Deliver my Soul - prayer

Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 116. We read for our text, verse 4. Then called I upon the name of the Lord, O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. Psalm 116 and verse 4. The psalmist in this psalm begins the psalm testifying that the reason why he loves the Lord is because the Lord has heard his voice and supplications.

We are told in the epistles of John that we love him because he first loved us. But here we have in the experience of God's people that which draws forth love, love to God, and that is that when they have cried upon him called upon his name and he has heard and bless them then that brings forth a love to the Lord. And may we have those times in our lives that the Lord draws forth love in my soul did not the psalmist As one of the Lord's people, have love always to the Lord. Well, we know that our love ebbs and flows. Sometimes we don't feel it at all, other times we do. And here is a real pointer to things that draw forth that love, that make an effect and a difference in the hearts and lives of God's people.

It should be an encouragement to us to pray and to seek for this blessing, not just the blessing of the answer to the petition that we prayed, but also the blessing, additional blessing, of feeling a love to the Lord for what he has done for us. In our text, he specifically mentions that he has called upon the name of the Lord, that is, upon Jehovah. He also told the petition that he petitioned, O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul.

So it's not just a temporal deliverance, not just for our bodies, but for our souls, that our whole being, body and soul, might be saved eternally. And we be not just like those that whenever there is a trouble in life, they cry concerning that. As soon as the Lord's answered it, that's all they're looking for, is what the Lord would reprove as following him for loaves and fishes, or following him for deliverances, for helps, for providential things, for earthly things. But if we can truly say that our soul is of more weight to us than all earthly things, and yet the Lord uses earthly troubles and trials to bring us into soul concern, and to seek Him and through those things to bring us to love Him. That is a blessed testimony to have.

So I want to look firstly, three points this morning. Firstly, what brought the psalmist to prayer and what brings us to pray. He says in verse 3, the sorrows of death compass me, the pains of hell get hold upon me, I found trouble and sorrow, then called I upon the name of the Lord. So we need to look or consider what brought the psalmist to prayer and bring that to apply to ourselves as well. And then secondly, the act of prayer. What actually prayer is, we've sung of it in our middle hymn, and yet we need to be clear on what prayer is. And then thirdly, the psalmist's prayer, or words used in prayer.

We are told specifically here what the psalmist prayed. O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. But firstly, what brought the psalmist to prayer? He speaks of a very severe trial that he was in. The sorrows of death compass me, the pains of hell get hold upon me, I found trouble and sorrow.

This is One reason why we read the portion in Isaiah 38 with Hezekiah, who was sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah was sent with the message to set his house in order, for he should die and not live. And at that point, Hezekiah, who was in the line to Christ, had no children. And so that line would have been broken. But Hezekiah was brought through this to prayer. And later on, we have his writings when he was sick.

And he says in verse 10, I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave. I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living. I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

And he has several verses there where he is speaking of his pining sickness. He's speaking of feeling under the hand of the Lord. He says in verse 13, I reckon till morning that as a lion so will he break all my bones, from day even to night will thou make an end of me. And he says, like a crane or a swallow, so did I chat, I did mourn as a dove, mine eyes fail with looking upward, O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me. And so, He speaks of the great trial that he was in. The very first part of the chapter is a very, just a brief summary, but later on he tells of the things that he went through. Verse 17, for peace I had great bitterness. Great bitterness. And so the psalmist here, the sorrows of death compassed me.

The Lord uses things to bring his people to prayer. He brings things into men's lives who are not his people, and they do pray, but often it is just while that trouble is there, it's for temporal deliverances, It is really demanding rather than asking and supplicating and not concerning primarily the soul. And I'm not minimizing the literal trouble that God's people come into and the very real need of them to be delivered.

And often Satan makes a great handle of him. The apostle Paul He says, regarding the thorn in the flesh, that it was a messenger of Satan. Now it may well have been an affliction of something of a temporal nature that Satan stirred it up to make it to be a messenger of Satan. And how often our trials are aggravated by Satan saying, well, if you were the Lord's children, this wouldn't happen. and He would answer you quickly, and He wouldn't suffer you to go into this at all.

