so should we bow before our Majesty, the Creator of all!
Jesus may have had this Psalm 114 in mind when He said that rocks would cry out in praise if we humans did not [Luke 19:37-40]. I, for one, am not going to let rocks or waters praise on my behalf!
I’ve had a good friend recommend a musical artist to me and I haven’t enjoyed the music.
I’ve had a good friend take me to a restaurant I haven’t liked.
I’ve had a good friend tell me how wonderful a certain movie was, and I thought it was a dud.
And I’m sure some of my good friends could say the same thing about my recommendations.
But you know what? All of these folks are still my friends.
I’ve never had one person say to me, “Your restaurant suggestion was awful. I’m unfriending you on Facebook and blocking your number from my phone. I never want to see or hear from you again!”
Yet sometimes I think church-going Christians feel like this might happen if they invite a friend to come to their church.
Seriously?!
Let’s consider the odds—
How likely is it that if you invite a friend to church and they say “no” that they are also going to say, “Get out of my life forever”?
If they do accept your invitation, but find that your church wasn’t a good fit for them, how likely is it that they’re going to say, “We can never hang out again”?
I think you would agree with me that both of these responses are highly unlikely!
But consider the other side—what if you invite them to your church and they say “yes”? What if after attending your church they like it? And what if by attending your church they enter into a personal relationship with Jesus?
If that happens, you’ve changed the course of their eternal destiny!
Instead of focusing on the worst-case scenarios (which seem highly unlikely), we should be focusing on the best-case scenario!
If you’re still uneasy about inviting someone to your church, or even trying to have a conversation with them about your personal faith, here is a simple phrase to consider: Come and see.
Invite them to come and see your lifestyle that seeks to glorify Jesus (see Matthew 5:16). Let them see that you live your life like Jesus: doing good (Acts 10:38).
Invite them to come and see the Creator behind the creation (see Psalm 66:5). Whenever there is a discussion about the weather, or nature, or a medical science breakthrough, ask them, “Have you ever thought that if there is such a beautiful design there must also be an intelligent Designer?”
Christian, you have the best news ever! Don’t keep it to yourself. Invite those around you to come and see what a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is all about. Who knows? You may be a part of changing someone’s eternal destiny.
The prophet Nathan confronted David after David had committed adultery with another man’s wife, gotten her pregnant, and then had her husband killed to try to cover up their affair. David assumed he had gotten away with it, but God sent Nathan to tell David that He knew all about it.
His prayer is instructive for us when we sin too. David’s appeal to God for forgiveness is based solely on God’s ability and willingness to forgive, not on any merits David brings.
In this prayer, David presents a tally sheet. On his side of the ledger, he lists my transgressions, my iniquity, my sin, my bloodguilt. He sums it up with, “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.”
David also tallies up God’s side of the ledger: You are right, You are just, You are righteous.
We might be tricked into thinking that a Perfect Being like this wants nothing to do with a sinful creature like you and me. But this is completely wrong! David appeals to God’s unfailing love, and Your great compassion. He lists God’s desire to cleanse, wash, blot out sins, restore, and release from blood-guiltiness.
David said, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And immediately Nathan responded, “The Lord has taken away your sin.”
Sin is all on me! Restoration is all on God!
With this in mind, we learn that the mark of a maturing Christian is not one who never sins, but one who…
…feels a broken heart because of their sin (see Psalm 51:10)
…confesses my sin
…confidently asks for His forgiveness
…helps others who have sinned (v. 13)
…continues to abide in Jesus (vv. 10-12)
God is quick to forgive. Are we equally as quick to ask for His forgiveness?
You can study more of the lessons from the prayers of David:
David hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s never tried to lead a rebellion against King Saul. In fact, he’s never even talked poorly about Saul. And yet Saul is out to kill David!
David tries to get as far away as he can, choosing to live in the desert so that he might get some relief from Saul. Still Saul comes after him with a force of 3000 men! Every time David moves, Saul’s men are hot on his trail. David described his situation like this—
My mortal enemies surround me. Their hearts are cold and calloused toward me, and they speak terrible things about me. They track me down and surround me. They are like hungry lions, crouching, waiting to pounce on me!
If you were in David’s sandals, how confident would you be that God could get you out of the situation? Remarkably, David’s confidence was as high as it could be!
David not only was confident that God would hear him, but that He would listen to him. More than that, David knew God would pay attention to him. And then David boldly said, “I call on You, O God, for you WILL answer me.”
How could David pray such a confident prayer? The answer is in this principle…
There is a direct correlation between intimacy and confidence.
David made two very intimate claims about his relationship with God:
You will keep me as the apple of Your eye
You hide me in the shadow of Your wings
The apple of the eye is the pupil. Our eyes are amazingly designed to not only take in information but to protect themselves. If something is getting too close to our eye, the eyelids blink in protection faster than we can consciously tell them to. So David was claiming that God would protect him by reflex!
The shadow of Your wings was a reference to the top of the Ark of the Covenant; a place called the mercy seat. Here is where the priest sprinkled the blood of a sacrificial lamb to atone for the people’s sin and to appeal to God’s mercy. The mercy seat was over-shadowed by two angels’ wings.
David was saying that God kept him in this intimate place—covered by God’s mercy and protection!
Jesus also told us about intimate confidence when He said, “If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (John 15:7).
