This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) Welcome back for day five of Psalms one, part one. So we're
looking at Psalm five today. Psalm five is a favorite Psalm of many people, a
quiet time Psalm, a Psalm about the miracle of prayer, the essence of prayer and
the theology of prayer.

Let's look at those in this Psalm. First Psalm five is about the miracle of
prayer. Verses one and two.

Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my sighing. Listen to my cry for help, my
King and my God, for to you I pray. The miracle of prayer is that my King and my
God would listen to me when I pray.

What a miracle that the King of the universe, the God of creation wants to give
ear to my words, wants to consider my sighing, wants to listen to my cry. Now
there's these phrases here that are behind who God is and how God listens. Give
ear, consider, listen.

When you pray, God is doing all of that. He is giving ear to your prayers, he's
hearing it, he's considering it, he's thinking about it, he's listening to it,
he's taking it in. Give ear to my words, the words of your prayers, to my
sighing, the emotion of your prayers, to my cry, the hurt that's in your
prayers.

The miracle of prayer is that the King of the universe, the God of creation is
listening to all of that. The Psalm also talks about the essence of prayer.
Verse three.

In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning, I lay my request
before you and wait in expectation. When you're praying, God is hearing what
you're saying.

In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice. The essence of prayer is that you
make it a priority. In the morning, beginning of the day with prayer, you hear
my voice.

The essence of the prayer, of the idea of prayer is that God is listening to
you, that you are talking to God. God hears your voice, he knows your voice. And
then in that voice, what are you doing?

I lay my request before you. That word lay, the word there is used for setting a
table or an orderly laying out of all the utensils and the dishes and the cups.
And when you come before God, you're laying out your request before him.

Now I know some people are more organized in their prayers than others, and I
know some people are more organized in their prayers than others, and they
really do lay their requests to some people. I mean, they've got charts and
they've got days of prayer, and I think those are good things to do. Some of you
aren't quite that organized, but whether you're more or less organized, you
still need to have a way of laying it all before him.

Here's my concerns, here's my family, here's my heart, here's where I want to see
you working in my life. I just lay it before you, God. The idea of laying it
before him also is you letting it go before him.

The essence of prayer is you giving it to him. You trusting it to him. And then
there's these words at the end.

I lay it before you, my request. If you're just going to God and you're saying,
God, you're a great God and I love you, thank you, then you're not praying.
You're praising, but you're not fully praying, 'cause praying is trusting.

Praying is not just being grateful for what God has done. It's thinking that
somehow you did it, but oh yeah, God gave me the strength. No, praying is
trusting.

I lay my request before you, because you know that God's the one who's going to do
it. And then there's these words at the end. And then I, I wait in expectation.

The expectation with which we wait, that is the essence of faith in our prayers.
And as you're praying, the question is, are you waiting impatiently or are you
waiting expectantly? I hope you're waiting.

If you're praying, you're saying, God, I'm willing to wait on you for the
answer. If you're going to God and saying, God, here's what I want you to do,
and then you go out and do it yourself in the next five minutes, well, you
haven't prayed. You just told God what you're going to do.

You've given God the right of first refusal. He can do it in the next two
minutes or I'm going to get it then. No, you go and you trust God with it.

And then you wait in expectation. So are you waiting impatiently or are you
waiting expectantly? We wait, I certainly have waited impatiently many, many
times in my life, and you probably have too.

And we wait impatiently when we wait on our timetable. God, here's when it has
to be done. By the way, God, if it's not done by this time, it's not going to work.

I'm just telling you, God, if you don't do it right now, it's going to all fall
apart. That's waiting impatiently, as if God didn't know more than we know. Are
you waiting expectantly?

God, you're the one who knows the right timetable. God, you're the one who knows
the right moment. God, only you know when this should happen.

I can think of the right times, but only you know the perfect time. So I wait
expectantly for that perfect time. Now I know, and many of you have waited
expectantly for things, not only for months, but for years and even decades.

But you've seen how God's timing is always perfect. The essence of prayer is
that God is hearing you, that you're laying your requests before him, and then
you're waiting expectantly. This psalm, psalm five, also talks about the
theology of prayer.

The theology of prayer, the theology of prayer is that God punishes evil, but he
blesses those who trust in him. Verses four and five, you're not a God who takes
pleasure in evil. With you, the wicked cannot dwell.

The arrogant cannot stand in your presence. You hate all who do wrong. But I, by
your great mercy, will come into your house.

In reverence will I bow down towards your holy temple. In verses 10 and 11, you
see the center of David's theology of prayer. He repeats what we just read in
verses four, five, and seven.

10 and 11 say, declare them guilty, O God. Let their intrigues be their
downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they've rebelled against you.

But let all who take refuge in you be glad. And let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in
you.

And then in verse 12, for surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous. You surround
them with your favor as with a shield. So you see the theology of prayer here.

With you, God, the wicked cannot dwell. They can't even come into your presence.
But by your mercy will I come into your house.

We're all invited in by God's mercy by the cross. So it's not a matter of God
saying some are not invited, but only some take the invitation. Only some
recognize God's choice in their lives.

Declare them guilty, he says of some, those who are evil. But surround the
righteous with your favor, he says of others. Now, this idea that God punishes
evil, that he blesses those who trust in him, while we're on this earth, that
truth is not so clear.

It often, wouldn't you agree, it often looks like the wicked are being blessed
and then the righteous are being punished? Let me just say two things about
that. First, be grateful that God lets the wicked experience his blessings on
this earth.

He let you experience those blessings before you came to faith. And he uses
those blessings to lead people to himself. Jesus talked about this in the Sermon
on the Mount.

He said God lets his son shine on the evil and the good. He also sends rain, by
the way, on both the evil and the good. But he lets his son shine on both the
evil and the good so that they can experience the truth of God's blessings and
hopefully through that come to faith in him.

So be grateful that God lets the wicked experience his blessings on this earth.
Don't be jealous. But second, know that whatever you see happening now, it's
just the first sentence in a billion volume story.

Now, that sentence is real and you are living it, so I don't minimize it. But
the truth of the matter is, it's not the end of the story. It's not even the
story.

The story is what God's going to do in your life throughout all of those volumes of
eternity. And what's God going to do in your life? He's going to do what he started
now.

He's going to bless you through all eternity. So look again at the blessings
here, the blessings that begin even while we're on this earth. In Psalm five, we
see the blessing of coming into God's house.

We see the blessing of being glad in God's refuge. We see the blessing of
singing for joy. We see this blessing of God's protection being spread over you.

We see the blessing of rejoicing in him. We see this blessing of being
surrounded with God's favor. So let's end by thanking God for his blessings.

Our Father, we do thank you for these blessings that are expressed to us in
Psalm five. We are grateful for your blessings that we can come to you boldly
and talk to you. We can come to your house.

We can be glad in your refuge. You are a place of safety. We can sing for joy.

We can rejoice over you because of all that you've given for us and all the love
that you lavish on us. God, we can rejoice in the blessing of your protection
being spread over us. You give us spiritual protection, emotional protection,
eternal protection.

And you protect us from things in this world, circumstances that we're not even
aware of. Thank you for the blessing of your protection. And thank you for the
blessing of being surrounded by your favor.

Your Holy Spirit within us reminds us of that daily. So in that spirit of
gratefulness, we praise you for the blessing of your grace. In your name, amen.