Praying Through the Bible #60 Daniel Whyte III
TEXT: Psalm 69:13: “But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.”
Some of us who have been saved for a while have come across the type of Christians who treat spiritual things as if they are subjects in textbooks. They love to teach about evangelism, they love to study about evangelism, they love to even strategize about how to do evangelism, but they rarely ever go out and evangelize the lost. They love to teach about prayer, they love to study about prayer, they love to talk about prayer, but they rarely pray. In other words, prayer has not become personal for them.
Today, I want to talk to you about when prayer becomes personal. The Psalmist says, “But as for me, my prayer…” Notice how he says “my prayer.” He is not concerned about what every body else is praying. He is concerned that God hears his prayer. I am reminded of Matthew 6:6 where Jesus commanded us, “Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” This verse puts us in the mind of shutting out the world in order to focus on prayer — our prayer.
The Psalmist goes on to say, “My prayer is unto thee.” It was his prayer, and now we see him giving it to God. Whatever is on his heart and mind, he is turning it over to God. He gets his message across and then leaves it in God’s hands.
What are we to do with our personal prayers?
1. Wait for them to be answered at the acceptable time. Our text reads, “In an acceptable time…” The psalmist is saying, ‘Lord, when You say the time is right, then answer my prayer. Not in my time. Answer it the way you want and not the way I want. I’m giving it to you.’
2. Wait for them to be answered in the multitude of God’s mercy. The Psalmist prays, “O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me.” The word “multitude” means the condition or quality of being numerous or plenteous.
3. We ought to wait for them to be answered in the truth of God’s salvation. That is what the Psalmist prays; he says, “hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.” Some scholars believe that this psalm was actually composed during the time of the Exile. Thus, the ‘salvation’ referred to here is the end of the 70 year period in which the Jews were captive in the land of their enemies. Their ‘salvation’ or deliverance was to leave the land of the foreigners and go back to the Promised Land.
Gospel Light House of Prayer International 