Our Response

Prayer is an interesting activity, a curious practice, an odd thing.

Some people feel like the cartoon character, Ziggy, who standing, looking up on a mountain. The sky is dark and there’s one cloud up there. Ziggy asks, “Have I been put on hold for the rest of my life?”

Sometimes prayer feels like that, doesn’t it? We wonder if the LORD will ever answer.

For others, prayer is performance, or mere religious duty.

There’s a story about a minister who was in the habit of praying really profound prayers, using big, fancy words, trying to impress. He’d go on and on, week after week, with long , wordy prayers, until one week, a woman in the choir took matters into her own hands.

One Sunday, the minister was waxing poetic during one of his prayers, and this little woman reached across the divider separating the choir from the pulpit. Taking a firm grasp of minister’s robe, she gave it a yank and spoke in a loud whisper: “Just call Him ‘Father’ and ask Him for something.”

Of course, prayer is more than asking God for stuff, or it should be more than that. But it’s not about how impressive you can sound. And it’s certainly not a show.

Prayer is much more than any of that.

David, in our text this morning, seems to have a good grip on what prayer is.

In response to what the LORD had said to David through the prophet Nathan, David prays.

Prayer, for David, is his response.

I would argue, prayer is likewise our response to the LORD: our response to who He is, to what He has done, and to what He has said.

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 2 Samuel 7. As you are able and willing, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word:

2 Samuel 7:18–29 NIV

18 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said: “Who am I, Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 19 And as if this were not enough in your sight, Sovereign Lord, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant—and this decree, Sovereign Lord, is for a mere human! 20 “What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Sovereign Lord. 21 For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant. 22 “How great you are, Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel—the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself, and to make a name for himself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations and their gods from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt? 24 You have established your people Israel as your very own forever, and you, Lord, have become their God. 25 “And now, Lord God, keep forever the promise you have made concerning your servant and his house. Do as you promised, 26 so that your name will be great forever. Then people will say, ‘The Lord Almighty is God over Israel!’ And the house of your servant David will be established in your sight. 27 “Lord Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, ‘I will build a house for you.’ So your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 28 Sovereign Lord, you are God! Your covenant is trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant. 29 Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, Sovereign Lord, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever.”

May God add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!

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If you remember last week, in the first half of the chapter (2 Samuel 7) David was making plans to build a house for the LORD, a house for the ark of the covenant. But the LORD had other ideas, and told Nathan what He, the LORD Yahweh, was going to do for David.

Nathan (2 Samuel 7:17) “ reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.”

David heard what the LORD said, and we have his response.

David goes into the tent where the ark of the covenant was located. David sits before the LORD. And David speaks.

This is prayer—speaking to the LORD. There was no way David could have listened to what the LORD was going to do and remain unmoved.

No way David is going to hear all of this, shrug his shoulders, and say, “Well, that’s nice.” And then just move on with his day.

What the LORD says stirs David up. David has to go and speak with the LORD. Prayer is David’s response to hearing what the LORD has had to say.

Prayer is David’s response. It should be ours.

Prayer is Our Response to the Sovereign God (vv. 18-20)

If you are reading in the New International Version of the Bible, you’ll see the words Sovereign LORD several times throughout our text. Other versions of the Bible obscure this a little bit, in my opinion, and you’ll read something like “LORD God” or “O LORD God.”

I think Sovereign LORD gets at the sense of this much better.

The Dictionary of Biblical Languages tells me that David is praying to “Adonay Yahweh—Sovereign LORD, Majestic Lord Yahweh. This is the title of the true God with a focus on the authority and majesty of a ruler. It also implies a relationship based in promise and covenant.”

David speaks to and refers to the LORD as Adonay Yahweh— Sovereign LORD.

And rightly so. The LORD is not some impersonal, passive deity. The Sovereign LORD is unlike any other. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present. He has the power, the wisdom, and the authority to do whatever He chooses.

In verse 18, David sits before the LORD. He goes to the tent where the ark of the LORD is located, and sits there, trying to come up with words to speak.

David asks the question others before him have asked, “Who am I?” David, like Moses, asks the Sovereign LORD this question, recognizing his unworthiness.

In light of all the LORD has said, in light of who the LORD is—David questions why the LORD has looked upon him at all. Like even a little.

If you and I aren’t right there with David, asking, “Who am I, LORD, that you have brought me this far?” then we are blind to the depth of our sin. If we don’t see ourselves as unworthy, undeserving recipients of God’s goodness, we need to reevaluate.

The Sovereign LORD has brought David to this point—and that’s no small feat. It’s enough that it causes David to marvel, to sit down and say “Wow!” at everything God has done and is promising to do.

As I was studying this week, I jotted down a note here. It’s more of a question than a note. It’s this:

“Is there any ‘wow’ in my prayers?”

