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40 Days of Prayer, Day 15

Day 15, Sunday, September 4

Psalm 19:1 The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

Psalm 19 and the Beauty of God’s Creation

God is a God of relationships. As with all relationships, communication is a key component of the health of our relationship to God. We communicate with Him through prayer and acts of faith done while trusting in Him. We communicate with Him by submitting ourselves to the Holy Spirit’s work within us. We communicate with Him through praise and worship, as an individual and in corporate gatherings. But long before we have communicated with God, He communicated with us. There is a verse in I John that says, “We love because He first loved us.” God loved us first. Our love for God and for others is only possible because He initiated love. Just as it is with love, so also it is with communication. It is also true that we speak to Him. However, we communicate with him only because He first communicated with to us. God started the conversation. God initiated the relationship through His communication to us. And God uses a variety of ways to communicate with us. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” With the opening language of Genesis 1:1 the Bible begins to unfold the purposes and plans of God. Just two verses later, God spoke, the first words ever spoken in the universes. “Let there be light.” God spoke light into being. Surely there were a variety of ways God could have created. He could have thought about light. He could have willed light into existence. The verse could have simply said, “God created light” without any reference to the means of His creative work. Instead, God spoke light into being. He is a God of relationships and from the beginning God has been communicating. The creation was spoken into being because the purpose of the creation is God’s revelation of Himself. God spoke and the universe has been speaking back ever since.

David reflected on the purposes of God when he wrote Psalm 19. God spoke light into being. God spoke the heavens and the starts into being. Then the stars kept the conversation going. The stars spoke back to the universe to declare the nature of the God Who made them. The stars continue to speak. Just as we communicate with one another in a variety of ways such as speech, touch, body language, gifts, spending time together, God also uses a variety of ways to communicate with us. Often when we think about God speaking to us today, we think about God’s message to us through the written word, the Bible. However, God’s ongoing conversation to us includes His communication to us the His creation. He reveals His character through the stars, animals, and plants. The creation speaks on the Creator’s behalf. The stars declare that God is glorious. This is the purpose of the spoken creation in Genesis 1. God spoke the creation into being because the creation itself provides the means of God to speak to us. God is a God of relationships. Knowing the other person is critical to a relationship. We cannot know God without knowing His character. The stars speak volumes about the glorious nature of our God.

Prayer Focus

God, You are glorious.  You have proclaimed Your glorious nature in so many ways.  Thank You for the beauty of Your creation.  Thank You for sharing Your glorious character with us through what has been made.  You spoke and the universe came into being.  You spoke my life into being.  You spoke salvation into my life through the work of Your Son, Jesus Christ and through the power of Your Holy Spirit.  Thank You for still speaking to me today in so many ways.  You are so kind.  Amen.

From Bunyan’s The Acceptable Sacrifice
When the hand of the Lord is with the Word, then it is mighty: it is 'mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds' (2 Cor 10:4). It is sharp as a sword; it sticks like an arrow in the hearts of sinners, to the causing of the people to fall at his foot for mercy (Heb 4:12). Then it is as a hammer to break this rock in pieces (Psa 110:3). As it stands by itself, and is not seconded with saving operation from heaven, it is called the Word only, or as if it was only the word of men (1 Th. 1:5-7; 1 Cor. 4:19, 20; 1 Th. 2:13). Because it is only as managed by men, who are not able to make it accomplish that work. The Word of God, when in a man's hand only, is like the father's sword in the hand of a young child; which sword, though well pointed, and though sharp on the edges, is not now able to conquer a foe, because it is but in the hand of the child. But let the same sword be put into the hand of a skillful father, and God is both skillful and able to manage his Word, and then the sinner, and then the proud helpers too, are both made to stoop, and submit themselves; therefore, I say, though the Word be the instrument, yet of itself does no good to the soul; the heart is not broken, nor the spirit made contrite thereby; it only works death, and leaves men in the chains of their sins, still faster bound over to eternal condemnation.

40 Days of Prayer, Day 14

Day 14, Saturday, September 3

Psalm 51:14-15 Deliver me from the guilt of shedding innocent blood, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Your praise.

Deliver Me from the Guilt of Shedding Innocent Blood

With this request, David likely had in his mind the specific sin of the murder of Uriah the Hittite. Spurgeon said this about David’s statement in verse 14. “Honest penitents do not fetch a compass and confess their sins in an elegant periphrasis, but they come to the point, call a spade a spade, and make a clean confession of all. What other course is rational in dealing with the Omniscient? … He confesses sin more plainly in this verse than before, and yet he deals with God more confidently: growing upward and downward at the same time are perfectly consistent. None but the King can remit the death penalty, it is therefore a joy to faith that God is King, and that he is the author and finisher of our salvation. And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. One would rather have expected him to say, I will sing of Your mercy; but David can see the divine way of justification, that righteousness of God which Paul afterwards spoke of by which the ungodly are justified, and he vows to sing, and to sing joyfully of that righteous way of mercy. After all, it is the righteousness of divine mercy which is its greatest wonder...A great sinner pardoned makes a great singer. Sin has a loud voice, and so should our thankfulness have. We shall not sing our own praises if we be saved, but our theme will be the Lord our righteousness, in whose merits we stand righteously accepted.”

