Psalm 142, we'll be looking at
this psalm in its entirety. And the title of the message
this morning is, Learning to Pray. Learning to Pray. If you'll notice the title up
above the first verse of this, it is called, The Mishiel of
David, a prayer when he was in the cave. And this is the beginning
of his prayer, I cried unto the Lord with my voice. With my voice
unto the Lord did I make my supplication. Now the title is important. The
title gives us the understanding or the purpose of this psalm.
It is called a mashil of David, which means a song of instruction. A song of instruction or for
learning. And what great precept is taught
in this psalm is clear. It is prayer. David is crying
unto God as he was in the cave, either a cave of Abdullam or
in Gedi. He was in trouble and he cried
unto God. The lesson is prayer. And the
first thing I would have you know about prayer is this. Prayer is necessary for the believer. Necessary. Prayer is not an option
for you, is it? It's not something that you can
either leave or take. It is something to the believer
that is necessary. Prayer to the believer is as
breath is to life. Prayer is necessary. Every born
again soul prays as naturally and forcefully as a newborn child
cries for his mother's breast. We cry unto God because we are
dependent upon God. We need God to supply our every
need. Prayer is the panting of the
believer's heart to hear the voice of the Son of God. I must
hear it. I must have his word. Prayer
reveals our faith and constant dependence on God to supply all
our needs, both physical and spiritual. Prayer is the source
of our intimate communion with God. when the apostle Paul was first
converted. Where did the Lord send Ananias? How did He describe this newly
converted man? He said, Behold, he prayeth. He prayeth. Even so it is with every born-again
sinner, born by the Spirit of God when we are exposed of our
depravity. It is then our soul cries and
flees to Christ through prayer. We pray for mercy. We pray for
forgiveness. An example of this is blind Bartimaeus. What an illustration he is of
the converted believer. He came blind to Christ, and
how did he come? He came crying. And you remember,
nobody could shut him up. He said, no, no, stop calling
after, don't bother the Master. And he cried aloud, Jesus, thou
Son of David, have mercy on me. And he wouldn't stop until Christ
heard him. I'll tell you, anybody convicted
of sin, they will not stop this cry, and they must have Christ. They will not stop. I've seen
people come and feel guilty, a little twinge of the conscience.
They come in crying, weeping, moaning, and then next thing
you know, they're like the dog, returned to their vomit. There's
no real conviction, but when a man is truly convicted, he
understands the necessity of having to be heard of God. And you remember blind Bartimaeus'
plea, Jesus, thou son of David, he wasn't crying for anybody
else. And prayer only has one object, Jesus Christ and him
alone. Jesus Christ. I must have God,
but I'll tell you this, I will have nothing to do with an absolute
God in myself. I must have God through Christ. I cannot have Him any other way.
And so, Ba and Bartimaeus plead, and Jesus turns and says, how
gently He says this, what do you need? Now, was that an act
of ignorance? Did he not know what blind Barnabas
was seeking? No, our Lord knows all things.
Matter of fact, He put the blindness in his eyes. He put the cry in
his heart. And Jesus sweetly turned and
said, what will you? Now this is for a public confession. He said, I will receive my sight. I want to see. And isn't that
the cry of every sinner in need of salvation? I must see. I am blind and I must see. You remember Jesus said to those
Pharisees, you say you see, but as long as you see, your seeing
remains. If you were blind, then you should see. You see, only
sinners need salvation. And I'm talking about perfect
sinners. Only perfect sinners need a perfect Savior. Now, partial
sinners only need a partial Savior. I don't need a partial Savior.
I'm completely, I was completely blind. I need full sight. I don't need help to see. I need
sight. That's how a sinner comes. He
comes pleading, crying, praying, praying. We came praying and pleading,
and you know what happened to blind Bartimaeus? He received
his sight. We cry to Jesus and we receive
our sight, and blind Bartimaeus, it said he received his sight.
And Jesus said to him, Receive thy sight, thy faith, hath saved
thee. And immediately he received his
sight and followed Him and glorified God." Is that not a picture of
everyone who received their sight by the Lord Jesus Christ? How
did you receive it? By faith. By faith. What was the evidence of that
faith? You cried unto Him. I must have Him. You see, you
had faith before you knew you had faith. Isn't that right? Before you even made a decision
to anything. You cried to Him because you
believed Him alone to have the solution. That is faith. And the exercise of that is you
cried. You cried. So prayer is natural
then to a believer. It's natural to the believer.
