Psalms 65:2 - Homiletics

The privilege and duty of prayer.

"Thou that hearest prayer" All practical religion rests on this fact—that God hears prayer. A God who could not or would not hear prayer, an almighty Creator with whom we could hold no converse, would not be God to us. We could not say, "O God, thou art my God!" There would be no impiety in the question, "What profit shall we have if we pray unto him?' The Epicureans, who taught that there are gods, but that they do not concern themselves with human affairs, were practically atheists. Prayer is the one conscious link (there are many unconscious) between the seen and the unseen worlds. A prayerless life is a godless life—shut up, imprisoned in the narrow sphere of "things seen" and temporal A prayerful life transcends these barriers, takes hold on "things unseen" and eternal; walks with God; endures as seeing him who is invisible.

I. THE GLORIOUS CERTAINTY OF THE FACT THAT GOD HEARS PRAYER . By hearing prayer is meant in Scripture taking account of our requests and answering them ( 1 John 5:14 , 1 John 5:15 ). This involves all that is most glorious in God's revealed attributes. His infinite knowledge, which not the most timid or rapid desire, or speechless lifting up of any heart, escapes. His wisdom to discern whether, when, how, to grant our requests. Foreknowledge—for long preparation may have been needful, though the prayer be uttered and granted in a moment. Righteousness, to grant no petition, however fervent, which it would not be right to grant. Love—to take fatherly interest in our childish ways, small needs, and often ignorant and impatient desires; and to care for our best welfare. And almighty power—to carry out all that wisdom, righteousness, and love direct, and to make "all things work together," etc. ( Romans 8:28 ). The certainty that God hears prayer rests on his faithfulness and the promises which fill the Bible; on the commands which lay on us the duty as well as confer the privilege of prayer; on the examples, still more abundant in Scripture than these commands and promises of prayer answered (including our Saviour's own example); on the daily experience of God's Church. If any truth in the scope of human knowledge rests on a firm foundation of experience, it is this.

II. THE TRANSCENDENT PRIVILEGE AND BLESSING OF PRAYER . It would be a great thing were we permitted (as the Romish creed teaches) to invoke the aid and counsel of angels and glorified saints. But we pass through their shining ranks and come with boldness to the very throne of God (Hebrew 10:19; 4:16). Whatever help angels can render will be given under orders from their Lord and ours (Hebrew 2:14; I Peter 3:22). We measure blessings often by their loss. Let us imagine this privilege of prayer withdrawn or limited. Suppose a day in each week (a sort of anti-sabbath ) on which prayer was forbidden—or hut one in a month or year. Who would choose that day for any enterprise? Who would not fear to die on such a day? When its cheerless dawn broke we should say, "Would God it were evening!" and when midnight chimed we should thank God the lips of prayer were again unsealed. Or a region of earth where prayer was forbidden; if men cried to God, they were warned it would be vain. Let its valleys teem with plenty, its hills with precious ore, climate and scenery he the finest in the world,—would you care—would you dare—to dwell in that accursed spot? Or if there were one human being to whom God's voice had said, "Ask not; for thou shalt not receive I ' with what horror we should look at this outlaw from Divine mercy I how giddy would be for him heights of prosperity I how cheerless the dark days of trouble! how dreadful the hour of death—the plunge into an unknown eternity! And yet there are those (perhaps here) for whom every day is a day without prayer; from whose home no voice of prayer ascends; self-exiled from God!

III. THE CORRESPONDING DUTY . "Men ought always to pray" ( Luke 18:1 ). "This is the will of God' ( 1 Thessalonians 5:17 , 1 Thessalonians 5:18 ). Prayer is one of the great laws of God's moral government. He has ordained that we should ask in order to receive ( Luke 11:9 , Luke 11:10 ). This is the reply to all those plausible objections to prayer drawn from God's superior and infinite wisdom, the unchangeableness of his laws, the unreasonableness of thinking that our will can bend his, and so forth. Plausible; but nugatory in the face of the fact that God has commanded us to pray. He has given us his only begotten Son as our Intercessor; his Holy Spirit, to teach us how to pray; has pledged his word to hear prayer; and daily and hourly answers the prayers of his children. To regard prayer only as a duty is fatal to life, freedom, joy in prayer. It would lead to mechanical formalism. But duty is, after all, the backbone of life. You do not feel at all times in a right frame of mind for prayer. If you had no guide but feeling, you would say, "Another time will be more suitable." Or when pressed and hurried, you would say, "I must attend to urgent duties; and leave the enjoyment and refreshment of prayer to a time of leisure." But duty stands guard at the door ( Matthew 6:6 ). And as in other cases, it brings its own reward. Perhaps at the very time when you have set yourself to pray with a cold heart, because you know you ought to pray and must, you have come from your chamber with beaming countenance, ready to say with Jacob, Genesis 28:16 , Genesis 28:17 . This applies to public and social, as well as private, prayer.