And isn't the Lord unfair? And isn't He unjust? And isn't He wrong to do this? Look at all your servitude, and how sincere you are in your worship, and how you attend the means of grace, and other people don't, and they don't have troubles, but you have troubles.

And all these thoughts can come in a moment that you don't even ask for them to be there, And that poor child of God is so troubled because these thoughts are against their God. They want to pray to Him, they want to ask for His help and blessing, but all the time they're feeling so angry, so cross, and It's such in a wrong frame, wrong spirit, and it's Satan stirring up as a whisperer, separate thee friends, and making those temporal things to be a real spiritual trial, so that we feel it against the Lord, against him. And the Lord is using that as well, to bring us to realize that all sin, sin is the transgression of the law of God. It's like David, when he had sinned in the matter of Bathsheba, he doesn't say, against Bathsheba I have sinned, or against Uriah I have sinned, or against the children of Israel, but against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. And the Lord will even use these temporal trials to then bring it as to how we're thinking concerning the Lord and what we're, how we're responding. Remember the children of Israel, when they're in the wilderness and they had not water, they murmured. When they had not bread, they murmured. When they had bread but not flesh, they murmured. When the way was hard for them, then they complained. And all the time it was temporal things in their lives that were very hard and difficult to go through, but it resulted in really attacking or speaking against the Lord.

And the Lord then dealt with them for that, but also sent them deliverances and helps. And how much more when God's people are troubled by their own reactions and troubled by how they are responding and think, well, many of the Lord's people speak of their trials being sanctified or work together for good, but mine don't. It seems to work the other way. It makes me fretful and impatient and angry or make distrusting of the Lord and it shows all what is wrong within me. But these are things that the Lord does as a candle of the Lord, showing what is in our heart, bringing it to the line, making it so that it is confessed and known and felt. And then we have not only to seek for a temporal deliverance, but for a spiritual deliverance as well, and to be saved from our own selves. The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is, It shall bring forth from us those things that really need to be dealt with by the Lord. Then when we felt all those things and the Lord does answer us and does deliver us, then we are even more amazed that He should deal with us so kindly when we've been so unkind and so full of iniquity and spoke so hard against Him.

So the description is very specific with the psalmist here. Maybe summed up more in the last verses, the last words of verse three, I found trouble and sorrow. How many times that that would summarize what we find in our lives and with our loved ones and with our whole situations. we might say, I found trouble and sorrow. And yet this was a precursor.

This is what brought the psalmist to pray, often being encouraged by Psalm 107, and also reproved by that psalmist as well. But it's showing the reality of what we are like, because right through that psalm, we find them falling down, We read that they were hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them out of their distresses. Again and again they're brought down, the pattern is the same, they cry unto the Lord.

But it's always last, till at last to him we cry. We try our own means first, we try everything other than prayer, and that is human nature, that is what we are like. And in one way the Lord allows this, or brings us to that, to prove that we have no help in ourselves.

When Ruth made her petition to Boaz to be a nearkinsman, or to act the part of a nearkinsman, He had to first rule out a kinsman that was nearer than he. And when that was ruled out, that man, he could not perform. He could buy her land, but he couldn't take her to wife. So then it fell to Boaz.

And really that near kinsman is like ourselves, our own strength, our own goodness, our own righteousness, our ability to redeem ourselves. God will prove to his people that they cannot redeem themselves. They cannot walk aright. They cannot even pray aright until he works that in them. And though they prove, like with Psalm 107, not just in one instance, but trial after trial, difficulty after difficulty.

And when he heals and when he delivers them from their destructions, then oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. And at the end of the psalm, who so is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord." The psalmist in our text, it was a cause of him loving the Lord because of answers to prayer. And in Psalm 107, looking upon how the Lord answers prayer, delivers us, is a way that we understand his loving-kindness to us.

