What would you do if you worshiped a god who never heard your prayers? Or if you believed in no god at all? How sad, scary, and frustrating that would be! And yet billions of people on this planet live that way.

Over the years it has been my privilege to travel to a lot of places engaging in missions work, and one of the sobering things I witness wherever I go is a profound sadness and emptiness in the souls of people who don’t know our God.

In the former Soviet Union, I’ve talked with people who had been indoctrinated their entire lives with the communist propaganda that God didn’t exist. That Soviet system promised the Russian people everything, but in the end, it not only didn’t deliver, it actually robbed their souls of the joy, peace and hope that comes only from being connected to the Creator. What I saw in their eyes, was a bleak reminder of what happens to the human spirit when you take God out of the picture.

Russia isn’t the only place where that happens. I’ve witnessed desperate Hindus in Sri Lanka making sacrifices of food to their gods, while their emaciated children played in a sewage-infested stream nearby. I’ve seen devout Catholics in Central America pouring out their hearts to icons, and animists in Africa worshiping snakes, while neither walked away from their respective religious rites with any sense that their prayers had been heard. And every day here in America, people worship their stuff, yet they crave more, since in reality they are giving their worship to a god that cannot hear.

But we have a God who hears us when we pray! And like the psalmist said, how blessed are we that God has chosen us as his people, has given us the awesome privilege to come into his courts, and has invited us to pour out our hearts to him. And he hears us!

He hears our pleas for forgiveness—and answers! (Psalm 65:3)

He hears our prayers for provision—and answers! (Psalm 65:4)

He hears our request for intervention—and answers! (Psalm 65:5)

And even when we don’t ask, he still fuels this global ecosystem with what it requires to keep us alive: “You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it…You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance.” (Psalm 65:9,11)

How blessed we are—God hears us when we pray. As the Apostle John said, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (I John 5:14-15)

How blessed, indeed, that we are His, and He is ours!

By the way, if you have never called out to him, try it.  He’s all ears!

“If man is man and God is God, to live without prayer is not merely an awful thing; it is an infinitely foolish thing.”
—Phillip Brooks

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Tags: Psalm 65

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I was with a good friend recently who had been through a really rough stretch in his life. His world had been rocked, and he had been deeply disappointed by people who had been close to him. Yet he had landed upright, and now is in a really good place spiritually, emotionally, and professionally. In fact, I’d say he is in a better place than before his disappointment. Truly God had been for him a shelter in the time of storm; much like David, he had found refuge in the God who turns bad into good for his children.

I asked my friend, in hindsight, to share with me the biggest take-away from his experience. I thought his response was nothing less than profound. I’ll paraphrase what he said: “I learned that my feelings were simply my feelings. I was hurt, disappointed, but that was okay—those were just my feelings. But I learned not to attach judgments too quickly to those feelings. Though I felt bad, I learned not to say, ‘this is the end of the world”, or ‘those people who did hurt me deserve to suffer.’”

In other words, he learned to detach from how he felt at the moment in the sense that he gave the circumstance time to be reworked by the God in whose hands his life was held. Now in the rearview mirror of life, he is able to assess that painful past in a whole new and much brighter light. The things that hurt and the people who disappointed are now a cause for thanksgiving.

That is what David is doing in this psalm. It is likely that Psalm 62 was written during or shortly after the personal upheaval that he experienced with his rebellious son, Absalom. On the one hand, David is pouring out his feelings to God (Psalm 62:8b)—which is good—but on the other hand, he is placing his faith in the One who is master over both feelings and the circumstances that led to those feelings (Psalm 62:8a&c).

Interestingly, David sandwiches his feelings (“pour out your hearts”) between a statement of trust (“trust him at all times”) and a declaration of faith (“for God is our refuge”). By the way, that’s a great way to master your feelings and bring them under the dominion of God’s sovereign will for your life: Sandwich them between trust and faith! You see, feelings are neither good nor bad—they just are what they are. But we have not been called to follow our feelings. Our feelings, rather, are simply meant to be a reminder, a catalyst, if you will, that in the particular moment of pain, we need to realign our lives by faith and in trust to God’s perfect plan.

So the next time you get an emotional ouch, go ahead and say, “that stinks!” but refrain from attaching a judgment from the hurt too quickly. Take it to God, and yes, pour out your heart, but don’t forget to make a holy sandwich out of it—a trust & faith sandwich!

The important thing in life is not what happens to me, but what happens in me.

King David is unashamedly praying for God’s blessing on his life and on his reign as king over Israel. He asked for it all: Divine favor, protection, success, and even long life. He clearly understands that he can do nothing without God; he can’t be an effective king, he can’t even live a decent life if God doesn’t grace him with what only God can give. So he aggressively, boldly, pointedly asks.

But David had a great motive for asking. It wasn’t just so he could reign as king over Israel more successfully, or just so he could have a problem free ministry, or just so he could live well into old age. All that was fine—and there is certainly nothing wrong in asking for any of that. What David mostly wanted was to squeeze the very last ounce of glory for God out of his one and only life. In everything he did, and in every prayer request he lifted to God, his motive was that God’s name could be lifted high throughout the earth and throughout every generation.

That’s a great motive for asking. It is also a sure way to receive from the Lord. In Psalm 37:4, David wrote, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” What do you desire in your heart? What do you seek in prayer? Make sure the Lord factors first and foremost in all you are hoping for—not because he needs that from you, but because he deserves that from you—and he will pour out his unlimited supply of heavenly grace upon your life.

God looks for people who are wholly bent on glorifying his name. And when he finds that person, the treasury of heaven will open to them in uncommon ways. The chronicler said in  II Chronicles 16:9,

“For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”

When the Lord scours the earth today in search of that fully devoted, totally consecrated God-follower, may he find that person in you. And may you be blessed beyond your wildest imaginations!

What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
—Westminster Confession

David’s reign as king over God’s people came to be known as the Golden Age of Israel. Yet during his reign, as you can discern from this psalm, the times were not always as good as gold. There were situations and seasons where it seemed as if the people had abandoned their God, and God had abandoned his people.

In the particular occasion memorialized by this psalm, David sensed that God had not been with Israel in battle as he had expected. We are not told why—if there were some national sin that caused God to withhold his favor, or if David’s leadership was to blame, or if God was just simply testing and deepening Israel. This seems to be a time when there was no clear answer for Israel’s undesirable circumstances.

That can be true of our lives as well. Sometimes we just don’t know. Sometimes difficult things happen and after some serious soul searching, we simply cannot produce an adequate explanation. I am sure many Christians who are caught in the vise-grip of our present downturned economy may be feeling this way today. I know of several God-honoring spiritual leaders of churches that are scratching their heads over severe financial challenges. I’m sure a lot of believers right now would join David and say, “You have shown your people desperate times.”

So what are we to do in those desperate times? Unfurl our banner, that’s what! In other words, let’s declare our loyalty to God! Let’s shout our trust in his goodness from the rooftops! Let’s make clear to the world whose side we are on! Let’s affirm our submission to his will and align ourselves once again to his sovereign purposes. Let’s refuse to surrender to fear, self-pity and defeat. Let’s intensify our intentions and redouble our efforts to be God’s people no matter what the times are like—good or bad.

And then let’s simply and patiently entrust ourselves to God to save and help us with his strong right hand. After all, the One who loves us goes by the name “Deliverer” for good reason.

“Go forth today, by the help of God’s Spirit, vowing and declaring that in life—come poverty, come wealth, in death—come pain or come what may, you are and ever must be the Lord’s. For this is written on your heart, ‘We love Him because He first loved us.” —Charles Spurgeon