Our Lord knows our need. In fact, that's why Christ came
into the world, to save us. Yet we know this. God says He
will be inquired of this. Inquired of this. Believer, was
it not His Spirit that revealed to us our need? Well, yes. And by His Spirit were we not
made willing to confess our sins and receive Christ? Yes. And
as we cried in prayer, the Lord gave us sight, His voice of power
went forth and we received Christ by faith. Now you know when Jesus
said to blind Bartimaeus, Thy faith has saved thee, He's not
talking about his faith, but rather the object of his faith.
You remember, faith is the result of salvation, not the cause.
It's the fruit and evidence of a new life, the reason for it. And faith believed in the accomplished
work of Christ. And ever since then, ever since
our conversion then, believer, what have we done constantly,
daily? We have prayed. We prayed at
conversion and ever since we have not stopped praying. Why? Because we fully understand
the necessity of prayer. Psalm 10, verse 17 says, The
Lord, Lord, Thou hast heard the desire of the humble. Thou wilt
prepare their heart. What does He prepare their heart
for? Prayer! Isn't that... He prepares our
heart for prayer. Thou wilt cause Thine ear to
hear. The Lord not only hears our prayers,
but listen, He prepares us even to pray. The only reason you
and I pray is because of God. And so every believer's heart
is fixed on this, that we must pray. So the second thing I want
us to see is prayer is a mystery. It's a mystery. Though we know we must pray, Yet, how often are we confused
as to what to pray for? I don't know if that's you or
not, but that's me. Matter of fact, the Scripture describes
such a person. Go to Romans 8. Romans chapter
8. Romans 8 and verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray, for as we ought. But the Spirit Himself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And
he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. Paul here tells us that we as
believers, and as you know already, we are full of infirmities, weaknesses. We are full of weaknesses. So
full of weaknesses that we do not even know what to pray for
as we ought to. We know we should pray, but what
to pray for? What do you pray for? When you
go to God, what is your prayer? What is it for? I'll illustrate this. There was
a believer, a man truly had a good confession before God all of
his life, and he was sick unto death. He was dying, he was suffering,
he was in pain, he was in great sorrow. And then you have another one,
the family. You have the family of this man
weeping and crying and asking, pray for him. Now they want prayer for healing. What should you do? Precious in the eyes of God are
the death of his saints. That man is suffering. Do you
suppose Lazarus would have loved to have come back? If given a
choice, do you suppose that he would? Not at all. Not at all. He was commanded to come forth.
He was commanded back. Should I not pray for this believer
to go into the presence of God and enjoy the presence of God
forever with unceasing praise, no more sickness, no more sorrow,
no more trouble? Or should I, because of my love
for them, pray they're the healing of this man? I don't know what
to pray for. It's a mystery. It's a mystery
to me. There are other examples. How
many times have you prayed for something that you thought would
be good and it turned out evil? Well, these are rhetorical questions
because I know this is what we've done. We've prayed for things
and God said, okay, here it is. And sure enough, it was more
sorrow than we thought. We thought it would be good and
it turned out to be a heap. It turned out to be sorrowful
for us rather than good. and caused us more pain than
pleasure. Yet, believer, consider this,
that your confusion as to what to pray for should be a comfort. Because only believers are confused
about what to pray for. Do you notice that? The false religion, they've got
it down. They know what to pray for. Matter of fact, they demand
of God things. And you say, I'm going to name
it and God's going to give it to me. And they call that faith. They take God by the throat and
say, I will have this and you will give it. Believers have
no such God they can do that to. No, not our God. You can do that to your God.
You can't do that to my God. My God is sovereign, does whatsoever
He pleases. It should be our comfort, believer,
because the Scripture says, you know not what to pray for as
you ought. But, here's the good news. The Spirit of God maketh
intercession for you with groanings that cannot be uttered. And you
know what His intercession is? The will of God. That's it. He
knoweth the mind and heart of God, and He knows your mind and
heart. And you know when the prayers
go up, the Spirit burns off all that is not the will of God.
Isn't that right? How many no's do you receive?
