Why Cry Out to God?

[On August 14 I plan to preach from Psalm 119:73-96 under the title, “Deep Cries and Solid Hope.” This devotion on a similar topic is edited and shortened considerably from a sermon preached March 27, 2011. You can listen to that sermon via this link. This was the first of eight sermons in the series, Cry Out to God!]

When you are in severe pain – how do you pray?

Imagine you’ve just learned of an unexpected sorrow:

  • The death of loved one
  • A cancer diagnosis of a friend
  • Someone you looked up to walking away from the faith
  • Or you’ve just walked away from an angry argument with your spouse.

Do you pray in such circumstances? How?

Sometimes in such cases we are tempted to think, “I can’t possibly pray to God right now! I’m so angry, so hurt, so distracted.” Perhaps you’ve been taught that prayer should begin with praise, and think, “I’m angry with God for letting this happen – so there’s no way I can praise Him!”

Or perhaps you convince yourself you really should pray, so you spit out, “You God are holy, righteous, good, loving, merciful, and gracious, so help this situation, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

Many psalms include raw, painful cries to God. Psalm 13:1-2 is an example:

“How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?”

Would you dare to speak to God like that? Should you speak to God like that?

God gives us the psalms – and other prayers from the heart throughout Scripture – in part to teach us to pray. In prayer, we cry out to our heavenly Father as His beloved children. And the God who knows the number of hairs on our head, the God who knows and controls when a sparrow falls to the ground, cares about the pains and hurts and sorrows of His little children. He wants us to come in dependence on Him, to look to Him as our hope, to cry out to Him honestly, truly, from the heart.

Biblical prayer will always be honest. And the biblical pray-er eventually must surrender his will to that of the sovereign, loving God. During our deepest sorrows, that surrender may take considerable time – and we may surrender in the moment, but then need to do so repeatedly in the future.

Psalm 86 is a clear example of both painful crying out and glad surrender to God. Let’s learn from this psalm how to pray in the midst of deep sorrow. We’ll see seven answers to the question: Why cry out? The first three answers are about you, the last four answers are about God.

This psalm has three sections: In Psalm 86:1-7, David cries out in pain and states why God should answer him. Psalm 86:8-13 describe who God is, and detail how David responds to God. In Psalm 86:14-17, David finally describes his specific problem and asks God to answer.

1) Why Cry Out? You are Needy

In Psalm 86:1-4, David calls upon God with six requests: “Incline Your ear,” “answer me,” “preserve my life,” “save Your servant,” “be gracious to me,” “gladden Your servant’s soul.”

Note the reason David says God should answer him: “I am poor and needy,” “I trust in You,” “to You do I cry all the day,” “to You do I lift up my soul.”

The idea behind this last phrase is: “Bring joy to my whole being, for my whole being depends on and desires You!”

Do you acknowledge that you are needy? That you have no assets to depend on? Are you humbled before God? Or do you approach Him thinking, if God doesn’t come through, you’ll still be ok – you have savings, you have friends, you have skills, experience, and education.

We need to cry out like David: From a position of need.

2) Why Cry Out? You Deserve Nothing

Does David ever say, “Answer me, be good to me, because I deserve it”? No. The statements, “I need You” and “I trust in You” are expressions of dependence, not of desert.

But what about verse 2: “Preserve my life, for I am godly”? Is David saying, “Because I’m a good guy, save me”?

The NIV reads: “Guard my life, for I am devoted to You.” That sounds quite different from “I am godly” – and thus is a clue that it might be worthwhile to learn about the Hebrew word. As it turns out, this word – related to the word translated “steadfast love” in verses 5, 13, and 15 – is difficult to translate with a single English word. The Hebrew word refers to a person who receives and loyally returns steadfast, covenant love. So we might paraphrase verse 2, “Guard me, for I am in covenant relation with You, loved by You and returning loyal love to You.”

So David is not at all saying he deserves God’s answer to his cries.

Just so with us. We are in Christ through absolutely no merit of ours. He died for us while we were sinners. We deserve His punishment, not His love and favor. We can only approach God as those who deserve nothing – as those who are recipients of His gracious, steadfast, covenant love.

3) Why Cry Out? You are in Danger

After speaking generally about his danger, David finally states his specific problem in Psalm 86:14: “Insolent (or ‘arrogant’) men have risen up against me; a band of ruthless (or ‘terrifying’) men seeks my life.”

Realize: David was God’s chosen servant – indeed, His chosen king. David was loved by Him. And yet: David was in mortal danger. His enemies were powerful and terrifying.

What does David do?

He doesn’t say blithely, “Oh, it will all work out ok; God is in control!”

Nor does he close his eyes and hope that his enemies will go away.

He cries out! He expresses His dependence! He vocalizes His need!

