Deliverance From Difficulties (Psalm 86:1-17)
David’s Model Prayer = Petition, Praise and Prevail
Too many people fail to realize that in order to prevail over life’s difficulties it is necessary to first cry out to God for help and praise Him while we wait for His deliverance.
We can praise God for David’s model prayer in Psalm 86 as it open and closes with petition (verses 1-7 and 14-17) but the heart of the communication revolves around adoration and thanksgiving for the Lord’s greatness.
Quote: Spurgeon said, "I should find it difficult to discover a season in which I have cried unto God and not received deliverance during the whole run and tenor of my life. In hundreds of instances I have had as distinct answers to prayer as if God had thrust his right hand through the blue sky and given right into my lap the bounty which I had sought from him."
When we are seemingly overcome with difficulties, it is God who is our deliverer. He is able to deliver is one of the greatest themes throughout the entire Bible. It reminds me of singing with the veteran missionaries in Nigeria for nearly twenty years it remained their favorite song before our Wednesday evening prayer meetings:
“Tis the grandest theme through the ages rung.
Tis the grandest theme from a mortal tongue
Tis the grandest theme ere the world has sung…
Our God is able to deliver You
Chorus: He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. Go to Him for rest. He will hear requests. Our God is able to deliver thee.
David knew this and turned to the Lord at a time when he was afflicted, needy and under attack from arrogant men. God is greater than all problems, people and predicaments. He is the one who promises, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble and I will answer and deliver you from all your troubles.” (Psa 107:13)
When we pray out of a deep felt need we should not cease praying, praising and expecting God to deliver us in a way that pleases Him in all respects and allows us to bear fruit in every good work as we increase in the knowledge and intimacy with God.
Often we need to be like Jacob and wrestle with God in prayer until we prevail. Let us invoke, petition and plea our case before our Savior and Lord with earnestness. David repeats his theme of Psalm 34 where he wrote, “I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all of my fears.” The Lord wants us to be like the widow knocking until we see our petitions granted. Many of us do not have because we do not ask or we ask with wrong motives or we fail to persist in our petitions and praise of God during troubled times.
In this psalm we find an elderly and devout David crying out with a deep trust as he writes, “In the day of my trouble I shall call upon You for You will answer me. For there is no one like You among the gods, O Lord, Nor are there any works like Yours.” (Psa 86:7,8) Age, experience and spiritual maturity allows us to know that everything else but the Lord will disappoint, discourage and depress.
Illustration:Faith for my deliverance is not faith in God. Faith means, whether I am visibly delivered or not, I will stick to my belief that God is love. There are some things only learned in a fiery furnace.
Oswald Chambers in Run Today’s Race.
Let us remember that we are petitioning and praising an all-sufficient God who is more than adequate to meet our every need. He is the Lord, the owner, the master and the boss of all events, circumstances and adversities. Nothing is too difficult for God. God told Jeremiah, "Behold, I am the God of all flesh, is anything too difficult for me?" (Jer 32:17) Our God is able to do exceedinly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works mightily within us." Jesus said, "The things that are impossible with men become possible with God." (Luke 1:37)
Illustration: Never Ever Give Up!
One of the most beloved and colorful sports personalities of our time was a man named Jim Valvano-"Jimmy V," as sports fans around the country
affectionately knew him. Valvano died on April 16, 1993, after a year- long battle with cancer. He was forty-seven years old. He will he remembered as a
great basketball coach. His North Carolina State team won the national championship in 1983, upsetting that great Houston Cougar team that featured Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. Valvano also will he remembered as an outstanding TV analyst, an eloquent inspirational speaker, and a lovable, wisecracking humorist. But most of all, he will be remembered for the courageous way he faced a debilitating illness.
A few weeks before he died, Valvano was honored on national television, and to that vast viewing audience, he said this:
Today, I fight a different battle. You see, I have trouble walking and I have trouble standing for a long period of time. Cancer has taken away a lot
of my physical abilities. Cancer is attacking and destroying my body. But what cancer cannot touch is my mind, my heart and my soul. I have faith in God and hope that things might get better for me. But even if they don’t I promise you this. I will never ever give up. I will never ever quit. And if cancer gets me then I’ll just try my best to go to heaven and I’ll try my best to be the best coach they’ve ever seen up there. [Then, pointing to his 1983 Championship team, he said,] I learned a great lesson from these guys; they amazed me! They did things I wasn’t sure they could do because they absolutely refused to give up! That was the theme of our championship season: "Never ever give up!" That’s the lesson I learned from them and that’s the message I leave with you: "Never give up. Never ever give up!"