Intimacy: remain IN Jesus, and let His words remain IN you
Confidence: ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you
Are your prayers this confident? If not, don’t work on raising your confidence, but work on increasing your intimacy. Check your intimacy level with questions like:
Am I abiding in Jesus?
Are His words abiding in me?
Do I have any unconfessed sin?
Is my prayer a “Your kingdom come, Your will be done” prayer?
Focus on intimacy, and then watch your confidence soar!
If you are interested in learning more about the prayers of David, I have also discussed his prayer for help, his prayer of crying out loud, and his prayer of praise.
Psalm 101 is only eight verses long, but David makes nine I will resolutions to God. Perhaps you might consider making these resolutions yourself—
(1) I will sing of mercy and justice. These are two sides of the same coin; in fact, it’s only when we know God’s justice that we can appreciate His mercy. Both God’s justice and His mercy need to be celebrated.
(2) I will sing praises. Regardless of our situation or setting, God is worthy to be praised.
(3) I will behave wisely in a perfect way AND (4) I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. A commitment to integrity, living a godly lifestyle, and leaving a godly legacy.
(5) I will set nothing wicked before my eyes AND (6) I will not know wickedness. A commitment to be childlike in regard to wickedness, and watchfulness of anything impure.
(7) I will destroy AND (8) I will not endure AND (9) I will destroy all the wicked. A resolution to cut-off all relationships that are not God-honoring.
Resolutions aren’t just for New Year’s Day. Resolutions can be made any time we sense something in our life isn’t as God-pleasing as it could be.
David shows us a picture of a man who made prayer the cornerstone of all he did. He’s quick to cry, “Help!” when he’s in trouble, and he doesn’t hold back when he’s crying out to God.
But he also shows us that prayer isn’t just for times of trouble. Prayer should be an ongoing conversation with God so that we can get to know His heart. God knows what’s going to happen (Isaiah 46:10), and He wants us to ask Him to make things clear to us (Jeremiah 33:3).
In Psalm 145, David challenges us to lift up our praise to God, as well as our prayers. This psalm of praise teaches us that we don’t have to only praise God for what He’s done—although that’s a great thing to do—but we can also praise God simply for Who He is!
In this psalm, David says God is…
…worthy of praise (v. 3a)
…great beyond comprehension (v. 3b)
…majestic (v. 5)
…awesome (v. 6)
…abundantly good (v. 7)
…gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, rich in love (v. 8)
…good to all (v. 9)
…mighty (v. 11)
…everlasting (v. 13)
…strong (v. 14)
…righteous and loving (v. 17)
…near to us (v. 18)
…fulfilling (v. 19)
…watchful (v. 20)
Let’s not be known just for our petitions, but for our praise.
Let’s not be known just for our “Help!” but for our “Hallelujah!”
God is so great—His worth is infinite—that He deserves a new song every time we sing to Him. There is no need to copy or duplicate something done before, but we should continually find new ways to praise Him.
Look at the angels encircling God’s throne. They continually sing out, “Holy! Holy! Holy!” as they perceive new dimensions of God’s grace, love, faithfulness, beauty, and majesty.
“Oh! Did you see that? Holy!”
“Look at that! Amazing!”
“Wow, I just saw something else breathtaking” Worthy!”
Our praise of God should follow that example: “Holy! Holy! Holy!” This is what Psalm 96 tells us…
There’s a time when David was fainting and had no one to help him—my spirit was overwhelmed and fainted, throwing all its weight on me. I look for someone to come and help me, but no one gives me a passing thought! No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me (Psalm 142:3-4).
Here’s the backdrop to this prayer. King Saul has tried to kill David twice, not including the time Saul sent assassins to David’s house to kill him there. Even Jonathan, Saul’s son, was embarrassed and grieved at his father’s shameful treatment of David.
David runs away from Saul so quickly that he doesn’t take any food or even a weapon. He literally only has the clothes on his back and the sandals on his feet. He’s able to get some day-old bread from Ahimelech the priest, and he also takes Goliath’s sword from the temple.
David is clearly not thinking clearly. He is wearing Goliath’s sword on his side. Remember that David killed Goliath. Goliath is from Gath. And where does David run? To Gath!! He has to pretend he’s gone insane in order to escape from Gath, and he flees to the cave of Adullam.
It’s here that he prays an intense prayer. How intense? David literally shouts this prayer. He uses phrases like:
I cry aloud to the Lord
I lift up a thundering voice to God to plead for mercy
I let my complaint gush out in front of God, not holding anything back
He cries to God, “You are all I really want in life” and “You’re my last chance, my only hope for life”
After he did all that, he still says, “God, listen to my even louder cry!
Just how desperate is your situation? Just how heavy is your burden? Have you come to the realization that God is your ONLY help? Then, like David, cry out louder and louder to Him until He answers you!
A blind man got the attention of Jesus by yelling at the top of his lungs, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!!” Jesus said that this man’s faith healed him. What was the demonstration of his faith? It was the persistent calling out to the only One who could help him.
Earlier in this chapter, Jesus says this: So what makes you think God won’t step in and work justice for His chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won’t He stick up for them? I assure you, He will. He will not drag His feet. But how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when He returns? (Luke 18:7-8).
Once again Jesus links a continual cry for help to the definition of persistent faith.
So I’ll ask again: just how desperate are you for God to answer you? If you will cry out loud to Him, God will see your persistent faith and will step in and work for you.
What would cause a sea to shrink?
Craig T. Owens 