God does not promise us easy lives; He instead promises us Himself. He promises that He will hear us when we call upon Him. Therefore David, in danger, cries out. So must we.

4) Why Cry Out? He is Gracious

That is, God extends undeserved favor to the needy.

Psalm 86:5: “You, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love.“ To whom? What is the requirement? “To all who call upon You.” Thus, there is no requirement, except to cry out in need. He is gracious to the undeserving.

Then Psalm 86:6: “Listen to my plea for grace.” Again, David asks for undeserved favor.

Then in Psalm 86:15, David quotes from Exodus 34:6, God’s revelation of His character to Moses on Mt Sinai, as He showed him His glory: “You are a god merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” He then calls upon God to show that grace to him.

Our hope is the same as David’s. Because He is gracious, we, the undeserving, can cry out to Him. We honor Him when we approach Him as supplicants. He loves to show His bounty to the undeserving, to display what He is like. And He displays this most clearly at the cross of Jesus.

5) Why Cry Out? He is God of All

If God were gracious but not mighty, there would be little reason for David to call upon Him. Perhaps He could provide some emotional support, but He couldn’t counter the power of those attacking him.

But as David says in Psalm 86:8, no other power can even approach the Lord God; no creature has ever done anything like Him. Indeed, as verse 9 reminds us, He made all the nations, every people group. Thus, He is the Creator even of those who are attacking David. Indeed, these attackers were created to glorify God’s Name.

Furthermore, as Psalm 86:10 says, He does “wondrous things” – amazing works, miracles for His covenant people.

So David’s logic is this: “You alone are almighty God. There is no power equal to Yours. You created and control and can easily overpower all the forces arrayed against me. You exert your mighty power on behalf of your covenant people. So act now in accord with Your character!”

Then note what David says in Psalm 86:12: “I will give thanks to You with my whole heart, I will glorify You Name forever.” Since God created all nations to glorify His Name, David says he himself is fulfilling the purpose of his creation by calling out to God and thus glorifying His Name.

The question for us: Do we believe what David believed about God?

We all most likely would make the orthodox statement, “God is almighty, there is no power equal to His, He created all mankind.” But in the midst of trial, temptation, and difficulty: Do we really believe that God controls all the forces arrayed against us?

Listen:

  • He is the God of your parent who is overbearing and of your child who is rebellious
  • He is the God of your frustrating boss and the God of your noisy neighbor
  • He is the God of every president and every governor
  • He is the God of every dictator and every megalomaniac
  • He is the God who controls tsunamis and the God who controls nuclear reactions
  • He is the God of ALL.

There is no power that can stand against Him.

He is at work in the lives of all eight billion people on this planet. He is weaving together individual stories that will redound to His glory – lacing together sorrow and joy, stress and relief, failure and success, to teach us that Jesus is King, to teach us that He reigns, to teach us that He is worthy of all worship and honor and love – to teach us that He is our only hope, but what a hope!

Do you believe that?

  • Do you believe that God can take your unbelieving friend or relative and in an instant open his eyes, so that he falls down and worships Jesus?
  • Do you believe that with a flick of His little finger, God could stop a tsunami in its tracks?
  • Do you believe that God can give you the power to resist any temptation to sin, and thus do you believe you are without excuse for any decision you make to indulge in anger, or lust, or greed, or laziness, or selfishness?

This is our God: The God of all, the God in control.

6) Why Cry Out? He is Your Lord and God

David says, “You are my God” (Psalm 86:2, emphasis added).

Do you see why this is so important?

The Lord God has all this power, all this grace – and He is your God! He is your heavenly Father! He has made promises to you, which He is fully able to keep. He loves you with an everlasting love.

And so, since the almighty One is your Lord and God, our final point:

7) Why Cry Out? He Will Answer

Psalm 86:7: “In the day of my trouble I call upon You, for You answer me.”

We see this confidence in God’s answer also in verses 13 and 17:

  • “You will extend your great loyal love to me, and will deliver my life from the depths of Sheol” (Psalm 86:13 NET).
  • “You, O LORD, will help me and comfort me” (Psalm 86:17 NET).

David recalls God’s past answers, remembers God’s character, and knows that at all points in the future God will show the same love, whatever the dangers might be. God answers His people when they call.

Conclusion:

So where are you?

  • You too face dangers
  • You too face trials
  • You too face sorrows
  • You too need a God who is gracious and merciful
  • You too need a God who is almighty, all powerful
  • You too need a God who answers.

How does this Almighty One, the One who answers, become your God?

