Summer Psalms #8 - You Can Have a Great Prayer Life
Psalm 90:1-17
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - July 22, 2009
*James Hewett was thinking about kids praying in school, and said this:
-Whether legal or not, kids have been praying in school for as long as anyone can remember.
-We prayed that the school would burn down the night before the math exams.
-We prayed the teacher would break her leg on the way to our house to talk to Mom.
-We prayed that Dad would not notice the “D” on our report card.
-We prayed for laryngitis so we would not have to dress like a tree and recite that silly Arbor Day poem. -- Oh, yes, we prayed in school. (1)
*Those kids prayed, but I think we can say that they needed a better prayer life. Most of us would say, “So do I.”
*The good news is that you can have a great prayer life. Tonight we are going to look at a great man’s prayer. It’s Moses, one of the best men who ever lived. Let’s look at his prayer to find out how we can have a better prayer life.
1. First: Express your reliance on the Lord.
*In vs. 1, Moses started his prayer by expressing great reliance on the Lord. “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.” In other words, “Lord, You are our place to live. You are our home.”
*I know everybody goes through problems at home, And sadly, some people come from tragic homes. But generally, home is a good and safe place to be. -- A place where you know you are loved. -- A place where you can rest and relax.
*We have lived on Comanche Trail for over 20 years now. That’s amazing to me, especially when I think about the fact that I have lived in 25 homes during my 58 years, -- mostly houses, but 3 apartments and 2 trailers. In one of my bedrooms, I could lie down at night and reach all the way across the room to turn off the light! And I have moved around a lot, but nothing like Moses.
*What do you learn circling around in the wilderness for 40 years? One of the best things you can learn is that this world is not our home! Moses said, “Lord, you are our home!” What a home! Speaking for all people of faith, Moses said, “Lord, You have been OUR dwelling place in all generations.” Let me tell you that I feel safe in my house, but living in the Lord is the safest place to be. Really, it’s the only safe place to be.
*Moses expressed his reliance on the Lord. First: “Lord, you are our place to live!” Then in vs. 2 Moses basically said, “Lord, you are a person who lasts.” “Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”
*You can rely on the Lord from everlasting to everlasting! Remind yourself of that when you pray, and tell the Lord. That will definitely give you a better prayer life.
2. But also magnify your reverence for the Lord.
*In vs. 3-11, Moses magnified his reverence for the Lord. In his prayer Moses exalted the Lord by humbling himself. And Moses compared the frailty of man to the supremacy of God.
*How frail is mankind?
-In vs. 5, he is carried away to death, like someone caught in a flash flood. And he is like a night’s sleep. Life goes by before he knows it.
-In vs. 5&6, man is also like grass that grows up in the morning, but is cut down and withers at night.
-Then in vs. 7, Moses got a lot more personal, as he considered his own frailty: “We have been consumed by Your anger, And by Your wrath we are terrified.”
-And in vs. 9&10, “All our days have passed away in Your wrath; We finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are 70 years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”
*This is our frailty. We are incredibly frail, but God is invincibly supreme:
-In vs. 4&5: “(Lord) a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night. You carry them away like a flood”
-Then in vs. 8, (Lord), “You have set our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.”
-And in vs. 11, “Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.”
*When Moses compared our frailty to God’s supremacy, he came to the inescapable conclusion that we must fear the Lord. We must give proper reverence to God. We really ought to take Moses’ word on this, because he was much more familiar with God’s wrath than we are. Moses had seen the 10 plagues God sent on Egypt: water turned to blood, the plague of frogs, lice, flies, severe pestilence on their animals, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and death of the firstborn -- both man and beasts.
*On top of all of that, Moses had seen the wrath of God on his own people in Exodus 32, Numbers 16 and Numbers 21. In Numbers 16 for example, Korah led a rebellion of 250 leaders against Moses. And God poured out His wrath on the rebellious people. Here is part of the story from the New Living Translation:
32. The earth opened up and swallowed the men, along with their households and the followers who were standing with them, and everything they owned.
33. So they went down alive into the grave, along with their belongings. The earth closed over them, and they all vanished.
34. All of the people of Israel fled as they heard their screams, fearing that the earth would swallow them, too.
35. Then fire blazed forth from the Lord and burned up the 250 men who were offering incense.
41. But the very next morning the whole community began muttering again against Moses and Aaron, saying, "You two have killed the Lord’s people!"
42. As the people gathered to protest to Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the Tabernacle and saw that the cloud had covered it, and the glorious presence of the Lord appeared.
43. Moses and Aaron came and stood at the entrance of the Tabernacle,
44. and the Lord said to Moses,
45. "Get away from these people so that I can instantly destroy them!" But Moses and Aaron fell face down on the ground.
46. And Moses said to Aaron, "Quick, take an incense burner and place burning coals on it from the altar. Lay incense on it and carry it quickly among the people to make atonement for them. The Lord’s anger is blazing among them-the plague has already begun."
