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[0:00] The Psalms help us to cultivate our relationship with God. And that being the case, we shouldn't be surprised that eventually in a book talking about cultivating our walk with God,! our relationship with God, that we should come to the topic of prayer, since prayer is the way that we communicate with God.

[0:22] So, we come this morning to Psalm 5, if you want to open your Bible there, Psalm 5, for a lesson on how to pray.

[0:34] And oh, how we need lessons on prayer, because we all find prayer difficult at times. Why is that? Why is prayer difficult for us? What makes it difficult?

[0:47] What makes it hard for you? Knowing what to say and how to say it. Knowing what to pray for and then how to say it. What makes prayer hard for you?

[1:01] Chuck? A lazy mind. A flesh that doesn't want to. Did you know that there's a part of you, there's always a part of you that would rather do anything than pray.

[1:13] You'll carry him around until your dying day. So, if you're going to pray, you're going to have to deal with the flesh, aren't you? A Puritan. I'm sorry?

[1:24] Lack of faith. Lack of faith. We'll see that in a moment. Prayer is an exercise of faith, isn't it? You don't see the one you're talking to.

[1:36] That makes it hard. Yes, Bruce? Not esteeming the reality of the one we're talking to. Mmm. Mmm. Not esteeming the reality of the one we're speaking to. When we don't see by faith the one we're talking to, then prayer becomes difficult.

[1:55] Bill? How many of you said the gospel is holy God? Mmm. You ever stutter and stammer when you're in the presence of someone important?

[2:05] What if when we come before the Almighty? World, present any distractions to you? Does the world have any allurements that kind of say, here, do this for a while, or do that?

[2:22] There's one grand enemy of prayer that we haven't even mentioned yet. Satan. Do you realize there's a higher intelligence in the world? That doesn't want you to pray.

[2:36] For our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Paul tells us. And that's true of the whole of our life. From the moment in the morning we wake up to the time we go to bed at night, we have an enemy.

[2:47] And our enemy is not just the people we see and the troublesome people in our lives. But behind it all, there's this spiritual force. Spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

[3:00] There's Satan and all of his hosts. And they especially would war against prayer. Why is that? Why would Satan want to keep us from praying?

[3:12] Prayer is dangerous to his kingdom. Any other reasons? Philip says, since prayer is our greatest privilege on this side of heaven, it's also the focal point of the most intense spiritual warfare.

[3:27] I think that prayer is the channel by which we receive all grace and mercy and strength and the fruit of the Spirit and help from heaven.

[3:42] Boy, if he can cut that supply chain and shut it down and plug it up, he's going to do all he can to keep us from prayer. And so with such enemies to prayer, there will be plenty of difficulties to overcome.

[4:00] And that's why I say when we come to a psalm that would teach us how to pray, we have great need of these encouragements and instructions on prayer to keep us from growing weary.

[4:14] Thomas Shepard, the founder and president of Harvard, said, there are days I would rather die than pray. And I think our flesh weighs in very often, and that's what we feel like.

[4:26] Well, unless we put our foot on the neck of our flesh, we won't be praying. So all these difficulties to pray, thank God we have this psalm. Now, all the psalms basically are prayers, and this psalm, though, is especially given to us to instruct us and to lead us in prayer.

[4:50] It's very helpful to take a psalm, as our author told us in the very foreword of his book, to take a psalm and to pray through it, especially when we're fighting those wandering thoughts, the lazy mind that's just going every which way.

[5:08] A lack of structure, a lack of a plan, a lack of direction, not knowing what to pray for, often leads to wandering thoughts.

[5:19] When our mind isn't engaged, it's easily distracted. When it doesn't have something directing it, it easily wanders. So a plan, a channel, a structure can help it.

[5:35] So take a psalm and let that psalm be the path down which you're led in your prayer life. So as you come before the Lord, you're going to pray, and you're going to use Psalm 16 this morning to be the channel of your prayer.

[5:55] I'm referring to last week's lesson. But take that psalm up and use it for your prayer. And it becomes like riverbanks that would keep your thoughts flowing, you see, and keep them from running out and running every which way.

[6:09] It gives some structure and form to your prayer. And then you fill out that prayer as you begin to speak to the Lord using that inspired word that He has given us.

[6:22] And so structure is often helpful in keeping our minds from wondering. Well, the psalms then, use them in praying. But this psalm is peculiar in that it's a psalm about praying.

[6:37] It's a prayer about prayer. And so we turn to this psalm this morning. Verses 1 to 3, Psalm 5. For the director of music, for flutes, a psalm of David.

