Effective Prayer

Psalm 5:1-3 Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

Prayer is a necessity in the Christian life; it is the stream from which we receive our strength and vitality, yet so often the brook seems dried up and it becomes a mere duty. These first few verses from the Psalm really struck me as I was studying them in my morning devotions and reading Spurgeon's commentary on the Psalms. These 3 verses are a wonderful source of instruction on prayer.

There are two types of prayer given here: the spoken prayer and the silent longing. David talks about his words and his meditations, the Lord hears them both. My words may be, and often are, but poor feeble things before the great God of heaven and earth yet He can see into my very soul and read the longing there. Likewise He can see beyond the well worded rote prayer that has no root in the heart.

Charles Spurgeon said so well, "Let us cultivate the spirit of prayer which is even better than the habit of prayer. There may be seeming prayer where there is little devotion. We should begin to pray before we kneel down, and we should not cease when we rise up."

This Psalm also gives us advice to our conduct before and after prayer. The first teaches us to prepare for prayer. The word direct, Spurgeon says, has to do with the arranging of gifts upon the altar prior to sacrifice. In such a careful way as the priest prepared the sacrifice, so must we prepare ourselves to enter the presence of the Holy God, the King of Kings.

The second lesson that is taught is expectation. How often do we pray, little expecting an answer to our prayers. We come to God with a sort of desperation, but with little expectation. Instead we should bow our heads in prayer and then raise them in hope, looking for the answer to our prayer. An answer does not necessarily mean that everything will fall out exactly as we planned or prayed; even David in vs. 8 asks the Lord "make Thy way straight before my face". We need to come before the Lord in prayer desiring to know His will and purpose not expecting an affirmative answer to our every whim.

"Let holy preparation link hands with patient expectation, and we shall have far larger answers to our prayers." C.H. Spurgeon