No is just as good an answer as yes, isn't it? Why no? Because it's good for
you. And because especially it is
the will of God that you should not receive whatever it is you
ask. So the spirit burns off all the
excess. So that when your prayer sends
to God, you get a yes on everything. Why? Because it is the will of
God. Isn't that the ultimate prayer in our Lord's teaching
His disciples? To pray, Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven. Well, then I've got exactly what
I've asked for. Because God's will will be done. That's something we should learn. And so as our Lord's disciples,
they saw Him pray. With what fervency do you imagine
our Lord's prayers were? I mean, He was nightly, at least
nightly in prayer. When He had been all day in labor,
then He would spend all night in prayer. Earnest, fervent prayer. His disciples seeing this said,
Lord, teach us Teach us to pray. Believer, knowing the necessity
then and the mystery of prayer, do you not need to learn how
to pray? You bet we do. We need to learn
to pray. And this is exactly what we have
in our text. Look at your text. Look at your
text. This mashiach, this instruction
of prayer, the first thing we see in this prayer This prayer of David is that
it is not some formal or copied or recited prayer, but it comes
from the very depths of his soul. It comes from the very depths
of his heart. He said, I cried unto God. I cried unto God. Believer, learn
this. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much." The effectual fervent prayer. How often are our prayers nothing
but words with no heart and no love. Many are our prayers like that. This psalm of David was when
he was vexed and chased, vexed in his soul. He was hunted as
a wild dog. He was pinned up in a cave. So desperate was his prayer that
this prayer we have here is what he remembered. This prayer was
not copied in the cave of Abdullam or Engedi. This prayer was remembered
by David and later put down into words. Notice the past tense,
I cried, I cried. It's past. It's something that
he did. And this prayer was so impressed
upon his very soul that he wrote it down by the Spirit for us
to learn. And so the first thing you see
is a cry of affliction. He said, I cried unto the Lord
with my voice. With my voice unto the Lord did
I make my supplications. David's afflictions, he cried
with his voice. He said it twice. I know, believer, that you and
I are sending up prayers constantly. As we go through the day, we
send up prayers. I know that. You know, one of
my favorite ones is help. Help. We send up daily offerings to
our God. Thank you, Father, for this.
Thank you for our food. Thank you for what we have. We
send up those little prayers. But how many of these do we remember?
Not many. We don't remember these hardly
at all. Usually we say them and forget them. We pray, Lord, keep us safe.
Lord, thank you for this. We miss your presence, we long
for you, forgive us our sins, but let us learn we should do this constantly.
But the prayers that are most beneficial for our learning are
the ones that come from great affliction. You want to know
how to pray, listen, you are asking for affliction. You're asking for it. Why? Because only in affliction do
you really learn the value of prayer. Only then can you see
the contrast. The other day we were driving
and the storm clouds were way in the back and the sun on this
side was gloriously bright. And Cheryl looked and said, oh,
isn't that beautiful how that the sun shines on those dark
clouds? I said, if the dark clouds weren't
there, you know, we wouldn't even notice the sun at all. We would have never noticed the
beauty of it. You see, the dark clouds are necessary so that
you should see the contrast of the great. If God delivers you
from a little thing, you forget so quickly. If God delivers you
from a great thing, you don't forget so quickly. And so these
afflictions are necessary to teach us to pray. They cause
us to bend the knee and the heart. These afflictions break us in
mind and in spirit. And that is when God hears, He
resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. The humble. Casual prayer is good. But if
we're to learn to pray, we should learn to pray out of affliction.
Let us learn that in our troubles, Let us never keep them to ourselves. David did not keep his troubles
to himself. He cried unto the Lord. He raised
his voice for help. The Scriptures tell us our God
is our refuge and strength, a very present help. When? In trouble. In trouble. His first voice was a cry. David's
first voice, he said, I cried. I groaned unto the Lord with
my voice. His voice was nothing more than,
oh! That's it. There's the beginning
of a good prayer. You want to know the beginning
of a good prayer? That's it. Oh! Groaning is the
beginning of a good prayer. Groaning. Sighing. David couldn't keep it any longer. He had to groan. And so in our
great troubles, believer, the first cry of a good prayer is
groaning. But notice this, David didn't
stop there. He said, with my voice did I
make my supplications. I poured out my complaints before
him. I showed before him my trouble."
