American Reformation Church Prayer Journal 101
ARC Prayer Meeting:
This past Sunday at the American Reformation Church, we returned to the book of Psalms. The sermon expounded was based upon Psalms 3. We learned Psalms provide the voice for our souls. They serve as both our worship hymnal and prayer book in the church of the living God. They teach us how to approach God in every season of life.
The Psalms are far more about David’s Lord than David himself. Therefore, we cannot fully comprehend the Psalms without fully grasping the Gospel of the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Psalms are ultimately about the suffering, betrayal, Kingship, and ultimate victory of our Lord in time and history.
As we go through this particular Psalm, we discover once again the importance of prayer. In the midst of running for his life from his own child, betrayed by trusted friends, mocked by enemies, and abandoned by many who once supported him, David declared, “I cried to the Lord with my voice.”
Obviously, this was not a polished prayer with every theological T crossed and every doctrinal I dotted. This was not a prayer of appearance like the Pharisees who Jesus rebuked. They prayed not to be heard by God, but to be seen by men. Jesus said they have their reward. Their reward was confined to the earth and will not pass muster to reach a heavenly reward.
Throughout the book of Psalms there is that familiar cry. It does not proceed necessarily from the head of men, but deep from their very bowels. It is deep calling unto deep. In Psalms 34:6, David writes, “This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.” David was not in complete poverty when his cry went forth to the Lord. It was his circumstances that were poor. It was so bad he had to pretend madness, go to his enemies to find relief from the betrayal of his own people.
David recognized that many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord eventually delivers us out of them all (Psalms 34:19). He knows that the Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite spirit. He believes the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. Finally, he concludes, “The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned” (Psalms 34:22).
The cry of prayer was not a foreign concept to our Lord. There were times Jesus wept. He wept over Jerusalem, (Luke 19:41–44) at Lazarus’s tomb, (John 11:35) and in the garden of Gethsemane, as he was overwhelmed with sorrow (Matthew 26:38).
Sometimes it was from the depths of sorrow as when endured the agony of the cross. Other times, it was a cry of proclamation. At the Temple, He cried out, “You both know Me and know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know” (John 7:28). In John 7:37 states, “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” John 12:44 God’s word records, “And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me.”
Prayer can come in many ways. Sometimes it can come as a gentle breeze done in peace and other times like a mighty rushing wind where we cry out to God to deliver us from evil. In either case, there are times when prayer is more than just mere words that we hope clears the ceiling. It is a cry that comes from the depths of our souls to the One who alone can save and sustain us in times of trouble. Amen!
