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Introduction:
You can’t have a relationship with someone if you never talk to
him. In the same way, we all recognize we can’t have a
relationship with God if we don’t talk to Him. Most of us
recognize that without a strong prayer life we’re walking
through life alone and we’ll never make it. However, we struggle
to improve our praying. As we’ve learned over the last year, the
Psalms provide a great source of help and strength to do just
that. If we are going to have a strong relationship with God, it
stands to reason we can learn from these writers who had a strong
relationship with Him. We’ve looked at the God in whom they
believed, how they viewed
themselves, how they viewed
prayer, and
how they prepared for prayer. But what was their purpose in
prayer? What was the goal of their praying? If we want to have the
relationship with God that they had, if we want to pray as they
did, we must have the same goal in mind that they had. Discussion: I.
The Psalmists’ Goal: That everything be to the praise of
God’s glory. A.
There is no doubt that if we look at the individual prayers
in the psalms, we might find particular petitions: deliverance,
forgiveness, mercy, protection, etc. However, these are merely the
goals of particular prayers. When we take the psalms as a whole,
we see one overarching theme. We find one overshadowing goal. It
is the same goal we find in Ephesians
1:6, 12, 14, that everything be to the praise of God’s
glory. B.
We can’t help but see this in the psalms of praise: 1.
Psalm
8:1—“Oh
LORD, our lord,/how majestic is your name in all the earth!/You
have set your glory above the heavens.” 2.
Psalm
115:1—“Not
to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory,/for the
sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” 3.
Psalm
146:1-2—“Praise
the LORD!/Praise the LORD, O my soul!/I will praise the LORD as
long as I live;/I will sing praises to my God while I have my
being.” 4.
Psalm
150:1-2—“Praise
the LORD!/Praise God in his sanctuary;/praise him in his mighty
heavens!/Praise him for his mighty deeds;/praise him according to
his excellent greatness!” C.
However, even in the laments and petitions for life,
deliverance, and protection we see that the great goal of the
psalmists was for God’s continued praise and glorification. 1.
Psalm
6:5—“For
in death there is no remembrance of you;/in Sheol who will give
you praise?” 2.
Psalm
30:9—“What
profit is there in my death,/if I go down to the pit?/Will the
dust praise you?/Will it tell of your faithfulness?” 3.
Psalm
88:10—“Do
you work wonders for the dead?/Do the departed rise up to praise
you?” 4.
Psalm
115:17—“The
dead do not praise the LORD,/no do any who go down into
silence.” 5.
Psalm
118:17—“I
shall not die, but I shall live/and recount the deeds of the
Lord.” 6.
Psalm
119:175—“Let
my soul live and praise you…” D.
If we want to be like the psalmists, no matter what we are
praying, no matter what kind of prayer we are offering, the
overriding goal must be God’s glory. II.
Accomplishing this goal. A.
Praise
God. 1.
Clearly, if you want to make the goal of your praying be
the praise of God’s glory, then make actual adoration a key part
of your praying. We’ve already seen how praise was a key part of
the psalms. Notice that it was key for praying in general. 2.
Consider Jesus’ model prayer in Matthew
6:9-13. Notice how the prayer begins. Before seeking
anything from God, the prayer begins with praise. “Our Father in
heaven, hallowed be your name.” According to some manuscripts it
also ends with praise. “For yours is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory, forever.” 3.
If you want your praying to be to the praise of God’s
glory, offer some prayers that are merely about the praise of
God’s glory. For the other prayers, let the anchor, the
beginning, and the end be about praising God. B.
Be
more concerned about God’s will than your own. 1.
As we’ve seen, even when the psalmists were seeking
deliverance, they were more concerned about the benefit to God
than their own benefit. Consider some other prayers. 2.
A great example of this is Hezekiah’s prayer in II
Kings 19:15-19. He was seeking deliverance from Assyria
for Judah. But what was his main concern? Was it his life? Was it
his city? No, it was God’s will and glory. He wanted God to see
how He, God, had been mocked, not how Hezekiah had been mocked. He
wanted God to deliver so the world would know that Jehovah was God
alone, not so folks would leave Jerusalem alone. He was concerned
about God and His will. 3.
Consider Jesus’ model prayer again in Matthew
6:9-13. Jesus began with praise. But the first request was
not about our will. Rather, the first request was about submission
to God’s will. “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven.” This says what we are most concerned about
is that God’s will and rule spread throughout the world, not
that we get our whims and wants. 4.
Finally, think about Jesus’ own prayer in the Garden of
Gethsemane in Matthew
26:39. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass
from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” What
Jesus essentially says is, “God, here is what I want. But what I
want more than that is what You want.” We need that attitude in
our prayers. C.
Trust
God’s answers. 1.
Some people pray and pray and then when things don’t go
the way they asked, they abandon God. That makes our prayers about
our will, not His. Instead, we need to trust God’s answers. He
loves us and is working all things together for our ultimate good
(Romans
8:28). 2.
Matthew
7:7-11
says our Father wants to give us good gifts. His gifts are good.
Even when we can’t see in the moment how good they are, we can
trust that God sees more than just this moment and provides what
is best for us and for His glory. We simply need to trust Him. 3.
Consider Paul’s prayer in II
Corinthians 12:7-10. God denied Paul’s request to remove
his thorn in the flesh. Paul was able to see the benefit of this
denial. He trusted God that allowing to continue the thorn in the
flesh was actually good for him. 4.
We need to have that same trust. Otherwise, our prayers
will be about getting God to bend to our will instead of us
bending to His and glorifying Him. D.
Praise
God whether you get what you want or not. 1.
Perhaps one of the greatest statements about prayer is
found in Job
1:21. “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked
shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
blessed be the name of the Lord.” 2.
We are often very willing to praise God when He does what
we want. However, when He denies our requests or does things
differently than we expected, we find it harder to praise Him. We
need to have Job’s mindset. Whether we get what we want or not,
whether we get what we asked for or not, whether the Lord gives or
takes away, we need to bless the name of the Lord. 3.
If the goal of our praying is to get what we want, then we
won’t have the relationship with God or the depth of prayer the
psalmists had. However, if the goal is the glory of God, then
we’ll be able to bless God no matter His answers. We’ll be
happy when God performs His will over ours, because what we wanted
more was what God wanted. Conclusion: The psalmists certainly asked for things. They sought deliverance and blessing. However, these momentary goals were all subordinate to one overarching principle of prayer. Prayer is about bending us to God’s will, not bending Him to ours. As such, the goal of their praying in general was the praise of God’s glory, not the seeking of our own wills. May we strive to grow in this. May we ever bless the name of God whether He gives or takes away. May we praise God because He is worthy. May we humble ourselves before Him and surrender our lives and our prayers to Him.
Glory
to God in the church by Christ Jesus
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