[6:52] 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, in the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice.

[7:08] In the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. And we'll pause there. The first thing we're taught, we have, I think, four points here this morning.

[7:23] The very first thing we're taught is that prayer is coming to God. And several of you have made that observation in the questions that we've already answered. Prayer is coming to God.

[7:34] Notice he says, for to you I pray. There at the end of verse 2. To you I pray. Prayer is not self-talk. It's not the soul communing with itself.

[7:47] Just thinking to ourselves. Now that happens, doesn't it? We do commune with ourselves. We do talk to ourselves, don't we? That's a legitimate exercise.

[7:58] And the psalmist engages in it, and we ought to as well. Martin Lloyd-Jones says we don't talk to ourselves enough. That's the problem. We're always listening and listening to the world and our flesh.

[8:09] We need to talk to ourselves and remind ourselves of things. But that's not what prayer is. It's not the soul communing with itself. Prayer is directed outside of ourselves.

[8:20] It's talking to someone else. And that someone is here mentioned as Yahweh, the Lord, my King, my God. So prayer is an audience with the Almighty.

[8:34] It's coming to Him. It's drawing near to Him. It's talking to Him. So then the very first thing about prayer is to realize the presence of the one we're talking to. The very first thing we need to do is to realize God is listening to me now as I address Him.

[8:54] Give ear to my words, O Lord. Well, there's another difficulty in prayer.

[9:05] It was mentioned because we don't see the one we're talking. I have no problem speaking to you now because I know you're here and I see you're listening. But when you don't see the one you're talking to, you know, it took a while to get used to talking on these answering machines.

[9:20] It might seem easy now, but I remember the first time doing it and, you know, all the beep and all that. And then you start to talk and there's no one there. There have been times when the tape machine didn't work.

[9:34] And so I was asked to re-preach a sermon so we could have it on tape. And I stand before a microphone and there's nobody there. It's hard to talk to someone you don't see and they're not in front of you.

[9:47] We don't see God. He's the great unseen. And so prayer then is an exercise of faith, isn't it? Without faith it's impossible to please God.

[10:00] Whoever comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He's the rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him. Hebrews 11. So prayer is coming to God, but it's a God we cannot see.

[10:15] One way that I've found to help me in this issue is to pray out loud. To pray out loud. You see, that helps separate in my mind my own self-thoughts and my thoughts that are addressed to God.

[10:34] Sometimes they all get jumbled up if all my praying is silent. And I'm sitting there and not speaking at all. And sometimes I don't...

[10:45] When I get done I wonder, did I pray or was I just thinking? But when I speak out loud and I address the Almighty and I talk to Him, I talk to Him as I talk to you, I find that it helps me remember that someone is listening.

[11:00] And when I stop speaking, well, then I can hear myself stop speaking and maybe my mind starts to wander. So that's just...

[11:11] I think it's a clue we get in the Psalms that the psalmist as well, many times, speaks about lifting up his voice in prayer. Now, praise God, we can pray silently and there are many times and occasions when that is appropriate as well.

[11:26] But if you find wandering thoughts, things making it hard for you to lay hold of this unseen God, speak to Him out loud as you pray to Him.

[11:42] Well, four points then under coming to God. Prayer is coming to God. Let's look first at the expressions of prayer.

[11:53] What three ways do we express our hearts to God in prayer that are mentioned here in verses 1 and 2? Three different ways that we express our hearts to God.

[12:04] Give me one of them. Sighing. I can't hear, so you need to speak up. Crying.

[12:17] The first one. Words. Okay. So you've got words. Either thought or spoken directly to God. You have sighings. Groanings.

[12:29] Another translation. Barely audible. Just a sigh. Just a groan.

[12:43] Jim talked about not being able to put things into words. That's what we've got here. A sigh. Now, this is tremendously encouraging, isn't it, to know that God hears our sighs.

[12:59] And He interprets them. He knows exactly what we mean by our sighs. So we don't always have to have words to express.

[13:10] Indeed, Romans 8 tells us that the Spirit helps us to pray. And that there are times when our prayers are little more than groanings. And we cannot express them.

[13:24] Desires. Not able to be put into words. Look at Psalm 10 and verse 17. Just over a page or so. David says, You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted.

[13:35] You encourage them and you listen to their cry. Well, He not only hears their cry. We'll see that in a moment. But you hear the desire of the afflicted.