David's expression of his sorrow being poured out, gushed out. He said, I gushed it out. I gushed it out. Even so, should we gush out our
problems before our God. Are you in trouble? Is your heart
full of care and anxiety? Are you about to burst? Pour
it out before thy God. Not before men, not through the
arm of flesh in which there is no help. We feel better talking
to one another about our problems, don't we? But really, what can
I do for you? I can hear you. I can sympathize
with you. If we're both drowning in quicksand,
you can look at me and say, I'm drowning in quicksand. And I
can say, I know, I am too. But we cannot help each other.
Only God can help us. Only God can deliver us. And
therefore our cry is not before men. Learn that. Learn to pray
only to God. To God. because He can only be
the one that can help. There's no refuge of earth or
self, but spew out your heart before God. And Scripture says, Put not your
trust in princes, nor in the sons of men, in which there is
no help. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob. You desire
to be happy in your prayers? Then you better pray to somebody
in hell. And happy is he who has the God
of Jacob as the object of his prayer. Why? Because the God
of Jacob is merciful. The God of Jacob is caring. The
God of Jacob is compassionate. He can deliver. Now, notice the
complaint. He said, I poured out my complaint. I want you to know this. This
complaint was to God and not of God. We should be very careful in
our prayers not to complain of God, because all God does is
good. There is not one ill thing God
has ever done. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? I tell you, whatever He is doing is right. Just because
it seems crooked in your eyes, God's eyes, it is perfectly straight. And who is the best judge of
what is straight and crooked, you or Him? Now then, you may
pour out your complaint to God. You may pour it out to God, but
not of God. And this word complaint means
contemplation or meditation. Here he was in the cave. He was
in trouble. He was surrounded. He was in
danger. And all of this was stirring
in his heart, in his mind, and eventually it got to a point
where he couldn't contain it. And he cried out in the cave.
He groaned, but then he finally got some footing on his mind
and he laid out his complaint, his meditations. What's my problem? What's my trouble? And he began
to be able to understand and articulate it to God. And he
poured it out, he laid it out before God. You can write this down because
it's a good illustration of prayer. It's 2 Kings 19 verse 14. You
can write it down, look at it later. King Hezekiah was surrounded
by Sennacherib, and Sennacherib sent him a letter saying, don't
trust in your God. Everybody else we've conquered,
they've trusted in their gods, and it did them no good. Don't
trust in your God to deliver you. We'll crush you. We'll kill
you. This is a sure thing. You're
as good as dead, Hezekiah. And Hezekiah had no strength
in his army. His men's hearts all failed.
He had no strength. He took that letter and he literally
laid it out before the Lord. I can't do anything. Here's my complaint. I have no
strength. I have no power. God help me. And God said, I'll help you.
I'll do more than that. I'll send them back and I'll kill
them. You won't have to do one thing about it. Lay out your
complaint before God. Lay it out succinctly as best
you can. This is a picture of how we should
lay out our prayers. Take those vile words of your
old flesh that constantly oppress you and lay them out before God.
How many times does your own flesh pop in thoughts of vile
things? Lay it out. Lay it out. Confess thy sin and He is faithful
and just to forgive thee thy sin. Are you hindered by the world
or Satan? Are you oppressed? Lay it out
before the Lord. Well, pastor, doesn't God already
know our thoughts and fears? You bet He does. He knows every
bit of it. Knows it more than you do. So
when you're struggling for words to describe this to God, He knows
it already. He said, I know your thoughts
are far off. You're down sitting, you're up rising. I know it,
every word out of your mouth. I know your path. Why then must
we pour out our complaints? I'm going to give you one reason
why. And this is all you're going
to need. God said to. According to the covenant of
grace, God says, I will give you a new heart, I will sprinkle
you with clean water, I will put a new spirit within you,
but I will be inquired of for these things. Afflicted believer, have you
considered that the only reason then that we pour out our hearts
before God is because of our afflictions? How often would
you pour out your heart before God if you had no afflictions? Matter of fact, when things are
going well, how often do you pour out your heart to God? So then, are you overwhelmed?
