Part 32 - What Should We Do When The Flood Waters Rise? Series

Great Prayers of the Old Testament

Part 32: What Should We Do When the Flood Waters Rise?

Psalm 144:1-15

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared September 23, 2025)

BACKGROUND:

*Today we will study one of the many great prayers in the Old Testament. Anyone who has read much of the Bible knows that the LORD included many of His servant's prayers. The Dake Annotated Reference Bible lists 222 different prayers in the Bible: 176 prayers in the Old Testament, and 46 in the New. (1)

*God surely put a lot of prayers in His Word, and there are some outstanding reasons why. First, God is showing us that He wants us to pray. The LORD is also showing us that prayer is important, that prayer is powerful, and that He wants to answer our sincere, unselfish prayers. God also uses these prayers to teach us how to pray. And that's what King David did in Psalm 144. He shows us what we should do when the flood waters rise. Let's get started by reading Psalm 144:1-15.

*King David opened Psalm 144 with words of grateful praise. F. B. Meyer explained that this Psalm showed David's great appreciation for the rocky caves he left each day to fight his enemies. Every day David asked God to teach him to fight, realizing that all of his needs would be met by the LORD God, and Christians, so will ours! (2)

*King David was a great man of war, because he had to be, -- first against King Saul, then against many other enemies over the course of his very long life. Remember that David had wanted to build a temple worthy of the LORD GOD. He wanted to build this Temple as a permanent resting place for the Ark of the Covenant that contained the Ten Commandments. But in I Chronicles 28:3, the LORD declared, "You will not build a house for My name, for you are a man of battles and have shed blood." (3)

*David was a man of war, because he had to be, and that makes sense, because the LORD Himself is a man of war for righteousness! As Moses sang in Exodus 15:2-4:

2. The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will exalt Him.

3. The LORD is a man of war; The LORD is His name.

4. Pharaoh's chariots and his army He has cast into the sea; His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.

*Church: Also remember that the LORD is the "LORD of Hosts." Albert Barnes explained that this name for the LORD God first shows up in 1 Samuel 1:3, where Samuel's father went up yearly to worship and sacrifice to the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. Barnes also explained that this title of Yahweh shows up in various forms over 260 times in the Old Testament. And the word "hosts" means "army." It's the LORD's heavenly army that includes all the multitudes of holy Angels. GotQuestions.org added that "the name 'LORD of Hosts' emphasizes God’s sovereign control over every power, dominion, force, and realm. (4)

*This name for the LORD God also appears in Romans 9:29 where Paul quoted Isaiah 1:9 and wrote this about the idol worshipping Jews, "As Isaiah said before: 'Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah." This name for God is also in James 5:1-4. There the Lord's half-brother condemned godless rich people, and wrote:

1. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!

2. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.

3. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.

4. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the LORD OF SABAOTH.

*Then in Revelation 19:11-16, we see our risen Savior Jesus Christ coming back to earth to make war. And the Apostle John wrote:

11. Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.

12. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.

13. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

14. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.