Psalm 4:1 – Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!”
THEME OF THE DAY. HE WILL DO IT AGAIN. Humans are creatures of habit. It doesn’t take long to look into our lives and see this is true. I see it every Sunday. From my vantage point of standing in the pulpit, looking out over my congregation, I am able to take “visible” attendance by where people usually sit. Most people gravitate to the same pew area each week. Yes, we are creatures of habit and routines. We also are creatures prone to forget things. And particularly as Christians, we are God’s children who tend to forget His faithfulness when facing still yet another challenge in our lives tempting us to fret, worry, and be engulfed with fear and unbelief. Instead of immediately looking through the circumstances to the faithful God in the circumstance, we wallow in worry and fear. We forget God has proven to be faithful to help us in the past when facing other trying circumstances.
In today’s scripture, David offers us the help we need in this area of spiritual amnesia. Let’s consider what he models for us that will move us from fretting in unbelief to rejoicing in faith when the next trying situation comes our way.
David prays. And he prays urgently, fervently, and relationally. You may say, “Jim, I do pray in tough circumstances.” I am sure you do. I do too, but more often it is a prayer for immediate deliverance from the suffering situation or to change the circumstance. Both directed to my personal peace and comfort. David isn’t praying in that direction. There is a difference between an urgent prayer of “Help, Lord, deliver me from this situation.” and David’s prayer. Notice what he does. After the child-like prayer for a listening eye from God – “Answer me”, he tells the Lord, You have given me relief when I was in distress”. There are two reasons for this.
First, by praying to the Lord “You have given me relief when I was in distress”, David is taking control of his intense emotional state of distress and disciplining his heart and mind to remember God’s past faithfulness to him. This is so important for us because in the heat of a tough situation charged with emotions, we tend to focus on the pain and the situation instead of remembering our faithful God. The Christian life, even the praying life, begins in the discipline of the mind. As we think so we pray and live. And if our thinking is under the control of our emotions instead of our thinking controlling our emotions, we will be all over the place spiritually – unstable as water.
Next, David pleaded to the Lord to answer Him according to His character – faithfulness; “You have given me relief when I was in distress”. Did God need to be reminded by David that He had been his source of relief in the past? Of course not, but for some reason, God delights in His people praying to Him in remembrance of His attributes and character. Read the Psalms, even the prayer of Jesus in John 17 and the Apostle Paul’s prayers. We will find time after time of the petitioner stating God’s character traits back to Him. Again, this isn’t to get God to remember. He forgets nothing. It is to orient the praying person off their situation, circumstance, and trial and onto the God who is faithful and has proven Himself faithful time and time again in the lives of His people.
Yes, God is faithful. He will be our source of strength in every situation and circumstance. He has proven it many times in the past. And He will do it again. Trust Him and prove our trust by praying as David models for us.
PRAYER: “Lord, help me always to remember Your past faithfulness to me.”
QUOTE: “When tempted to worry in the present quickly remember God’s faithfulness in the past.”
Because of Him,
Pastor Jim