[13:46] The very desires that we have. Have a voice of their own that is heard by the Lord. So, we express ourselves to God in prayer.

[14:01] In words and signs. And then in cries. An urgent cry for help. Usually in a time of great need. Where all we can say is, Help, Lord.

[14:11] Remember anybody in the scriptures praying like that? He's going down. He's walking on the water. And he's sinking.

[14:23] And he says, Help, Lord. It wasn't the time for a long prayer. It was the time for a cry. And the Lord heard his cry. Shorter Catechism, question 98 asks, What is prayer?

[14:33] And it begins, Prayer is the offering up of our desires unto God. God hears our desires. God receives them. Prayer is pouring out our hearts to Him.

[14:45] And here are three ways that we do so. Words, sighs, and cries. Alright? The next thing we see about coming to God in prayer is the preparation for prayer.

[14:57] Verse 3 says, In the morning, O Lord, You hear my voice. In the morning, I lay my requests before You. I lay my requests. It's a word there for lay.

[15:08] It's the word for arrange carefully. It's the same word that was used of the priest who, when he was making the early morning sacrifice, would lay the pieces of the sacrifice orderly there on the altar.

[15:22] To arrange in an orderly fashion, carefully. And so, Philip says, Could that not have application to this word here, in talking about our prayers, that we lay our requests before Him?

[15:40] It paints a picture, not of just dumping our requests on God in a haphazard sort of way, but of carefully arranging them before the Lord, to lay them out before Him.

[15:54] And if that's the case, then it points to the need to prepare our thoughts before we pray. And that's why reading of Scripture is a wonderful way to prepare the heart to pray.

[16:10] Thinking about God's attributes, His works and ways, in the past, in my life. Thinking about specific sins that I will want to confess to God.

[16:20] specific challenges and trials and fears and needs that I have today to bring before Him. Other people who have needs. Who am I going to pray for today?

[16:33] To give some thought to this before we come and speak to the Almighty. Spurgeon says, Do we not miss very much of the sweetness and efficacy of prayer by a lack of careful meditation before it?

[16:46] We too often rush into the presence of God without forethought or humility. And so it's good for us to pause and to say to ourselves, I am about to speak to the Almighty.

[16:59] What shall I say to Him? What will I tell Him? Preparation shows how much we consider prayer a real encounter with the living God.

[17:10] If you were given an audience with the President and you had 15 minutes to talk to him, do you think you'd think ahead of time what you were going to say to him?

[17:27] Or would you just go in on the fly? Maybe some of you would. I think most of us would think, Oh, I have 15 minutes to talk to the President.

[17:40] There's some things I want to communicate to him. And we begin to think about them. Maybe we'd write them down. But we would go into his presence with some thoughts about what we want to say.

[17:55] How much more as we come before the living God. The preparations of prayer. I lay my requests out before you. Then there's the time of prayer.

[18:08] Verse 3 says, In the morning. He says it twice. In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning, I lay my requests before you. Now, this is not the only time to pray.

[18:19] It's clear from other verses in the Psalms, even. But it does show us this, that David's practice was to pray in the morning. He prayed at other times, but he also prayed in the morning.

[18:32] There are other references in the Psalms to morning prayers. Psalm 88, 13. But I cry to you for help, O Lord. In the morning, my prayer comes before you. Psalm 55, 17.

[18:45] Evening, morning, and noon, I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice. Those perhaps were the same three seasons that Daniel used when he prayed.

[18:56] It says in Daniel 6, that after the edict came out from the king, that no man was to pray to anyone, but to him, it says that three times a day, he went down on his knees and opened the window toward Jerusalem and prayed.

[19:14] Perhaps it was evening, morning, and noon. Jesus prayed in the morning. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.

[19:30] Paul said, pray without ceasing. Surely that includes the morning hours, doesn't it? If you're to pray all the time, then it at least includes the morning.

[19:43] Prayer should have its own place in the rhythm of our lives. And morning prayer should not be excluded. What's the advantage of praying in the morning?

[19:56] Jim? I'd say my instance, Pastor, going out with a dump truck and put traffic and stress and all kinds of things happen, just knowing when I leave, when I put the day in the Lord's hand, it makes me feel a whole lot better.

[20:08] It's not that I don't have struggles or I expect them to do things my way. It's just the peace of knowing that I committed a day in the Lord's hands. And whatever happens, he's in control. All right.

[20:19] Jim talks about committing the day to the Lord. I've got certain things to do today, Lord. Dangers, opportunities. I need you. And committing it to Him.