The Joyful Praise of Forgiven People

Joy enters the equation again in this psalm. David requested the restoration of joy. “Restore to me the joy of my salvation.” David connected the joyful praise of God with that of God’s mercy. God is a God of relationships. In our relationship to Him, He loves it when we praise Him. He has made much of our relationship with Him by sending His Son into the world to save us. But we have been created with a purpose. We have been created to make much of our relationship with God. Praise and worship provide for us an outlet of the purpose for which we have been made. David understood the hindrances to individual and corporate worship. Sin destroys both individual and corporate worship. When mercy flows from the heart of God, worship flows from the heart of the forgiven. Today, Saturday before another corporate day of worship, is a good day to focus our hearts and minds on joyful worship. Tomorrow morning, may we enter with the congregation, hearts engaged and minds prepared, for a joyful worship of our righteous and gracious God. He gives to us eternal salvation and then He keeps giving by providing His joy for daily living. Let’s come before Him with songs of loudest praise.

Prayer Focus

Thank You God for the restoration of joy.  I praise You for You are infinitely worthy of my praise.  I praise You for Your forgiveness.  I praise You for Your mighty works in salvation.  I praise You for everlasting faithfulness.   All of this to the glory of Your name, Amen.

From Bunyan’s The Acceptable Sacrifice
The instrument with which the heart is broken, and with which the spirit is made contrite, is the Word. 'Is not my word like as a fire, says the Lord; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?' (Jer 23:29). The rock, in this text, is the heart, which in another place is described as harder than flint (Zech 7:11, 12; Eze 3:9). This rock, this stony heart, is broken and made contrite by the Word. But it only is so, when the Word is as a fire, and as a hammer to break and melt it. And then, and then only, it is as a fire, and a hammer to the heart to break it, when it is managed by the arm of God. No one can break the heart with the Word; no angel can break the heart with the Word; that is, if God forbears to second it by mighty power from heaven. This made Balaam go without a heart rightly broken, and truly contrite, though he was rebuked by an angel; and the Pharisees die in their sins, though rebuked for them, and admonished to turn from them, by the Savior of the world. Wherefore, though the Word is the instrument with which the heart is broken, yet it is not broken with the Word, till that Word is managed by the might and power of God.

40 Days of Prayer, Day 13

Day 13, Friday, September 2

Psalm 51:12-13 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You.

Restoring Joy, the Glorious Work of God

God is a God of relationships. And just as strong human relationships produce joy, joy functions within the framework of our relationship with God. God created the universe for His glory. God created us for His glory. God saves us through faith in Christ for His glory. All of these works of God provide the means to bring glory to His own name. These works also allow us to be in a relationship with Him. Since God is a God of relationship, one of the byproducts of His works is joy. Joy spills out of the Creator’s heart and into humanity. Joy has always existed because the Triune God has always been in joyful relationship with Himself, a relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Love between the members of the Trinity produces joy within the Trinity. This is also true for us. God’s love, spilling out of the Trinity and into our lives, produces joy within us. When we sin against God, it mutes or dampens the joy of our relationship with God. This is not surprising. In our human relationships we experience the same thing. When a child rebels against a parent, the joy of the relationship is strained as the parent has to discipline the child and as the child battles with the consequences of that rebellion. Joy dissipates when the relationship is under stress.

David understood the joy of the relationship. God had saved David on the basis of faith. We don’t know exactly when David trusted in God for His salvation, but David looks back on that joyful moment in this psalm. As David confessed his sin and sought God’s forgiveness, David also longed for the restoration of joy. “Restore to me the joy of my salvation.”   This request in the psalm comes after the request for forgiveness. Grace and mercy from God restore our relationship with God. Joy is a critical byproduct of that grace and mercy. David understood this. He sought it out. He pursued the joy of the relationship. So too with us, because God is a God of relationships and joy is a natural extension of our relationship to Him. What is your joy level in your walk with God right now? Is the relationship purely external action like church attendance? Is the relationship purely theological knowledge? If we are in a close relationship with God, we should have a life of joy. Yes, we should confess our sins and seek God’s forgiveness. But the forgiveness is not just an ends to itself, to get us out of trouble with God. The forgiveness is a means to an end, the restoration of a joyful relationship.

Prayer Focus

Help me dear Lord seek You for Who You are and not just what I can get from You.  Restore the joy that I knew and experienced when I first put my faith in You.  Give me joy as only You can give.  Forgive me for seeking joy in so many other things.  Set my mind on my relationship with You for in You is true lasting joy. Amen.

From Bunyan’s The Acceptable Sacrifice

But, do the broken in spirit believe this? Can they imagine that this is to be the end that God has designed them to, and that he intended to make with them in the day in which he began to break their hearts? No, no; they, alas! think quite the contrary. They are afraid that this is but the beginning of death, and a token that they shall never see the face of God with comfort, either in this world or that which is to come. Hence they cry, 'Cast me not away from your presence'; or, Now I am 'among the dead whom God remembers no more' (Psa 51:11, 88:4, 5). For indeed there goes with the breaking of the heart a visible appearance of the wrath of God, and a charge from heaven of the guilt of sin. This is very dreadful; for it cuts the soul down to the ground; 'for a wounded spirit who can bear?' (Prov 18:14).  It seems also now to this man, that this is but the beginning of hell; but as it were the first step down to the pit; when, indeed, all these are but the beginnings of love, and but that which makes way for life. The Lord kills before he makes alive; he wounds before his hands make whole. Yea, he does the one in order to do the other; he wounds, because his purpose is to heal; 'he makes sore, and binds up; he wounds, and his hands make whole' (Deut 32:39; 1 Sam 2:6; Job 5:18). His design, I say, is the salvation of the soul. He scourges, he breaks the heart of every son whom he receives, and woe be to him whose heart God does not break.