Praying over our speech
0 Amens
According to the Book of James we are to house train our tongues. This applies to everyone who uses words, but especially those who teach others! James tells us that the tongue is a fire – a world of evil among the parts of the body. And we are a people of words; but so too is God. He is a speaking God, the Scriptures are HIS word, and Jesus is THE Word of God. We are to watch our words carefully.
Here is a Psalm that deals with words; God’s word, 4, 10; enemies who twist words, 5; and my words – words I use when I call to God for help, 9 and make my vows, 12
The heading tells us that David’s in Gath, in Philistine country. It could be 1 Sam 21;13 when he pretended to be insane, or more likely 1 Sam 27 when he also fled there.
Clearly David is under pressure; he’s had to run away from Saul – and of all the places to go, he chooses Gath in Gaza – Goliath’s home town. That must show just how desperate he was. But this plan to hide away in enemy territory has failed, and the Philistines are now after him.
So he asks God to help him, 1-2, to be merciful to him for he is now under attack; it was unremitting, all day long. But he is able to gain perspective; he contrasts his slanderers attacking him, in their pride or their human frailty, 1-2, with the God he can trust, 3-4 .
Taking in God’s word
He knows what he must do; a deliberate act of trust that is required, 3. And why should he trust God? Cos God has made certain promises; he has SAID certain things – things he can trust. God, whose word I trust, 3, says David. This is the God who spoke at Sinai and made a national covenant with Israel; this is the God who spoke through Samuel and made a personal covenant with David. David knows this and repeats the refrain, 10, adding the personal name – the covenant name, Yahweh LORD, for God
I know that often in an emotional state we don’t know where to turn; cos we can’t think clearly. But David does know, cos he’s saturated his mind and heart with God’s truth from the Scriptures. And we need to do the same. We will only be able to react correctly, to speak think and correctly if we soak up God’s word and take it in – especially his covenant promises to us.
The Message: Take my side, God—I'm getting kicked around, stomped on every day.
Not a day goes by but somebody beats me up; they make it their duty to beat me up
When I get really afraid I come to you in trust.
I'm proud to praise God; fearless now, I trust in God. What can mere mortals do?
The key is to trust God and his word of promise
Having our words twisted
Here is David under great pressure; look at the language of 6 they conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps, 5: they are always plotting to harm me
And its true that David wants God to deal with them, 7. But I guess the unremitting pressure each day is what is the worst part of the ordeal, all day long, 5 It was there is 1 also. There’s just no let-up.
The Message: They don't let up—they smear my reputation and huddle to plot my collapse.
They gang up, sneak together through the alleys to take me by surprise,
wait their chance to get me.
Notice the misrepresentation of words, twisted, smearing one’s reputation; their thoughts are against me for evil says the ESV. The language here is strong and very vivid
A conspiracy is going on here; "a sneaky attack from behind" says Alec Motyer, so that whatever is said is taken falsely. And we’re not surprised; following the Goliath episode, David would have plenty of enemies in Gath
That’s the trouble with words; how careful we have to be with what we say. How precise we need our words to be so that they are not twisted. Every day we hear someone say that their words were taken out of context. It’s a horrible feeling to be misquoted. And David doesn’t like it either: 7. So he puts it in God’s hands. But he also asks God to record his lament, 8 – and its here for all to read.
God is for us
David is confident that God will hear his words. God will answer, when I call for help 9. And then he will know God is for him. It is when our prayers are answered that our confidence in God grows. As we pray we see God at work before our eyes; we find opposition does fall away, enemies do turn back. Thus we are assured God is for us. And to finish that off in Romans 8:31, Paul adds, and who can be against us
David is quite sure that he can trust God because of his word – hence the stronger refrain in 10f repeating whose word I praise. Fear is met by trust; enemies are met by prayer. And prayer rests on the great conviction: that God is on the side of his covenant people. God has spoken and faith rests on his word.Our words are based on his word
Now look how the song has turned. In 1-2 all 4 lines talked of the threat of the enemy; pursuing, pressing their attack, pursuing, attacking. David only alluded to God’s mercy once, 1. But look at 12-13; it’s the other way round. Each of the 4 lines is about God; only one line is alludes to the threat David faces, David says that he’s been delivered from death and his feet from stumbling.
The purpose of the Psalm has now been reached; David is celebrating that God has answered his prayer by keeping to his word, keeping the promise he has made. And David likewise will keep faith in God whom he trusts, even in future adversity
He brought his need to God in prayer – using words. He recollected God’s word of promise and renewed his trust in God. This gave him a great result. It is true the danger is still real; he could still faith death and stumble – but that threat is overtaken by the reality of God – and especially of trusting this God - the God to whom David makes his own promises, 12 I am under vows to you. He is committed and devoted to God; he promises to walk before God in God’s light – the light of life, 13b.
His faith in God, amidst his difficulty has changed the whole scene. He can trust God to see him through. When we have that kind of commitment, we find Jesus’ promise in John 8:12 so real: Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
David has learned to walk by faith and not by sight
Now when we talk of faith, we mean faith in God. And faith in God means trusting in what God has said. Who God is, is what God has said. You cannot divorce God from his word. To be a follower of God is to be a Bible person. To be God-centred is to be word-centred.
How then should we pray? What words should we use?
We should us words based on God’s Word; words based on God’s covenantal promises. We should make our promises to God based on his promises to us.
A key section is 3-4: When I am afraid … I will not be afraid. What changes in between? This man trusts God; he praises God for his word. To trust God = to trust and act on his word.
It is this prayer articulated in this Psalm, that brought our man David freedom, transforming the sentence of death, 6 into the light of life, 13. From pursuit by the enemies, 1-2, David is transformed into pursuing holiness, 12-13. That’s what godly prayer does. It changes us to be more devoted to God.
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Prayer: Change my heart O God, make it ever true. Heavenly Father, we thank you that it is possible to turn our eyes to Jesus and look full in his wonderful face, so that he things of earth grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace. We are most grateful to you that you first spoke to us; you gave us covenant words of promise, words to reveal your heart to us. We want to respond to you using your own words. We need help to read and memorize Scripture; we held help to get our fears into perspective; to enlarge our vision of you and your work.We pray that you will help us to grow in our faith, in our trust, our relationship with you. We often feel that faith just means being cleverer, knowing more. But its not a matter of quantity, we need to develop what we already know, and continually soak in more. Help us with our words – our words in private prayer, and our words in public; our words that run around our head, as well as our words on our lips. Make us more godly with our words we pray. For Jesus’ sake. Amen
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