Not “wow” as in, “Am I impressing anyone with my prayers?” But, am I astonished by the LORD? Do I marvel at His kindness and goodness shown to me and mine?

Does it strike me that the Sovereign LORD Almighty has saved me. That He is working in my life? That knowledge should WOW me; that should make me marvel.

That wonderful truth should knock me down. I think David was often wowed by the LORD. He wrote this in Psalm 139:

Psalm 139:1–4

1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.

David marvels at who the Sovereign LORD is. So should we.

David is also overwhelmed by the brightness of the future being laid out before him.

He begins his prayer here with a “Wow, look at what God has done for me and my family!” And this will extend to a “Wow, look at who God is and what He has done for all His people!”

I believe we need to recapture an element of prayer today: the “wow” element. The awe that David expresses here, namely that the Sovereign LORD is involved in his individual life.

“Who am I, LORD?”

“I can’t believe that You—the Sovereign LORD—thinks of me! Wow.”

Verses 20-21 are David’s expression of awe at the sovereignty of God. God knows David. It’s for the sake of the LORD’s word and His will that He has done this great thing and made it known to David.

Here’s the point: the LORD’s plan arises solely out of the LORD’s choice and desire.

No part of this occurs because of wisdom on David’s part, or anyone else.

The LORD knew David. He knows David. He knows us. And still, the Sovereign of the universe chooses to work in us, to use us, to save us (sinners though we be).

David responds to the Sovereign LORD in prayer. With humility. With unworthiness. With awe.

For each section of this sermon, I want to do something different. I’m going to take a page out of our friend Alan Wan’s playbook.

We’re going to pause and pray a few times during the sermon, focusing on each particular part of our response.

At the outset, prayer is our response to the Sovereign God.

Bow your head. Take a moment to pray to the Sovereign LORD. The One who knows you fully. The One who saves sinners like you. The One who has brought you this far. Add some “Wow” to your prayer. Spend a moment marvelling at who He is.

[Prayer]

Prayer is our response to the the Sovereign God, and

Prayer is Our Response to the Greatness of God (vv. 21-24)

I am absolutely stuck on verse 22. 2 Samuel 7:22 “How great you are, Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.”

This is a sort of continuation of the awe David has expressed. How Great the Sovereign LORD is! There is no other—no God but the LORD. This we know: Great is the LORD!

A good number of psalms echo this sentiment:

Psalm 48:1

1 Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.

Psalm 77:13

13 Your ways, God, are holy. What god is as great as our God?

Psalm 86:10

10 For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.

How great is our God!

I think, as we read verses 23-24, the temptation is to shift our focus away from the LORD and focus on the LORD’s people.

And I get it the temptation. It’d be easy to go down that rabbit hole, take a long walk down a winding road and come out exhausted on the other side.

I’d rather we not get lost in the “people” of verses 23-24, but instead get lost in the Greatness of God. I can’t be convinced that our focus is meant to be on anything but the greatness of God.

David frames the whole conversation by exclaiming, “How great you are, Sovereign LORD!”

As he speaks about the LORD’s people here, it’s really just more testimony about the greatness of God.

The Sovereign LORD went out and redeemed them for Himself, to make a name for Himself!

Moses directs the people to praise the LORD for all He’s done:

Deuteronomy 10:21

21 He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.

The Great and Sovereign LORD perform[ed] great and awesome wonders, redeem[ing] them from Egypt.

Think about how the LORD accomplished that. With great and horrible plagues upon the enemies/captors of His people.

Turning the river to blood. Sending locusts. And boils. And hail and fire. Frogs, and gnats, and flies. Complete darkness. The death of the firstborn.

He showed His power among them and Pharaoh let the people go. The LORD led them by day and by night, protecting them. And then the LORD divided the Red Sea, allowing His people to walk through on dry ground.

What a Great and mighty God! Who else is like Him? What other “deity” has ever done anything of the sort?

The LORD performs great and awesome wonders.

The LORD has established His people forever! It’s not that the people are some great, unstoppable force; it’s that the LORD has determined to keep His people.

The NT tells the same story, of a God who is sovereignly determined to keep His people.

John 10:29 (NIV)

29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.

Our greatest assurance, and the greatest wonder of all time is that the Sovereign LORD sent His Son to us to redeem us and make us His children.

Galatians 4:4–6

4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”

By recalling the events of the Exodus and the past redemption of the people, David is declaring his faith in the Great God of his fathers.

We, too, should think of all that God has done, from the time of creation forward to the Exodus, to the time of Joshua and the judges, to David and the kings.

Think of all the incredible, majestic, awesome and marvelous deeds God has done for His people. Open His Word and be struck anew, all over again by His greatness.

Now, consider all He has done for you.

In the day-to-day, what’s the LORD doing for you?

That breath you just took? That’s from Him.

Your family, your friends, your health. That’s from Him.