James W. Moore, Attitude Is Your Paintbrush, Dimensions, 1998, 61-62.
When we bring before God His character as the motive for answering our prayer we can praise Him in advance for our upcoming deliverance. His promises are as a sure as His prevailing power.
Contemplate His character so you can trust Him regardless of your troubles, adversaries or difficulties. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, not minding the shame and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For if we do not we, there is a warning given by the writer of Hebrews 12:3, “Lest you be weary and faint in your minds.”
Song: Are you weary, are you heavy hearted. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Are you grieving over joys departed. Tell it to Jesus alone.
Chorus: Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that’s well known. You’ve no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone.
David praises God by saying, as we should too,
"Make glad the soul of your servant, For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For You Lord, are, good, and ready to forgive. And abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You." (Psa. 86:4,5)
What are you lifting up your soul to today? Are you perhaps lifting it up to your problems? Are you too fixed on your opponents? Are you too focused on what you have to do this week? Maybe you are putting too much dependence on your husband or your wife. Could it be you are lifting up your soul to the shrine of your power, your position or your possessions.
Lift up your heart, your mind, your soul, and your affections to the Lord. He is the only one who is always good, ready to cleanse and plentious in loving kindness if you will just cry out to Him. Do not think you can do this in a non-chalant way. He wants you to become like Peter on the water, who cried, "Lord, save me." Only when we are totally aware of our desparation can we experience the full deliverance power, purpose and promises of God.
Too many people quit prematurely or given in to their troubles or go along to get along because they have failed to praise, petition and rely on the Lord persistently to be their deliverer in times of trouble. Let us all be more like Peter who reasoned, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God.” (John 6:68)
Let learn to advance to the higher level from petition and ascend to the higher practice of praising God for being our helper, our confidence in trouble and our helper amidst the floods. He alone is able to steady our nerves and make us fit for any battle we might be facing.
Song: As children we used to sing the song, “My God is so great. So strong and so mighty. There’s nothing my God cannot do. The mountains are his. The valleys are his; the skies are his handiwork too. My God is so great. So strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do. For you!”
Let the praise, worship and rejoicing in the Lord propel you to the higher ground where you can lift above the problems of life.
Let us look at some of the names and attributes of God that David’s move to. Five times in these verses he calls upon God using three different names – Jehovah, My God and Lord. He assures us that all nations will eventually worship before You, O Lord. (Psa 86:9) We can know that this is a promise that eventually every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, for the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:9,10)
Theme: God will turn every seeming tragedy into His eventual triumph.
1. We can praise God because He is Jehovah. He is the underived self-existent one. He is the great I am. He who is and was and very ever more shall be. The source of all life. As Paul wrote, The one in whom we live and move and have our being. Jehovah is always associated as the great deliverer from bondage, affliction and difficulty. He delivered Moses and the children of Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
He rescued Moses from hundreds of Pharaoh’s chariots when he sent the waves of the Red Sea crashing down on the enemies’ heads and weaponry. He, who pledges the security of Israel, guarantees that “I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies.” The name Jehovah expresses God’s purposes, powers and pledge to deliver His people for His greater glory.
Quote from Alexander Maclaren who writes:
“When we use Jehovah in our prayers, we contemplate and trust in and plead with Him with all these grand thoughts of eternal subsistence: inexhaustible power, unwearied strength, resources that never fail, purposes that never alter, a being that never fails, a nature lifted high above the mutations of time, who dwells in a region above all tenses and moods and is, and was, and is to come in one ineffable and mysterious present. Nor only so, but we likewise say, "and this rock of ages, the basis of all that is, has spoken and entered into the bonds of love and covenant with men, so that they can plead with Him His revealed character and appeal to Him on the ground of His ancient promise and begin all their believing petitions with that cry, ’O Jehovah, who lives for evermore; O Jehovah, the God of the covenant and the deliverer of thy people!"’
2. David cries out with earnest petition and praise, "O thou my God." Here David emphasizes the God of all true revelation, might and divine origin. The one who created us all and all things. He is above all others. He is sovereign, in control and ruler of everything. We need not fear when the earth give way or the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, for there is a city that makes glad the city of our God.” God implies the fullness of His power and his abundance that is more than enough for any problem that we will ever face.