[20:32] In all your ways, acknowledge Him. And so we acknowledge Him early. All right. Excellent. What other reasons? Jim? It says to finish the verse, and wait in expectation.

[20:48] So if you pray early, that you can wait until you can answer your prayer. All right. Excellent. That's the next point. So we're going to save that for last. But that is exactly right.

[21:00] That if we pray early in the morning, at the beginning of our day, and we lay our requests for the day before Him, then we have the privilege of spending the day in that confident expectation, looking for His answer.

[21:15] What a way to spend the day. All right. Why else is morning an advantageous time? He says that we start the day before. Okay.

[21:26] Isn't that a wonderful thing about our Lord? You talk to people. They've messed up. Big time. And they talk in terms, if only I could start over again.

[21:39] Isn't it wonderful that we can start over every day afresh? And your sins and iniquities, I will remember no more. And we bring it under the blood of Jesus. And we go into the day with a conscience washed clean.

[21:51] And with our face to God. And we know there's nothing between my soul and the Savior. What a wonderful way to start the day. To appeal afresh to the blood of Jesus. To cover our sins.

[22:03] All right. We start afresh. Forgiven sins. Start our day right. Focusing on the right things. This is the day the Lord's name. Let us rejoice in Him.

[22:14] Okay. You talked about starting the day focusing on the right things. We start with our focus Godward. I mean, we're to live the whole of our day with God in view, aren't we?

[22:28] But we stand a better chance to do that if we start the day focusing on God. So start out the day with the focus heavenward. And then live it out the rest of the day.

[22:40] Chuck, you had something? Yeah, it's before the world gets a foothold on my life. Before the world gets a foothold on my life. Before the world's had a chance to start filling my ears and flooding my eyes with all of its junk.

[22:55] I come before my God. Excellent. Lou? All right.

[23:08] Prayer is worship. We're going to see that again, too. But what a way to start. This is why I was made. And so we come and lay our praise before him.

[23:18] Dennis? Well, most of us, anyway, I think there are more work than the more you do in mind. There's much bigger. I've been a lot of exceptions to that. I remember there's been a lot of the office who used to make a regular thing to pray late at night.

[23:35] And we do so for a while. I might just like to say something about our dear brother. You mentioned praying loud. Gordon West told me he didn't like mental philipathy.

[23:47] He's speaking to them. Well, we have both. And you're right. That's a blessing. Well, I think in this point, we are then coming to a line.

[24:01] Not all of us are morning people. That's not... Dennis is saying he thinks most of us are. Well, that... Anybody want to have a survey here this morning?

[24:14] Who's the morning person? Who isn't? But I think there's still enough value, even if you're not a morning person. There is value in seeking the Lord early. We're trying to flesh that out.

[24:25] It might just be a little harder for some of you to seek the Lord and to lay your requests before Him early. But it's worth it. It's worth it. And that's what I'm wanting to draw.

[24:36] Anything else before we go on on the value of morning prayers? Chuck? How often times do you read Scripture before prayer and then you get the Scripture in your mind all day?

[24:46] All right. To have the Word of God in our minds. None of you must have any burdens to cast on the Lord.

[25:01] At least you didn't speak of them. But is it not a wonderful thing to cast our burdens on the Lord early, as George Mueller says, so that we can be in a spirit of peace and joy throughout the day?

[25:12] Why carry our burden till night when we have our time of prayer? Why carry it through the day at all? Why not early in the morning or in the morning, whenever that is for you?

[25:25] At the first of our day, our first waking thought to disburden ourselves of all our cares, knowing that He cares for us. And then, as Jim said, we seek Him, we lay our requests for the day before Him.

[25:40] I have this need today in my life. And then we spend the day in confident expectation. The time of prayer then in the morning. Make use of it. That brings us then to the attitude of prayer.

[25:52] Verse 3, In the morning, I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. I'm looking for the help to arrive that I ask for in the morning.

[26:03] I'm on the lookout for the answer to the prayer that I laid before Him. John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress, also wrote later in life a word of personal testimony of the Lord's saving grace and dealings with Him throughout His life.

[26:19] It's called Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. It's not a bad title for a word of personal testimony. Toward the end of that book, he writes, I find to this day seven abominations in my heart.

[26:34] And number five is to forget to watch for what I pray for. To forget to watch for what I pray for.

[26:45] Here was a Puritan pastor, a minister of the gospel, a man of prayer. And yet he confesses his own lack of expectancy. Too often he was like the church in Acts 12 when they were praying for Peter who was in prison.