What’s He done for you? (If you did your homework from last week, you should have a big, long list you can reference).

Fix your thoughts now specifically upon Jesus. Consider what He has done for you.

Jesus took on flesh and made His dwelling among us. He shouldered our sin and paid the price our sin has wrought. He died our death, and absorbed the wrath of God we deserved.

And this He did while we were still sinners. Jesus did this SO THAT we, once alienated from God, would be reconciled to Him.

Who is greater than our God, He who didn’t spare His own Son, but gave Him as a sacrifice of atonement, to pay for our sins once and for all?

What god is as great as our God? How great is our God!

We’re going to take a moment now to pray. To respond to the greatness of God. If you are a Christian, you are a Christian ONLY because He has redeemed you. ONLY because He has rescued you. ONLY because He has given His Son as a ransom for you, to purchase you from your slavery to sin.

Prayer is our response to the Greatness of God.

Bow your head. Take a moment to pray to our Great God. Recall just two or three awesome deeds He has performed on your behalf. We pray because He is great and worthy of praise.

[Prayer]

Prayer is our response to the greatness of God and

Prayer is Our Response to the Promises of God (vv. 25-29)

The second half of David’s prayer is more petition than praise. David is here asking the LORD to do something, but notice he’s not asking selfishly.

I have vivid memories from childhood praying for $1 Million Dollars, praying to win my baseball game, praying my sister would just stay at her friend’s house permanently.

David prays, pleading with God (not for selfish desires) but for God to do what He has promised. And why? What’s David’s reason for praying this? Was it so that David’s name becomes greater and greater?! No!

David prays so that [the LORD’s name] will be great forever and so people will say, “The LORD Almighty is God over Israel!”

For David, praying in this way is all about the LORD receiving the recognition He deserves.

David doesn’t pray selfishly. David prays the promises of God come to pass so that the LORD is praised.

All of David’s requests here are grounded in the LORD’s promise.

In verse 25, David prays that the LORD would keep forever the promise He made.

In verse 27, David finds the courage to pray because of what the LORD had revealed to him when the LORD said, “I will build a house for you.”

A careful reading of verses 28-29 show that David’s request for the LORD to bless David’s house/family is grounded in the trustworthy covenant of the LORD and promise of good things as well as what the LORD has spoken: For you, Sovereign LORD, have spoken.

Dale Ralph Davis calls this “the major task for prayer today: to take God’s promises and pray He will bring them to pass.”

It’s not that we’re reminding God about His promises. His memory is perfect; He hasn’t forgotten one word of what He’s promised.

We aren’t reminding God; we’re reminding ourselves and adjusting our will to His. We aren’t to pray selfish prayers, but rather prayers in line with His Word and His will, SO THAT His name will be great forever.

J. Alec Motyer poses an important question. He asks, “What is to be done with the promises of God are denied by the facts of experience?”

In other words, what are we to do when the experiences of our life make it seem like God has forgotten His promise?

He says, “Turn the promises into prayers and plead them before God.”

David is praying here, pleading with God to do as He promised.

“Do as you have promised” is at the heart of our praying. Or it should be.

When we ask for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done on the earth—that’s asking God to do as He promised.

And this we must realize: The final King of David’s house has come. Every promise made to David has found its “yes” and “amen” in the person of Jesus.

We know, we know, the promises of God are reliable. We’ve seen promises come to pass, and we know every word of God will be fulfilled.

Because He said so.

Prayer is our response to the Promises of God.

Bow your head. Take a moment to ask God to keep His promises, to bring His promises to pass. Ask God to do what He has spoken in His Word. Pray, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

[Prayer]

>Prayer is an interesting activity, a curious practice, an odd thing—that is, unless you know the Sovereign LORD, have experienced His greatness, and trust His promises.

When that’s the case, prayer becomes a natural response. Not a list of requests or a slate of needs & wants, but the believers’ innate response to

WHO God is

WHAT God has done, and

ALL God is going to do for His Name’s sake

David heard the word of the LORD through Nathan the prophet. He heard and he responded.

If we have heard the Word of the LORD, if we’ve seen and experienced His Greatness, if we recognize how His promises have been fulfilled, our prayers would be humble and filled with awe.

Our prayers would be filled with praise—praise for who He is and all He has done.

May our prayer be our proper response to the Sovereign LORD Almighty.

And may we pray and worship and live our lives in such a way that the LORD’s name would be lifted high because of us.

“Sovereign LORD, you are great and greatly to be praised. We trust every word you’ve spoken, every promise you’ve made. We know Jesus is the fulfillment of these promises to David. And we know there are promises that will soon be fulfilled as your plan moves forward. Let us tell the world the good news about you. Would your will be done in our lives. That your Great Name is magnified is our desire. In the Sovereign, Mighty, Gracious name of Jesus we pray. Amen.”