47. Aaron did as Moses told him and ran out among the people. The plague indeed had already begun, but Aaron burned the incense and made atonement for them.
48. He stood between the living and the dead until the plague was stopped.
49. But 14,700 people died in that plague, in addition to those who had died in the incident involving Korah.
*Moses had surely seen a taste of the wrath of God. And God put these stories in His Word, so that we would have a healthy fear of the Lord. Everybody needs this healthy fear of the Lord. As we read in Psalm 111:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
*I’m not a big fan of TV talk-shows, but let me tell you about one Barry Robinson saw a few years ago. This was back when the nation was rocked by school massacres like the one at Columbine. The question asked on the show was, “Why are these kids doing this?” Montel Williams was the host, and he had a number of top psychologists who offered opinions ranging from brain abnormalities, to cultural influences such as rock music and video games.
After the experts gave their opinions, Montel gave his theory. Surprisingly, he said that he thought the reason why these kids were doing this was that they no longer had any fear of God. That’s why they can go and murder ten classmates and then turn the gun on themselves because in their mind, that is the end to all their suffering. He said, “These kids no longer fear neither God nor death, so in their mind they can do what ever they want and not beheld accountable for it.” (2)
*Everybody needs a healthy fear of the Lord. It is the beginning of wisdom, and it will definitely give you a better prayer life. So magnify your reverence for the Lord.
3. But also make the right requests to the Lord.
*In vs. 12-17, Moses made 8 excellent prayer requests to the Lord:
1-First, in vs. 12, Moses asked God for wisdom: “So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.” All real wisdom comes from the Lord. And God is more than willing to give us all the wisdom we will ever need. All we have to do is ask God in faith, trusting that He will answer. As we see in James 1:5-7, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord...”
*We need wisdom to head in the right direction in life. As famous baseball catcher and manager Yogi Berra once said: "You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there." One time he also stated, "I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early." (3) Pray for wisdom to go the right direction in life.
2-Next, in vs. 13 Moses asked the Lord for compassion: “Return, O Lord! How long? And have compassion on Your servants.”
3-In vs. 14, Moses prayed for God’s mercy, “Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy.” -- Today we know that the compassion and mercy of God are shown in the cross of Jesus Christ!
4-In vs. 14&15, Moses prayed for the joy of the Lord: “Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days! Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, And the years in which we have seen evil.”
5-In vs. 16, Moses asked to see the Hand of the Lord at work: “Let Your work appear to Your servants.” Moses did see the Lord work in amazing ways. And we need to remember that God has not changed one bit.
6-In vs. 16, Moses also prayed that our children would get to see the glory of God: “Let Your work appear to Your servants, And Your glory to their children.” A Christian parent’s greatest prayer is for their children to see the glory of God, by faith in Jesus in this world, and face to face forever in Heaven.
7-In vs. 17, Moses prayed for God’s beauty to be on His followers: “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us” -- inner-beauty that can be seen on the outside, by the way we live our lives.
8-Finally in vs. 17, Moses twice asked the Lord to establish work of our hands: “Establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands.”
*There can be no real, lasting, meaningful success in life without the help of the Lord. On the night before the cross, Jesus told His followers:
1. "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2. "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3. "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4. "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5. "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:1-5)
*If we abide in the Lord, and ask Him to establish the work of our hands, surely He will. One of the most unexpected testimonies I have seen of this truth came from an atheist named Matthew Parris.
*Matthew is a reporter in Great Britain. He has witnessed first hand the power of spiritual transformation in Africa. And last December, Matthew wrote an article for The London Times with this odd headline, "As An Atheist, I Truly Believe Africa Needs God."
*The story recorded Matthew’s reflections on a recent trip to Malawi. It was a country he had known as a boy and then returned there, after 45 years, to see the work of a charity. In the process, he saw the impact of Christianity being lived out among the people. Matthew said the trip renewed his sagging faith in charities.
*And he said, (It) “refreshed another belief, too: one I’ve been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I’ve been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God."
*He went on to write, "Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good." (4)
*That spiritual transformation is what people need everywhere. It’s what we need for real a life worth living. And God will give this life to us, if we pray.
-Let’s pray like Moses prayed in vs. 17: “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands.”
1. Adapted from James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 62. (Found on Bible Illustrator for windows - Topic: Children / Subtopic: / Index: 1643-1657 - Date: 7/1996.181 / Title: School Prayer)
2. SermonCentral sermon “Tremble Before His Holiness” by Barry Robinson - Isaiah 6:1-7
3. empyrean.ca/words/quotes/yogi - (Found in “In Other Words - April 2008 #2 - by Dr. Raymond McHenry, - 6130 Barrington ~ Beaumont, Texas 77706 (800) 553-4697 www.iows.net)
4. TimesOnline, 12/27/8; World, 1/17/9, p.14 - (Found in “In Other Words - March 2009 #2 - by Dr. Raymond McHenry, - 6130 Barrington ~ Beaumont, Texas 77706 (800) 553-4697 www.iows.net)