So, dear friends, do notice, may we think when we come into these trials, not follow Satan's line that this is unjust and wrong, but think in these lines that the Lord has brought this for a purpose, this is something that I cannot manage, I cannot handle myself, and this is something that is to bring me to prayer, to seek the Lord in prayer, and that he will answer and in answering he'll bring forth love from my heart to him because he has heard my voice and my supplications.

There's something to bear in mind in every trial and every trouble. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose and here is trouble and sorrow that works together with prayer to bring love to the Lord and for answers to prayer. I want to look secondly at the act of prayer. What is prayer? Prayer is when we are speaking to God or calling upon God. We read in Genesis that when Enos was born, then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.

God has instituted it right from the beginning of time, that through prayer, men have communion access to and speak to God who is not seen but is everywhere and though he has not parts as eyes and ears yet in scripture he is spoken of as having those parts for us to understand that he does see he does hear he is able and willing to answer prayers, he will be inquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them.

And though the Lord has appointed all things that are to happen upon the earth, yet he has ordained that before they happen, his people will call upon him to do it. Before they call, I will answer. How far before? Right from eternity, when it was decreed. Daniel, when he understood by books that the 70 years were nearly up in Babylon, then he set himself to pray unto the Lord. And that period of 70 years of captivity was appointed and foretold hundreds of years before, and certainly from eternity, and yet Daniel doesn't say, well, this is appointed, I don't need to pray about it. He understands it, therefore he brings it in prayer.

And so God has ordained this, and we should always remember this, never be fatalistic, but know that God desires to hear from his people, and his people desire to hear from him. Primarily, hearing from the Lord is through the ministry of the word, and yet in prayer, often there is a communion and fellowship, hearing from him as well. But predominantly prayer is when men are speaking to the Lord in prayer, And then he is answering through providence, through his word, through the ministry, through appearing for his people, giving them, as with Hezekiah, life and the answer to those things that they have asked for. Prayer is always, and you see even in the Old Testament, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. always through a mediator, always through one to stand in the breach.

We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Our Lord says, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. It is accepted because it is appointed by God. We think of the Apostle Paul, that it was said of him that he persecuted those that called upon this name in Jerusalem. That is the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's not said that he persecuted just people that prayed, but prayed upon that name.

And the persecution in our day will come in exactly the same way. Because when we have, most solemnly even from our King, an upholding every sort of religion and God, and that men may pray to anyone, and that be acceptable in the sight of God, for a Christian to insist that there is only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, and the only way for prayer to be accepted is through our Lord, will be offensive to so many, it is. But that is absolutely crucial to us, that we must maintain that, we must in our prayers, and not neglect to mention his name.

What would happen in our parliaments if one of our parliamentarians got up and they were presenting their case and they completely ignored the Speaker. They didn't direct their words through the Speaker of the House. They'd be immediately reproved. It must be through the Speaker, even in our temporal courts.

And so it is with prayer that it is through the Lord Jesus Christ. What types of prayer are there? We have our Lord spoke of closet prayer, personal prayer, that we close our door, we go into secret, pray unto our Father which seeth in secret and he rewards us openly. Then there is of course a family prayer or this prayer in public as we do in the house of God or at other occasions maybe at a wedding, or a funeral, or a gathering, or friends. There's prayer that is audible, of course, with public it needs to be, solemnly, and I don't agree with that. There are times that a church gathering will be, and they'll have a time of silent prayer, and the whole church is just silent to me. When we're gathering together, the scriptures are clear that when prayer is made, it is made in a clear, audible way, so that those in the pew may say amen to what is asked. And I know in our churches it's not usual to join with the minister at the end of the prayer and amen.

I believe it is right, it should be done, and that whatever, whether it's done or not, the prayer should be so that the people can go along with it, joining with them. need to remember as well with prayer is not before men, even though we want men to agree and have been words easily understood, but is speaking to God. We're not preaching in prayer. We're not reproving people in prayer, telling people off, making announcements in prayer. We're not acting as if our prayers are to those that are before us.

