Psalm 17
A prayer of David:
Hear a just cause, YHVH, heed my cry; listen to my prayer from honest lips. Let my vindication come from you, let your eyes see what is right.
You probed my heart, you visited me at night, and you assayed me without finding evil thoughts that should not pass my lips. As for what others do, by words from your lips I have kept myself from the ways of the violent; my steps hold steadily to your paths, my feet do not slip.
Now I call on you, God, for you will answer me. Turn your ear to me, hear my words. Show how wonderful is your grace, savior of those who seek at your right hand refuge from their foes. Protect me like the pupil of your eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked, who are assailing me, from my deadly enemies, who are all around me. They close their hearts to compassion; they speak arrogantly with their mouths; they track me down, they surround me; they watch for a chance to bring me to the ground. They are like lions eager to tear the prey, like young lions crouching in ambush.
Arise, YHVH, confront them! Bring them down! With your sword deliver me from the wicked, with your hand, YHVH, from human beings, from people whose portion in life is this world. You fill their stomachs with your treasure, their children will be satisfied too and will leave their wealth to their little ones.
But my prayer, in righteousness, is to see your face; on waking, may I be satisfied with a vision of you.
Now I call on you, God…
Isn’t this how we start nearly every interaction with Him?
Petitions, requests, heart-felt appeals -- yeah, you know the drill. We need/want something and we send the decision up to the highest Court in the universe. We then try to align His heart with ours (see what I did there?) so that perhaps the “thing” that is weighing heavily upon us (or others) can be lifted.
Of course, these things are generally outwardly focused and righteous in nature: heal this person, protect that person, save that person, etc. And we might even sneak in a few pseudo-righteous requests for ourselves: more provision (to help the Kingdom, of course), more authority (so my friends and family will listen to me), and fewer problems (I really could use a break).
As we go on and on with our laundry list of things that will make our lives (and subsequently, the lives of others) better, we sit in eager anticipation wondering whether anything will change. So we perform a little spiritual hand waving and declare with faith:
For you will answer me.
But in reality we operate with a slight change in punctuation:
For, you will answer me?
We aren’t sure, are we? We hope He will swoop in and make righteous judgments that ease the pain and beef up the lack of resources, but we always sit with an out:
“Here’s what I want God, but of course, You will do whatever You Want to do. You are sovereign and know best.”
Really? If He’s going to do whatever He wants, then why do you bother asking for anything? Is this just an exercise in you fashioning lists of requests in the most spiritual manner possible? Is it to get you to simply sit down and think about someone, anyone, other than yourself? Is it a game show where you are trying to guess the right outcome so once God moves, you can feel good about your predictions of God’s heart?
Maybe.
But wait, you have brought this to Court.
Suppose you hired an attorney to represent you in court here on earth and they counsel you with the following:
“You know, this judge usually does whatever he wants so there is really no way of knowing how He’ll decide. We can guess, but his ways are far beyond our ways. If we can catch him on a good day, I think he’ll dismiss the case. But I’ve seen times where he decides to press deeply into the rules of law and go for the fullest sentence allowable. Due to the judge’s instability, I'm not going to prepare a case. I’ll come up with some language that I think he’ll like and just go say that in open court. Our best defense will be to just have faith that we get him on a good day. Are you ready?”
Would you want to stand in front of a judge that judges by feel instead of by law? NO! A bigger question, would you keep this attorney? NO!
Sure, it may help to know a little bit about the judge to appeal to his sensitivity, but at the end of the day, a just judge judges justly. Decisions would not be this one day, and that another. The decisions would be consistent. More than that, they would be based on law. Rock solid, well-established law.
“Wait, this is ridiculous. God isn’t an unstable judge. He judges rightly and His judgments are true. He doesn't need us to convince Him of anything.”
Ok, then why do you continually present petitions as if you are in court? Why do you perpetually put decisions at His feet if you don’t want Him to rule on them? Why bother in prayer at all?
A supreme and sovereign God that has full control would (and should) do whatever He wants without any of us needing to participate in the process.
So again, is prayer simply for you to feel good about yourself? Or does it actually have power? And if it has power, what does that say about God being in absolute control? I mean, if you can change His mind through prayer, does that mean your ways are higher than His?
“Ah, but it isn’t so much that we are praying to God as we are praying against the devil. Paul says we’re fighting evil and not flesh, right?”
Fair. But if God is in control, let Him fight the devil.
“Oh, well, He is omniscient and knew we’d pray…and that changed things. We think. Or maybe we guessed right…”
God is in control, but we can petition Him to change the thing He’s in control of, but He will do whatever He wants to do, but we have a responsibility to pray for others, but His ways are far beyond ours, but we need to pray, but God is actually in full control…
Ok, enough of all this back and forth. I’m getting dizzy just thinking about it.
Let’s sum this up with one question: If your child was sick, what would you want to be true?