[27:03] And when the Lord answered their prayers and Peter shows up knocking at the door and Rhoda goes to the door and says, it's Peter. He's at the door. They would rather conclude that Rhoda is out of her mind than that God has answered prayer.

[27:17] They were not expecting it. And how many times do we have to confess with Bunyan? I forget to watch for what I pray for.

[27:31] Now, why would Bunyan call that an abomination? That's a strong word to use. Seven abominations I find in my heart. To forget to watch for what I pray for.

[27:43] What's so bad about forgetting to watch what we pray for that he would call it an atrocity, an outrage, a scandal. That's what an abomination is. Mmm.

[27:59] It raises the whole question of my faith. Was I really talking to anyone out there? Do I really believe he is who he is?

[28:10] Sometimes we come away from human beings with greater expectations then we come away from God. It's a sobering thought to me as we sit here on Wednesday night and we pour our requests before the Lord to think now are we going to walk away with expectation?

[28:29] Are we going to be looking for the answers to these prayers? It ought to be a part of our prayer. Lord, give us to expect to see the answers to our prayers that we really believe.

[28:42] We've just spoken to the one who can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. Have faith in God, Jesus answered.

[28:54] I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the heart of the sea and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he has said will happen, it will be done for him.

[29:05] Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it. And it will be yours. David laid his requests before the Lord early and then he waited in confident expectation for the answer.

[29:21] Now, what gave him such confidence in prayer? What raised his hopes to that level of waiting and looking for the answer? Well, it's who he was addressing.

[29:33] Verse 2, My King and my God. That's who he's praying to. My King and my God, for to you I pray. Well, you can have great expectations when you come to this King and God.

[29:46] First of all, the one we address is King, isn't he? We come to the throne of grace and there's a King of grace sitting on that throne and that throne rules the universe. He's the one who's directing the course of human history from that throne.

[30:03] He's the one who controls all that concerns me and mine. what confidence to bring our prayers to such a King, the ruler of all. But he's also God.

[30:17] My King and my God. The things impossible to men, things impossible to men are possible with God. That's a boost to our confidence, isn't it?

[30:30] That's a boost to be looking and expecting answers. I can ask him to do what I can ask no one else to do. Good reason to wait in expectation. But it's not just God and King, it's my King and my God.

[30:44] There's the reason for confidence. This God is my God. This King is my King. It's the confidence of the covenant relationship.

[30:55] Indeed, verse 1, he speaks of Yahweh, Lord. That's the covenant name of God. David was in a covenant relationship with God. God had said of him, they will be my people and I will be their God.

[31:07] And so David knows that this King and God is his King and God. And that God considers him one of his people. And that lays a solid foundation for his confidence in prayer.

[31:23] And so with us in the new covenant sealed in Jesus' blood, Christ makes us in our prayers acceptable to God and we know that we come before God not just as a God, a King, but my God and my King.

[31:37] And so from verses 1 to 3 we see that prayer is coming to God and we consider the expressions of prayer, the time of prayer, the preparation of prayer, the attitude of prayer.

[31:49] Now the second stanza, verses 4 to 6, we see the second major lesson. See if you can pick it out as I read verses 4 to 6. You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil.

[32:01] With you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence. You hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies.

[32:12] Bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors. What is David doing here? What do we call this? put it in your own words.

[32:28] What do you call this? What did he just do? What is he doing in his prayer? You. Pardon? Exaltation. Anyone else?

[32:42] Praise. Alright. He's talking about God to God isn't he?

[32:53] You are not like this you are like that. This is what you do. You do this you do that. You hate you destroy you don't take pleasure.

[33:06] He's describing God to God with adoration with praise he's extolling the virtues of God. Another word for it starts with A.

[33:21] Maybe I just used it. You know the acrostic acts the way to pray for different areas. What's the A stand for? Adoration. That's what David is doing here.

[33:33] He's adoring God for who he is. Now what that leads us then to the second major point adoration is the chief matter of prayer.

[33:45] Adoration the chief matter of prayer. Listen to Phillips here. One of the reasons our prayer lives are often ineffective is that we go straight to our list of wants. You do that? Ever do that? Dear Lord, and we start asking.

[33:58] We didn't adore. We didn't stop to praise him for who he is. Note that Psalm 5 does not make a single request of God until verse 8. More than half of the psalm is coming to God and worshiping him.

