PRAISE AND PRAYER DURING OUR TRIALS

Proclamation:

"Do not withhold Your mercy from me, Lord; may Your love and Your faithfulness always protect me.  For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.  They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me.  Be pleased to save me, Lord; come quickly, Lord, to help me."  Psalms 40:11-13 (NIV)

Explanation:

This psalm was written by King David, under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  David was quick to praise The Lord and to pray.  He prayed and praised The Lord when things were going well in his life and he prayed and praised The Lord whenever he was in trouble.  He confessed his many sins and asked for God's forgiveness and His help.  He praised God for delivering him out of deep distress. (Psalm 40:1-5)  He praised God for his salvation. (Psalm 40:6-10)  Then he prays for God’s mercy and grace. (Psalm 40:11-17)  He not only prayed for himself but he also prayed for all of the people of God. (Psalm 40:16)

Application:

We could all learn a lot from David.  For even though he committed many sins, he acknowledged them and asked God for forgiveness.  He never broke his communication with God and he was always aware of his relationship to God.  That is probably why he is often referred to as "a man after God's own heart." (1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22)  We would do well to imitate that part of David's behavior.  We should pray and praise God in good times and bad.  All too often we forget to pray when things are going well and we forget to praise God when things are not going so well.  We need to praise Him and thank Him for what He has already done.  We need to quit worrying about the things that we don’t have and praise Him for that which we have.  Our glass is not half empty, it is half full.  Praise The Lord for that.