We'll have a slightly shorter
prayer meeting this evening because we have a Bible study straight
after the meeting, so it will be slightly shorter. But just
for a few moments, I want to direct our thoughts to the chapter
we read in the Song of Solomon, chapter 2, and a few words really
we'll find in verse 14. So Song of Solomon, chapter 2,
and I'll read the whole verse to begin with. Verse 14. Oh my dove, that art in the clefts
of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, Let me see thy
countenance, let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice
and thy countenance is comely. And what I really want to focus
on for a couple of minutes are these words in the middle of
the verse, let me hear thy voice. I wonder if we were asked individually
to consider what is the state tonight of our private prayer
life. How healthy is our private prayer
life? Have we become weary in our prayers? Are we tired as we come to the
Lord day by day? We've lost the zeal, the liberty,
the enthusiasm that we once knew perhaps. Is it the case that
the Lord feels far off from us at times when we pray? And this is of course a pathway,
a life of a believer. A Christian is not always in
a state of liberty and of joy. Thankfully, a Christian is not
always also in a state of sadness and despondency, but there are
ups and downs in the Christian life. There are times when the
Lord feels close, there are times when the Lord feels distant. I wonder then, if we ask tonight,
what is our state of our personal, private prayer life? It can be
true that one thing that especially causes us to grow weary and feel
distant from God is our guilt, our sin. And this is reoccurring,
isn't it? Sin comes up again in front of
us. We are confronted again with
our guilt, we are confronted again with what perhaps we have
done, or with a new sin that we hadn't really noticed before,
or with an old sin which is reoccurring and we thought had been put away. And this guilt can force us into
silence, can force us into prayerlessness. We know we have sinned. We know
we have done what God is dissatisfied, displeased with. And there may
be a particular sin, a particular sin that weighs heavy on us. We know that God, in His justice,
condemns that sin. We know that he would be right
to be angry and deal with us for it. And it separates between
us and God. And as a result, our prayer life
is affected. We think, well, how can we pray?
How dare we pray? How dare we come to God with
any confidence or with any boldness when we have this sin which weighs
heavy on us? How could we ever expect to be
accepted by God. Surely we have gone too
far. Surely we have sinned too much.
Surely it is one time too many that we have rebelled or that
we have fallen backwards. Our prayer life is affected. Perhaps we feel something like
David when he wrote in Psalm 32. He writes in verse 3, when I
kept silence When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my
roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was
heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Maybe that's how we feel, we're
being kept silent, we're being almost forced into silence. There
is no prayer, there's no liberty and as we keep silence, our bones
are waxing old, it feels like we're growing weary, we're growing
old, we're roaring, we're crying, but really there's no joy. Day and night thy hand is heavy
upon me. We feel the heaviness of God's
justice. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer. Our moisture, our liveliness,
the life that springs forth in an oasis, is the picture here,
that's turned into the drought of summer, a deadness, the wilderness,
the barrenness of a Middle Eastern summer. And it's like we're bound
up inside, we're growing weary and dry and barren inside. Well, that's what sin can do.
And that is what unconfessed sin does. It festers. It's like a wound which only
gets worse. Unconfessed sin lays heavy on
us and our prayers are silenced. Well, if we are there tonight,
let us just hear the words of the Saviour. Let us hear the
words of the Beloved of the Song of Solomon, because here, I believe,
in verse 14, is the Bridegroom speaking, is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking to his people. He's referring to his people
as my dove that art in the clefts of the rock and in the secret
places of the stairs. The Church here who is sheltering
in Christ, a Church who he refers to as my dove, my beautiful one,
my wife, my love, He says, let me see thy countenance and let
me hear thy voice. Tonight, if we feel that we've
been bound into silence because of our sin, let us hear the words
of Jesus. Let me hear thy voice. He pleads. He speaks. He longs to hear us
pray. He loves to hear us pray. He
loves to hear his people come and pour out their hearts. He
is longing, he is listening that we may be praying. We have, of
course, in the Song of Solomon, the picture of the husband and
the wife, the bride and the bridegroom. It is the same picture, isn't
it, as a loving husband should want to hear the voice of his
wife. want to be with her, want to hear her speak, want to listen
to what she has to say, so the same picture is here. The loving
heavenly bridegroom is saying he wants to hear his wife, the
church, speak. He wants to hear them pray. He
loves to hear our confession. He loves to hear as we confess
what we are, as we acknowledge what we are to him, As we acknowledge
that we have sinned, as we acknowledge that we are sinners, as we acknowledge
that we are weak and poor and helpless and we can promise no
better and as we confess we need Him and Him alone and only He
can help and only He can set us free again and only He can
forgive the sin that we have committed. He loves to hear this
confession and He promises to forgive, because David, as we
read in Psalm 32, does not end with his barrenness and his silence,
because he goes on and says, I acknowledged my sin unto thee. He no longer was silent. Now he acknowledges his sin.
My iniquity have I not had. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord. and thou forgavest the iniquity
of my sin. You see the contrast we have
here. I kept silence and then I was barren and dry and my bones
waxed old. When I acknowledged my sin, then
thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. You see the difference?
Oh, the Lord says, let me hear thy voice. Yes, there is a great
sin. Yes, there are many sins. Yes,
it separates. Yes, it burdens you. Yes, you
feel guilty coming before the Lord. Yes, you feel that you
should not be received and that you deserve to be cast out and
you feel that you would be wrong to approach. All of that may
be true but yet he still says, let me hear thy voice. He loves to receive repenting
sinners. He's the father looking out for
the prodigal son and will come to run to throw his arms around
our neck and to kiss us and to welcome us back into his presence. Let me hear thy voice. Well, may we not be found hiding
from the throne of grace, fleeing from the throne of grace when
we feel our sin, though it is what we think and what our flesh,
as it were, wants to do. We want to run, we want to hide
and we want to pretend that the sin has not happened at all.
Yet it festers. May we not hide and flee from
the throne of grace. May we bring it to Him, for Him
who loves to hear our voice, loves to hear our prayer and
loves to receive us again. Well, may He bless those few
thoughts tonight. Amen.