David was. He said, When my spirit was overwhelmed
within me, thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked,
they have privately laid snares for me. I looked on my right
hand, and behold, there was no man that would know me. Refuge
failed me. No man cared for my soul. Believer, if you are to lean
on these, and this is the first thing you'll do, isn't it? Lean
on the flesh. When you're in trouble, it's
the first thing you do. It's the first thing we do. Lean
on the flesh. So what is God going to do about
that? He's going to take those things
away. He took away every one of David's
companions and refuges. That cave that he was in felt
safe until Saul came in it. Isn't that right? He came into the very cave that
David thought was a good hiding place. The next cave that David
was in, he thought was good until Saul surrounded him. And then
he found out caves of the earth are no hiding place. Isn't that
what God brings you to every time? When you lean on the arm
of flesh, He brings us to that place. Why? Look at what David
said. I cried unto thee, O Lord. And this is what I said. Thou
art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. Thou art my portion in the land
of the living." Our sorrows and afflictions bring
us to this point, which is the center of David's prayer, Christ. When God takes away everything
and you have nothing, what then is your plea to be heard? Christ. Thou art my refuge." When Noah
was entering into the ark, do you realize when God poured out
His wrath, which it was a picture of His wrath that is to come,
He poured out His wrath against sin. Do you know that no one
escaped the flood? Not even Noah. Noah was not delivered
above the earth so that he did not have to endure the flood.
No, everyone was under the flood. But the only thing that saved
Noah, the only thing that made a difference between him and
the rest of fallen humanity was this, the ark. How is it that
you shall endure through all of the hardships of this life
and even endure the judgment of God? Because in Christ you
have already endured it. Paul said, I am crucified with
Christ. You see, my sins, I didn't escape
punishment for my sins. My substitute endured them in
my stead. My refuge is Christ. And not
only is He my refuge, not only is He our refuge and calls for
God to hear our prayer, He is our portion. Your inheritance. Your inheritance
is Christ Himself. You know what that means? That
means you get everything He gets. So what are you missing here? What are you lacking? Nothing. You're not lacking one
thing. God's given you everything. And
you know when He gives it to you? This is not just something
future. David says in that prayer, he
says, I said you are my refuge and portion now. Now you are my refuge. Now you
are my portion in the land of the living. David had said before,
I had fainted unless I had seen the goodness of God. What is
the goodness of God? Is it not in the face of Jesus
Christ? Is it not in Christ that the goodness of God is revealed
to you? How he saves you, how he redeems you, how he keeps
you, how he calls you, how he holds you, how he'll never let
you go? Isn't that all your security
and hope? Christ is all, Christ is all. And so in prayer, guess
what? Christ is all. I pray you'll
deliver me for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake. He is my refuge and portion and
land of living. Now then, does this mean we'll
be delivered from all troubles? Absolutely not. David said, I
am very low. Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are stronger than I. Believers, you're not going to
be delivered from all your troubles and trials, and life is not going
to be a bed of roses. It's going to be a bed of thorns.
It's going to hurt. It's going to be painful. But this is for a reason. to
humble you. Is there any of God's people
that does not need to be humbled? And here in verse 7 we see a
ray of light in his prayer. He says, bring my soul out of
prison. Is it? I found this to be true. Anxiousness of heart and sorrow or as a prison that you can't get out of no
matter how hard you try. Well, you just need to pick yourself
up. You can't. You can't. And if you ever do, know that
you didn't do it. God did it. And this last thing. What is your motive in prayer? Very important, isn't it? Why
do you want what you want? Why are you asking for these
things? Notice David's plea here. David's motive is the best. So if you want a motive, here
it is. Bring my soul out of prison that
I may praise Thy name. the righteous shall encompass
me about." What is your motive? Is it for
the praise and glory and honor of Christ? Is what you're asking
for, for the praise and honor and glory of Christ? If it is, you'll get it. David was delivered, wasn't he?
Did he not get out of this cave? You bet he did. Why? It was for
the praise of the glory of Christ. That's why he got out of the
cave. But in the end, David's heart was settled. For thou shalt deal bountifully
with me. Is that not the same thing as,
Lord, if you kill me in this cave or you let me go, you've
done bountifully with me? That brings a smile to my face.
No matter what God does to us, He deals bountifully with us.
Therefore, we can say, Thy will be done. Kill me or keep me, Thy will
be done. And I'll tell you, you'll have
what you asked for. May God teach us to pray.