By your doing what David does in this psalm:

  • Admit your need for Him – that you are lost in sin apart from Him, that you cannot overcome sin on your own
  • Acknowledge that you deserve nothing from Him – on the contrary, you deserve His punishment for rejecting Him
  • Confessing that you were made for His glory, and you desire to fulfill that purpose
  • Accept the gift He offers by His grace – the gift of salvation through faith in the Son of David, Jesus Himself

For Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty deserved by all who trust in Him. And God commands all people everywhere to repent, to turn to Him, to believe in the Lord Jesus and so be saved.

So cry out to Him!

If you already have cried out for salvation: Keep crying out! You are still needy! You still deserve nothing from Him! You still are in danger – most of all from the sin that still fights within you.

So cry out as David cries out in Psalm 86:11: “Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in Your truth. Unite my heart to fear Your name.”

David says, “I need you to guide me, Lord. Unless you lead me, I will make a wrong turn. Lead me on Your road, so I won’t deviate from Your truth. My heart is divided, still seeking after comfort, after status, after recognition. Unite my heart so that I fear only You, I desire only You. Make me wholeheartedly committed to You so that I might fulfill the purpose of my creation: To glorify Your name forever.”

So cry out in need, in sorrow, in tragedy. Cry out in surrender. And know: He offers you His power, His love – Himself. At no cost to you He says: Come to me: You will be my people. I will be your God.

 

A Christmas Gift to Yourself

Advent and Christmas celebrate the coming of Jesus into the world.

But why did He come?

The Apostle Paul tells us: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15)

That’s the truth about Jesus. He came to glorify God through the salvation of rebels.

But that truth only helps us if we acknowledge a second truth: I am among such rebels. So the Apostle continues by stating that he is the foremost of sinners.

We must know who Jesus is.

And we must know who we are.

Only by acknowledging and responding to those truths do we reap the benefits of Jesus’ coming into the world.

Jesus’ great ancestor David elaborates on such self-knowledge in Psalm 86. Let’s learn from him four truths we need to acknowledge about ourselves.

David was among God’s people, chosen by His grace. The four truths will be true of us also if we are in Christ Jesus, having come to God by grace through faith.

First: David knows that he is God’s poor, needy servant.

We see this in Psalm 86:1, 2, 4, and 16. Indeed, in Psalm 82:16 David calls himself not only a servant but the “son of your maidservant.” He is saying, “I’m like the son of Your household slave, born into your household, and thus having no inheritance, no assets, and absolutely no social standing apart from You. I am completely dependent on You.”

Now, David was king! He ruled! He had riches! People would bow down before him!

And yet he sees himself rightly as only a servant of God, one who can accomplish nothing on his own, one whose very purpose is to do the will of God.

Do you see yourself that way?

Second: David depends on and desires God

Psalm 86:4 says David lifts up his soul to God.

Now, other than when reading Scripture, I have never used the phrase “lift up my soul.” I doubt you have either. While it’s a fairly common phrase in the Old Testament, what does it mean?

Deuteronomy 24:15 is helpful in this regard, for the phrase is translated differently in that verse. Speaking of a poor and needy hired servant, Moses commands:

You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin. (emphasis added)

“Counts on” translates the same phrase we saw in Psalm 86:4, literally “lifts up his soul.” He desires those wages. He depends on those wages to be able to buy food that evening.

From this verse and elsewhere we can see that to “lift up your soul” to something is to desire and to depend on it.

So David in Psalm 86:4 is saying: “Bring joy to my whole being, for my whole being depends on and desires you!”

Thus both the first and second truths emphasize David’s dependence on God. This second adds the element of delight in God, of desiring Him.

Third: David knows that He does not know God’s way.

Psalm 86:11: “Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth.”

Again, David is king, he is seen as wise – but he acknowledges that he cannot walk in God’s truth apart from God teaching him. He can’t live rightly, fulfilling the purpose of His creation, apart from God. He needs God’s guidance. He depends on God’s revelation, His instruction, His torah.

Fourth: David knows He is beloved by God

David speaks of God’s steadfast, covenant, unfailing love in Psalm 86:5, 13, and 15. Psalm 86:13 is personal: “Great is Your steadfast love toward me.”

While we don’t recognize it in most English translations, Psalm 86:2 makes a similar point. In the ESV, this verse begins, “Preserve my life, for I am godly.” That almost sounds as if David is saying, “Preserve me because I’m such a good guy!”

However, the word translated “godly” has the same root as the word translated “steadfast love.” The word used in verse 2 refers to a person who both receives and loyally returns such steadfast love. So we might paraphrase the verse, “Guard me, O Lord, for You have put me in covenant relation with You; I am loved by You and You enable me to return loyal love to You.”

Do you know these truths? Do you know you are poor and needy, dependent on God? Do you see Him as your desire and delight? Do you acknowledge that should you try to forge your own path apart from Him, you will inevitably go astray, harming yourself and others? And do you know that if you are in Christ, you are loved with a love beyond imagining?