Would you surrender fully to “God’s Will” that He wants your child to die, and if He wants to heal them He will? Some people do. Or would you have hope that prayer could change things and perhaps your child would live? Remarkably, even unbelievers can lean a little into this option if it means their child will live. Or would you ask for prayer, pray yourself, but then bend into the “mysteries of God” at the end of the day?
So much uncertainty, huh? No wonder people struggle to believe we serve a loving God. Seems a little more like a gambling God if you ask all of those unbelievers out there.
How do we reconcile all of this?
Simple, don’t take verses out of order (or context for that matter).
There is a progression outlined here that leads up to boldly calling upon God to answer. And since we love checklists, let’s go through them.
Hear a just cause, YHVH, heed my cry;
Our cause must be just. Our selfish requests do not demand a response. Simple enough.
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listen to my prayer from honest lips.
Our character must be pure and intact. We can’t be dishonest with man, then attempt to be honest with God. You’re either trustworthy or you’re not.
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Let my vindication come from you,
We aren’t prideful. If you are in the habit of defending yourself, you’re likely to try and defend yourself in front of God. Humbly approach Him.
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let your eyes see what is right.
Here is our prayer: “This is what I see, now what is it You see? I want to be in alignment with Your heart, and through the authority reclaimed by Your Son, Yeshua HaMashiach, I want to exercise that authority now and call forth Your heart’s desire. The rule of law says death is the penalty for sin, but Your heart says you want all to be saved. I call upon Your heart’s desire to change the situation here on earth so that people may repent and come fully into Your love. As healing comes forth, I choose to walk as Yeshua walked and deliver the message you want all of man to hear: go and sin no more.”
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Of course, it can’t simply stop here. Most sincere believers can have a just cause, be honest, and exercise humility as they enter into prayer, and still nothing changes. But David presents us with something deeper:
We need to be different, not just look different.
You probed my heart, you visited me at night, and you assayed me without finding evil thoughts that should not pass my lips.
Uh, oh. This is starting to get out of control. Who in their right mind would invite Abba in to scan their hearts and minds of all the things they believe and think?
Ridding ourselves of overt, practical evil is a worthwhile venture, and I think we all agree it is necessary for even the moderate believer. But purging thoughts? How is that even possible? Left on our own, we can’t. This requires a willingness to open ourselves up to His deep inspection and being willing to repent from even considering evil ideas. Punishment for that jerk at work, sexual thoughts of anyone other than your spouse, worship of the money we have and the things we possess, even the justification of sin -- all thoughts and possible actions that must be surrendered.
It’s on this issue alone that most people refuse to concede. The reason? You may be convicted and need to confess their crimes. That is way too embarrassing for someone whose life is perfect. Weakness in the eyes of man puts a severe strain on perfection.
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As for what others do, by words from your lips I have kept myself from the ways of the violent;
What are the ways of the violent? I’d argue they are the ways that are contrary to God’s ways. Those that choose not to follow His ways tend to journey the road towards violence. Noah’s generation had a land filled with violence as a result of exactly this:
Genesis 6:9 Here is the history of Noach. In his generation, Noach was a man righteous and wholehearted; Noach walked with God. 10 Noach fathered three sons, Shem, Ham and Yefet. 11 The earth was corrupt before God, the earth was filled with violence. 12 God saw the earth, and, yes, it was corrupt; for all living beings had corrupted their ways on the earth.
The contrast here is Noah (righteous, wholehearted, walked with God) versus the violent (corrupted ways). God’s ways vs man’s -- an age old battle in the hearts of men. Notice the Bible never teaches us about a middle ground, it’s either His Kingdom or the world’s kingdom. There’s no secret option #3.
His Ways have been given to us to walk in so that we may have life -- Eternal life, yes, but life on this side as well. We listen to what He says and live by it. It’s by His Words that we keep (guard) ourselves from the ways of the violent.
In essence, we are obedient. Fully.
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my steps hold steadily to your paths, my feet do not slip.
We walk in His path without wavering. The “oops, I’m just human” argument is flawed and we know it. Yeshua said on several occasions “to go and sin no more”, meaning it’s possible. Our final point on which we stand is that we refuse to make excuses. We know what is right and we are expected to do it. Not out of obligation, but love. This is the path to Life and who wouldn’t want to walk it every hour of every day?
The chiastic structure presented here lands squarely on our prayers:
Now we are in a position to be heard. Now we are in a position to change people’s lives. Now we are in a position to see a living expression of God’s Kingdom here on earth.
And at the end of it all, you may just catch a glimpse of God Himself:
But my prayer, in righteousness, is to see your face; on waking, may I be satisfied with a vision of you.
How different would your day be if you saw His Face every morning when you woke?
For one, you may have fewer selfish things to pray about and far fewer things for which you need to repent. That could free you up to actually align yourself with His heart and pray for others.
And who knows, your world may change. Better still, the world of others may change.