The Necessity of Prayer

 

From the Pastor:

Psalm 4:1

Hear me while I call, O God of my righteousness!

You have relieved me in my distress;

Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.

This year to help encourage you with our daily bible reading plan, I will highlight a portion of the weekly reading in my “From the Pastor” section. As I mentioned last week, daily Bible intake is one of the most important habits that Christians can develop for their spiritual maturity. The other most important discipline that we can develop is prayer. That’s why I have highlighted this portion of Psalm 4 for this week. Pray is an incredible tool for the believer because it puts us in contact with our Heavenly Father. When we calm our mind and concentrate on spending time with God in prayer, we allow for the Word that we have read and the Spirit that works through that Word to lead us in meditation and communication with the Heavenly Father. Of course, God already knows what we need before we ever ask, but the very practice of taking time to talk to God in prayer shows our humility to go to the One who can meet our needs and grant our request. Most of the time when we forget, refuse, or simply do not make the time for prayer, whether we realize it or not we are telling God that we don’t need his help, guidance, or input to aid us in living our lives. This is a terrible practice that will lead to terrible consequences. Our need for God’s help each and every day is incalculable. We desperately need God direct us through every moment of life whether times are good or bad.

The Psalmist begins this hymn by asking that God would hear him when he calls to him in prayer. This may sound like a simple or even silly request, but the Psalmist is highlighting from the very beginning the necessity of God hearing us. That’s why he brackets the first verse with this request, “Hear me while I call… hear my prayer.” Unless the Lord gives ear, our petitions will go unheard and unanswered. That is a fearful proposition because, as we’ve already mentioned, we need God to hear us call to him in prayer because we need his guidance, grace, mercy, and divine intervention to make it through this fallen world. The Psalmist recognizes that already God has provided him with righteousness and has been the reliever of his times of stressing, so he understands very well how the Lord has sustained him and provided for him up to this point in his life. As the Psalm continues there is the continued realization that God has set apart the writer in some way so that the he may be heard by God when he calls to him in prayer, and that this knowledge calms his anger, allows him to trust the Lord, gives him unrivaled joy, and assures him of safety even as he sleeps. These are just a few of the important benefits of daily prayer in the life of the believer, but they are more than just benefits in so many ways. These things mentioned are incredibly necessary for us to survive life in a fallen world. No, we may not experience the same types of difficulties that King David experienced in his life, but we will encounter our own struggles and without the aid of our Heavenly Father we will not endure well. That’s why we need prayer to confess our weaknesses and the Holy Scriptures to make clear how God has already answered those prayers through His Son and by His Spirit.