David knew those truths. He generally lived by those truths – and when he didn’t, he exemplified what happens when we fail to live by those truths.

Give yourself the greatest Christmas gift possible: Acknowledge who you truly are, and who that baby in the manger truly is. Repent before Him. See Him as your delight.

And then bask in the love made possible by Christmas.

[This devotion is taken in part from a section of the December 8 sermon. The sermon audio is available at this link.]

Who is Godly?

What is the basis on which you approach God?

How did David approach Him?

Consider Psalm 86:2: “Preserve my life, for I am godly.” It almost sounds as if David is saying, “Look at how good I’ve been! I’ve become like You, Lord! I’ve fulfilled my part of the bargain, now You fulfill Yours – keep me alive! Save me from my enemies!”

But that seems to fly in the face of what Scripture says elsewhere. For example, many of us have memorized Ephesians 2:8-9:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

These and the surrounding verses clearly show that we are saved by God’s grace, not by our works. We are saved through faith in the crucified and risen Christ, not by our efforts. No matter how many good works we may do, no matter how faithful we may be, our status before God depends upon “the great love with which [God] loved us” (v. 5), not upon the “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (v. 10). Those works, indeed, are the result of God’s love, not the prerequisite for God’s love.

How then do we understand a verse like Psalm 86:2?

To understand this verse rightly, we must understand the word translated “godly.” What does this Hebrew word, hasidim, mean? It is often translated “saints.” But the word shares a root with the important Hebrew word hesed – translated “lovingkindness,” “steadfast love,” “covenant love,” or “unfailing love.. The English translations don’t look very similar. But any Hebrew reader would note the close relation between hasidim and hesed.

The word hesed, appearing more than 250 times in the Old Testament, is commonly used of God’s love for His people. For example, when God proclaims His Name before Moses at Mt Sinai, He says, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in hesed and faithfulness, keeping hesed for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6b-7a). David concludes Psalm 23 by saying, “Surely goodness and hesed will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

The word hasidim, on the other hand, is much less frequent, appearing in its plural and singular forms only 32 times. The link with hesed helps us to see that the hasidim are the people to whom God has shown hesed (see Psalm 18:25 and 2 Samuel 22:26). As one scholar writes, this word “indicates those who were recipients of God’s grace and who as a result show the impact of grace in their lives.” That is, “we love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Thus, the word can be used to refer to God’s people (Psalms 85:8) or God’s servants (Psalm 79:2), since anyone who receives God’s hesed belongs to Him. But the word can also be used to refer to “the faithful ones” (Psalm 12:1), since those loved by God are changed by Him. They become faithful to Him. Those God loves, He transforms into His likeness.

So hasidim does not mean “godly” in the sense of someone who has become like God through his own efforts. Instead, hasidim refers to those to whom God has shown hesed, and thus are made to be godly, made to be saints, by His grace.

This understanding of hasidim gives much opportunity for fruitful reflection on several of the verses in which the word appears. Consider:

  • Psalm 31:23 “Love the LORD, all you his hasidim!” That is, “Love the LORD, all you loved by Him!” In effect, this is 1 John 4:19 in the Old Testament.
  • Psalm 37:28 “For the LORD loves justice; he will not forsake his hasidim. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.” That is, “The LORD will never forsake those He loves, but will preserve them forever. Those outside His love will be cut off.”
  • Psalm 32:5-6 “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Therefore let the hasidim offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.”

The translation “godly” is particularly problematical in this last quotation. David says the hasidim are to offer prayers of confession when they sin. Given our usual understanding of “godly”, this makes little sense. Furthermore, near the end of the psalm he writes, “Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but hesed surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD.” David draws a contrast not between those who are sinners and those who are godly; rather the contrast is between sinners who confess, and the wicked who do not. Thus, “the wicked” are those who have never been transformed by God’s hesed, and so are not His people. Those who sin and confess are the hasidim, God’s people, those whom He loves. This is the real meaning of “godly” in this verse.

Finally, let’s return to Psalm 86:2: “Preserve my life, for I am one of the hasidim”. David says, “Preserve my life, Lord, not because of my righteous acts, not because of what I have done or accomplished, not because of my sacrifices or religious acts. But preserve my life because You love me! Preserve my life because You have made me Yours, You have made me one of Your people! Preserve my life because You are transforming me into Your likeness!”

This is a precious truth, which will help us fight the fight of faith day by day. God’s people, the hasidim, are those to whom He shows hesed. Thus, the main question for us is not, “How am I performing?” The question is, “Am I one of God’s people, God’s child, loved by Him and transformed by His love into His likeness?” The Lord God will indeed preserve His people. He will keep them in His love. He will complete the good work He has begun in them. Nothing can separate God’s people from the love He has for them in Christ Jesus. Amen.