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Introduction
The late Dr. Adrian Rogers confessed, “One day, as I was meditating, one of the most electrifying thoughts I have ever had came into my heart. I cannot tell you the impact that it made on me. Yet this thought is so simple and presumably so well-known that I almost hesitate to tell you about it. Are you ready for it? Well, here it is. God hears and answers prayer!” Dr. Rogers further explains, “Oh, you say, every Christian knows that. Yes, so did I in my head. But somehow I saw the truth of that truth, and it shook me to my very foundations. I thought, ‘If that is true, and it is true, then the one thing above everything that I should learn to do is to pray.’”¹
I know not by what methods rare, / But this I know: God answers prayer.
I know not if the blessing sought / Will come in just the guise I thought.
I leave my prayer to Him alone / Whose will is wiser than my own.
- Eliza M. Hickok
Psalm 116 is a source of encouragement for our prayer life.
I. A DECLARATION
Psalm 116:1a, “I love the LORD. . .”
According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, a declaration is “An explicit or formal statement or announcement.”
“All you need is love, love, love is all you need,” so writes, Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
As C.S. Lewis explains in his classic book, The Four Loves, there are four different types of love: storge (affection), phileo (friendship), eros (erotic or romantic love), and agape (charity or God-love, unconditional love). Lewis also discusses the difference between Need-love and Gift-love.
Matthew 22:34-40 “But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
John 21:15-19 reads, “So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?’ He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, ‘Feed My lambs.’ He said to him again a second time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Tend My sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love Me?’ And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed My sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.’ This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’"
Revelation 2:1-7 "To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, 'These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."
II. A DEMONSTRATION
Psalm 116:1b-2a, “. . . because He has heard my voice and my supplication . . . because He has inclined His ear to me. . .”
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines the word demonstration as “The act of making evident or proving. Conclusive evidence; proof. An illustration or explanation.”
The Psalmist, David, is singing the praises of God similarly to the characters in the Wizard of Oz: “Because, because, because, because, because / Because of the wonderful things he does. . .”
David presents his case in the style of a lawyer in a courtroom.
Exhibit A. “Because He has heard my voice. . .” (v. 1b)
Exhibit B. “Because He has heard . . . my supplication. . .” (v. 1b)
Exhibit C. “Because He has inclined His ear to me . . . “(v. 2a)
“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear /But certainly God has heard me; / He has attended to the voice of my prayer. /Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer, Nor His mercy from me! (Psalm 66:18-20)
“Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity” (Isaiah 59:1-3)
This passage echoes what is written in Isaiah 1:15-20: “When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. ‘Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. ‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ Says the LORD, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword’; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
III. A DETERMINATION
Psalm 116:2b, “Therefore I will call upon the LORD as long as I live.”
“Philip Henry [brother of the famed Bible commentator, Matthew Henry], after he had been engaged in prayer for two of his children that were dangerously ill, remarked, ‘If the Lord will be pleased to grant me this my request concerning my children, I will not say, as the beggars at our door used to do, ‘I’ll never ask anything of Him again;’ but, on the contrary, ‘He shall hear oftener from me than ever,’ and I will love God the better, and love prayer the better, as long as I live.’”²
Answered prayer makes us want to pray more, but we must pray specifically to know that God has answered.
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit” (James 5:16b-18).
“. . . as long as I live.” (v. 2b) Psalm 116 is actually a psalm of thanksgiving for deliverance from death.
IV. CONCLUSION
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:7-11)
“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
In the words of Eliza M. Hickok, “. . . this I know: God answers prayer.”
¹Adrian Rogers, The Secret of Supernatural Living (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1982), p.107.
²The Biblical Illustrator, ed. Joseph S. Exell, The Psalms, Vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, n.d.), p. 475.
All Scripture taken from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.