He is the Almighty God that is above the understanding, comprehension or finite description that man could depict. He alone deserves our total trust as he is the total source of all that is good, since He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. He is the one who will judge and vindicate all things as vengeance is mine says the Lord. God is the foundation of all our hopes and the overcomer of all our fears, foes and feebleness
David infuses a personal warmth and affection when He speaks by saying, My God. Let your prayer, petition and praise be personal as He is your personal deliverer, strength and overcomer. He will not leave you or forsake you until all of the work of the service of His house are accomplished. There is no fear in His love because His perfect love casts out fear. (I John 4:18)
Application: Try not to take your troubles too personally, but take the name of God personally as He is your companion, your courage and your confidence. The idea of My God conjures one who has unlimited strength, resources and ideas to overcome whatever problem we may be undergoing. MY God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the whole earth, yet He is my help, my stay and my refuge.
3. David writes, “But You, O Lord, art a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and truth. Turn to me and be gracious to me; Oh grant strength to your servant. And save the son of your handmaid. Show me a sign for good that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed, because you O lord have helped me and comforted me.” (Psa 86:15,16) Our Lord is one who has all authority, control and rule, yet He delivers us with loving kindness and truth with the utmost demonstration of mercy.
Too many people seem to take the Lord for granted as Jesus said, “You call me Lord, Lord, but you do not do the things that I say.” (Luke 6:46)
In order to experience the blessings of our Lord, we must trust and obey Him completely. He is our boss and has the right to do whatever He pleases with our lives. Like the song; Some through the waters some through the flood, some through great trials, but all through the blood.” Allow the Lord to choose what is best for you. "Father knows Best"
It is up to God to determine what trials we must pass through in order to enter in to the kingdom of God. His ways are higher than our ways and we should not resent them in any way. He is the Lord and besides Him there is no other.
The idea of Lord describes the fact that He is elevated above all other gods, idols and people. He is incomparable and supreme and must be worshiped as above all. When we acknowledge and praise the Supremacy of our Lord we can be confident that He is capable of dealing with any and all troubles. Make Him the Lord of all areas of your fears, your anger and your expectations and He will show you His deliverance. He will be exalted in the nations. He will be exalted in all the earth. (Psa 46)
Illustration: Martin Luther knew this and so coined his popular hymn from the words of David’s 46’th Psalm. A mighty fortress is our God a bulwark never failing. Our helper, he amidst the floods, of mortal ills prevailing. But still our ancient foe does seek to work us woe. His craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate. Yet, one little word, (from our Lord) will fell him.”
Our Jehovah, God and Lord combine the three aspects that are so necessary to assure us of deliverance from any problem. He has the power, the interest and the sovereignty to us all things together for His good in our lives, if we will trust and obey Him. Do not give in to the worries, frets and feelings of disparagement you may be feeling. He is greater than your emotions, enemies or challenges.
God transforms our imperfect faith as we allow His Spirit and word to transform us from one degree of glory into His likeness. We can accept, connect and respect His power in our lives as we are His temple and He will surely deliver us in the day of trouble. Jesus is the Revealer of the Father’s name, and they who pray in the name of Christ have for their confidence this promise, "Whatsoever you ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13) - and this, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you" (John 16:23).
Application: Call upon Him but do it with confidence, praise and assurance of His comforting hand leading through all the dark valleys of life.
4. David always remains teachable. He writes, “Teach me Your way, O Lord, I will walk in truth. Unite my heart to fear you name. I will give thanks to you O Lord, my God with all my heart, and will glorify your name forever.” (Psa 86:11,12)
Remain teachable, flexible and adaptable to God’s plans while you are passing through difficulties. He is using whatever hardship you are going through for His greater purposes in your life. David surely remembered how the Lord carried out His greater plan through Joseph when he allowed him to be sold in to slavery in the hands of their enemies, the Egyptians. When we always realize that the Lord can use our adversaries as sand paper to refine us more into His image and purpose we can rest knowing that He does all things well
Never get to a point where you are too wise in your own eyes. Solomon wrote, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. (Prov. 3:5-7) ”
Do not think that everything always has to work out perfectly and immediately to suit your expectations. Realize that God is working His greater will, way and wonders in and through you if you are trusting and obeying and praising Him as David did.
Illustration and Conclusion:
John Paton was a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands. One night hostile natives surrounded the mission station, intent on burning out the Patons and killing them. Paton and his wife prayed during that terror-filled night that God would deliver them. When daylight came they were amazed to see their attackers leave. A year later, the chief of the tribe was converted to Christ. Remembering what had happened, Paton asked the chief what had kept him from burning down the house and killing them. The chief replied in surprise, "Who were all those men with you there?" Paton knew no men were present--but the chief said he was afraid to attack because he had seen hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords circling the mission station.
Today in the Word, MBI, October, 1991, p. 18.