They are to God. Those of us in the ministry need to be reminded of that continually, that we are coming before God himself and with us each in private. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a reward of them that diligently seek him. That seeking of him is in prayer. And so we have this blessed institution of God, a privilege, an invitation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the examples of the Lord's people right through the scriptures of men calling upon the Lord.

May we encourage each other and be strengthened ourselves in the attitude of prayer. It's so easy when we're busy, doing things, to making plans, to do things, to even prepare services, or to prepare to go and hear the Word of God. And yet we realize we haven't asked the Lord's blessing on the preaching, on the Word, on our souls. We have not been before the Lord in the attitude of prayer. Our Lord said that men ought always to pray, and not to faint. We should be mindful of how easy it is to be backward in prayer and to be encouraged in the act of prayer. I want to look then lastly at the Samas prayer or words used in prayer. Our text says, O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. There's three clauses in this prayer.

The first is addressed to Jehovah, to the Lord. So immediately there is no doubt anyone listening to this prayer as to what God that they are addressing. We could even make it clearer, we could address it to the God of Israel, or the God of the Bible, to address it to God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We know Jehovah is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but in the light of the New Testament, then we can use the name of the Lord Jesus and plead in his name.

But it is a beseeching, it is not demanding, it is not commanding, it is supplicating, it is beseeching, a feeling of our unworthiness, We are not coming as those that are commanding God. We're not coming like Satan. If thou art the Son of God, command these stones that they might be made bread. If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down from the temple. It is written, the angels shall give their charge over thee. Bear thee up in their arms, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. All the time, Satan was demanding, you prove yourself to be God. Do what I say. Let us not be like Satan. And so you prove that you are my God, or prove that you exist. Do what I say. Don't imitate Satan in our prayers. But then he uses very specific words, deliver my soul.

Very short prayer. You think of Peter as he was sinking when he was walking to the Lord on the water, Lord save me. You think of the Syrophoenician woman with her afflicted daughter, Lord help me. Some of the most effectual prayers. are the simple prayers, the short prayers, but they are prayers that use words, and when we are asking for specific things, then we can come in with the psalmist at the beginning of the psalm. He hath heard my voice and my supplication, is like Hannah. For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition that I asked of him.

If we don't have specific prayers, we won't be able to answer, have identifiable answers, and we won't have the token of a real answer to prayer and feel that love to God in prayer. So may we have those specific prayers. Our Lord taught the manner of prayer and what is termed the Lord's Prayer. We have also his intercessory prayer in John 17, where he makes intercession for his people.

I pray for them. I pray not for the world. I pray not that thou wouldst take them out of the world, but that thou wouldst keep them from the evil. And Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.

We think of Jabez, very short prayer, that thou has blessed me indeed, that thou has enlarged my coasts, that thou has keep me from evil. The Lord granted him the petition that he asked of him, but they were very specific prayers and petitions that he asked. In Psalm 51, it is a prayer of David when he'd gone into Bathsheba, when he'd committed murder, and is a prayer of confession, prayer for mercy. Have mercy upon me, O God. according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. There's a prayer for a sinner, a prayer with many, many petitions that are through it, a lovely prayer indeed.

We think of Solomon's prayer and the dedication of the temple and how that he anticipated many situations with the children of Israel, whether they were carried captive into far-off countries, then looking toward this place, prayed toward this place. You think of Daniel, he must have remembered that prayer. And even though the temple was destroyed, he still opened his windows toward Jerusalem and prayed unto God continually. And Solomon anticipated times when every man shall know the plague of his own heart or when there is pestilence or when there is famine or war and if a man or any in Israel call upon the name of the Lord that he would hear and that he had saved them. It's a beautiful encouraging prayer of dedication of the temple.

We think of Jonah in the whale's belly crying unto the Lord, cast out of his sight, yet will I look again toward thy holy temple. And the Lord heard his prayer. The Lord caused the fish to vomit up Jonah on the dry land, and he was saved. The encouragements that there are in prayer to use specific words, We've referred to and read the account of Hezekiah, and sometimes it might seem strange to us that prayer should be in these words or even answered in these words, when in Isaiah 38 and verse 3, Hezekiah, he says, remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and Hezekiah wept sore. I don't believe he is looking to his own righteousness, but where it is, is a contrast between the ungodly kings that had gone before and he had done that which was right in the sight of the Lord. We know that The Lord did deliver him, did hear and answer his prayer.