[34:10] Our chief aim in prayer ought to be to glorify God and that is what happens when God's people praise and adore him in prayer. In my view, if there is one chief benefit our prayer lives can receive from the example of the Psalms, it is that praise is the primary objective of prayer.

[34:26] In other words, it's not just true of Psalm 5, that's true of all the Psalms. As a general rule, you find the psalmist adoring God for who he is. Now, here in this prayer of David, what are the attributes that he's adoring, that he's praising, that he's extolling and exalting in?

[34:48] Let's list them. What are his attributes? Holiness. Justice. Where do you see goodness?

[35:02] Okay, excellent. He doesn't take pleasure in evil and wickedness. He's a good God. He takes pleasure in good. purity. You're too pure to dwell with the wicked.

[35:15] You're going to destroy the wicked. There's the judge. You're a just judge. What else? Don't be afraid of it. This is God's word.

[35:28] His truth. Okay. His power. Omniscience. There's a whole line.

[35:41] God's You're missing one that's on the face of it. How about his hatred? Do you see that word? You hate this. You abhor that. So it's hatred and wrath as well as his truth and justice and holiness and all these others.

[35:59] Is it true that God hates the sin but loves the sinner? That's a handy phrase that's often bantered around in churches Bible studies.

[36:10] God hates the sin but loves the sinner. It has trouble measuring up to Psalm 5 and many other verses doesn't it?

[36:21] I think that's true of the belief in God. What's that? He hates the sin. Oh, okay. Good. Good distinction. for Jesus sake he accepts us but he still hates our sin.

[36:34] All right. But it's often used beyond that. Beyond the believer. And I want you to see here the language of scripture verse 5. You hate all who do wrong.

[36:45] Not you hate all wrong. There is no such thing as wrong but in wrong doers. You hate all who do wrong. Verse 6.

[36:57] bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors. So it's wrath and hatred of sin and sinners. So David is praising God for who he is.

[37:13] Now why does David fix on these attributes as he doors God in prayer? Especially as he is he focusing on the holiness of God, the justice of God, that he destroys the evildoers, the wrath and hatred of God.

[37:28] These are the ones that are on the very surface of the things. Why is David praising God for those attributes? You need to keep reading. But Jason?

[37:40] Alright, the situation he's in. You're going to find later on in verse 8 and 9 that David's got wicked enemies that he's dealing with. And because he's concerned about them, he, here, makes these attributes of God his praise and adoration.

[38:03] Derek Kidner says the integrity of the judge is his refuge when he's under wrongful attack. He's being attacked, he's being lied about. And so he praises God that God is a God not of deceit but of the truth and a God who judges justly, who punishes evil, who hates wickedness, hates sinners.

[38:22] There's a lesson here in the Psalms for us to take home in our own prayer lives. Call to mind and then praise and adore God for those attributes of his that are related to your present situation and requests.

[38:38] We talk again about the need to prepare to pray. Okay, Lord, I am afraid right now. I've got this appointment at 10 o'clock at the doctor's and I'm not sure what he's going to tell me from the test I took last Friday.

[38:53] What attributes of God should I praise this morning? God of peace.

[39:07] Sovereign God, control of all things, even the very cells of my body. Okay, take what you're facing for the day and praise God.

[39:19] What is your problem? What is there about God and his word that you could praise and hang on to in your prayer? So, give first place to adoration.

[39:30] Oh, I'm rebuked when I read about these who just tear right into their list. That's me too many days. All these things, all these needs, people this, need that, need that.

[39:42] But Lord, you are glorious and I'm here to praise you. As Lou said, this is why we were made. I'm here to worship you. Well, our time's gone so I can only give out the heads. The third lesson is those who pray must reckon with their own sins.

[39:57] How is it that I can come to God in prayer? Have I not lied? Have I not done wrong? Then God's wrath and hatred stands against me. How is it that I can come to this God?

[40:09] Verse 8 says, I, by your mercy, I, by your great mercy, will come into your house. God's So, the one who comes to God in prayer must reckon with their own sins.

[40:23] How is it that I can come before you, Lord? I have a great Savior. We place our trust in Him and His great mercies to us in Christ. Christ. And that's how we can come to Him in prayer.

[40:34] And then fourthly, we may freely and boldly make requests of God. He prays for guidance in the midst of His troubles. And the last point that He makes is those who come to God in prayer are blessed with joy and peace.

[40:50] Well, may the Lord challenge us, stir us up, encourage us, and send us back to the throne of grace more often, laying our requests early before Him and waiting in expectation.

[41:01]  Amen.