But as is evident by later on in the psalm, he felt his sinnership, he felt his corruption, he felt what he was. We had in verse 17, Behold, for peace I had great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption. Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back. And so, though in the first instance the picture is almost that it is just that Hezekiah is pleading that he had walked in the right ways of the Lord, yet what follows afterwards shows that he was a man very much mindful of his own sin, and his own iniquity.

And in a way it's a pattern for us to put the Lord in remembrance of those things that he has brought us into and what he has done and he has enabled us to walk in, but also to confess our sin and to be mindful of that in all that we come before the Lord in prayer.

Words in prayer. May we be mindful of this, and in a lot of ways, be simple in our prayers. Sometimes we might follow, especially in a family situation, where we may have been discussing things between a husband and a wife or children, and then it comes to the time of prayer. Instead of rehearsing all of those things individually, we can appeal to the Lord that he has heard. all that has been said and all that has been discussed and done and that he'd hear and that he'd answer and appear for us. It's not through the multitude of words our Lord specifically warned against vain repetition and yet our Lord himself in the Garden of Gethsemane used repetition in prayer. There's a difference between vain repetition and repetition. because our Lord went and prayed the same thing three times. Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done.

And so where there is something that is very urgent, very pressing, then we can use the same petition again and again until the Lord delivers us and saves us. I know I mentioned this before here, I believe, think of when in prayer, as to the subject in prayer, and that is the acronym ACTS. If we think of the word ACTS and each letter representing one aspect of prayer, the A standing for adoration, the adoring of the Lord, reminder to ourselves, and paying worship to the Lord as to who He is and whom we're coming before. The C is confession, confession of our sins before God. And then the T is thanksgiving, giving thanks to His name for all of His mercies, His goodness to us. And the last, the S, is supplication, which would also include intercession, where we make intercession for one another, pray for one another, and supplicate God for one another.

And if you use that acronym, that is coming last. Very often, we put that first. I'm not saying that. We should always use that order. It's good to bear that in mind. because sometimes the prayers that we make, they're impromptu prayers, they're instant prayers.

It's like with Nehemiah before the king. And the king suddenly asks him what his request is when he's heard about all of the destruction or the situation in Jerusalem, the broken walls down, and Hezekiah just says, I prayed, or Nehemiah rather, just says, I prayed unto the Lord. The king would not have even realized he was praying. Just the silent lifting of the heart before God, Lord, what shall I say? How shall I answer? And just spontaneous, quick, short prayers.

And we might be out and about, and things and troubles come up, and rather than thinking, well, we'll wait till we get home, you find a bench, a garden seat, and to sit and pray there, or even pray as you're walking, pray as you're running, if you're running to get a train or bus or something, that you might get that bus rather than stop and then reduce your hope of getting it. And so we would not put any straight jackets on in prayer.

There's many examples in the Word and in our own lives where the Lord has heard the shortest cries and shortest prayers. It's good when we start a journey, when we end a journey, sometimes before we set off in the car we might have prayer in our home, other times we just have a pause before we start the engine, or when we come home, many times I've felt this after days away or a long journey before going into the house, just to give thanks that we're back safely. And those are good times to come before the Lord in prayer. So it's not just praying when we have, as in the psalm here, the sorrows of death compasses and we have trouble and sorrow, but those times when we have Thanksgiving we go back to the same God in prayer and back to him and in prayer give thanks and give praise. May this be an encouragement to us and we come in with the psalmist and be able to add our troubles or sorrows or what's happened first and then say then called I upon the name of the Lord. O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul All that follows then, the blessings that he had and the expressions and feeling of love to the Lord, it's a beautiful psalm of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord for answers to prayer. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.

Deliver my Soul - prayer

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Deliver my Soul - prayer

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About Rowland Wheatley

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