Uncomfortable Prayers

Psalm 51

Title: Uncomfortable Prayers

Scripture: Psalm 51:1-12

1    Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

blot out my transgressions.

2    Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin.

3    For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

4    Against you, you alone, have I sinned,

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you are justified in your sentence

and blameless when you pass judgment.

5    Indeed, I was born guilty,

a sinner when my mother conceived me.

6    You desire truth in the inward being;

therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

7    Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8    Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

9    Hide your face from my sins,

and blot out all my iniquities.

10  Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and put a new and right spirit within me.

11  Do not cast me away from your presence,

and do not take your holy spirit from me.

12  Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and sustain in me a willing spirit.[1]

This is the word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Title: Uncomfortable Prayers

I. Introduction

Prayer is one of the most essential spiritual disciplines in our spiritual lives.

Prayer serves as an opportunity for us to bring our petitions before God. There are many types of prayers and many of them are almost second nature to pray.

For example, it is easy for us to ask God to grant us petition. I can remember being a teenager in the youth group at my home church praying the prayer of Jabez. And that prayer went something like this:

“Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm.”

Isn’t that sort of prayer similar to how the majority of our prayers sound?

Now, there’s nothing at all wrong with praying this type of prayer.

But that sort of prayer should not be the only prayer type that we pray.

Some of our prayers need to be uncomfortable.

And when we look at Psalm 51, we see David praying a very uncomfortable prayer and the type of prayer that David is praying is a confessional prayer and one of repentance.

II. Uncomfortable Prayers

Prayers of Confession is something that we do at worship services before taking part in the Lord’s Supper.

Those prayers are designed to probe our minds and they allow us to confess together in community. So, they are essentially communal prayers.

However, at some point confessional prayers or a prayer like the one that we see here in Psalm 51 are necessary.

Confessional prayers need to be incorporated in our individual prayer life.

But again, these prayers are uncomfortable and frankly they are prayers that we don’t want to pray.

But why is that??

III. Why are Confessional Prayers uncomfortable?

I think that confessional prayers are a lot like walking into room full of mirrors. You can see your reflection everywhere.

You see all of your profiles. You see the front of yourself, the back of yourself, and even both sides of yourself.

For most of us, we look into the mirror every day, and when we look back into the mirror, we see the things that we love about ourselves.

We see:

· how nice our hair is,

· we see how pretty, white and straight our teeth are,

· we see how well we dress.

· We see the qualities that we believe are good about ourselves.

But the thing about mirrors is, they are an enigma. While we see the things that we love about ourselves, we also see our imperfections as well.

Mirrors in a way force us to be vulnerable with ourselves. Because the mirror will only reflect what it sees.

When we pray confessional prayers, we are reminded of what we are capable of; both good and bad.

We learn a lot about who we are truly capable of being. The reflection on the other side of that confessional mirror reminds us of:

The ways that we have rebelled against God’s love

It reminds us of the fact that we have not loved our neighbors

It reminds us that we have not heard the cry of the needy.

We are reminded of how we’ve treated others

We are reminded of the things that we’ve turned a blind eye to.

We are reminded that we are not exactly who we portray ourselves to be to the world.

And its hard, its scary, and we become ashamed. It is difficult to rehash those moments in life when we felt as though we’ve fallen short because those moments where we have fallen short are traumatic.

And having to literally say what it is that we have done wrong puts us in a vulnerable position because it exposes all of our fears and it is reminding us that we can not control all of the situations in our lives.

I struggle with social anxiety. When I am in large crowds, I get really nervous. Now over the course of time that has gotten a lot better. But I found this out about myself through working with a counselor.

four years ago, I told a friend about how I grow nervous and self-conscious in large crowds and how it was beginning to have an impact on certain relationships and me serving others. This friend recommended to me a counselor. And in the first session the counselor deduced that I have social anxiety.

Since then, we have been meeting once every other month. And when we meet, she gives me insight into things that I can do to manage my anxiety. And I work on those things, and I come back to report to her.

During our meetings I am almost as vulnerable with her as I would be with my wife. It is easy for me to go back to her and tell her about the moments when I’ve felt that I managed my anxiety well.

But its hard to come back and admit that I didn’t do too well because once again I hid in a room full of people. Or I let my nervousness or self-consciousness get the better of me.

But I know that I have to admit those things because if I don’t, I not only waste my time and hers.

During our sessions I wonder if she’s judging me or if she thinks that I’m really really messed up; I especially think this when she goes to writing in her notepad.

But the sessions are fruitful because me telling her where I have failed is a venue for me to process how I can become a better me and I recognize that I am telling her these things so that she can give me the tools to manage my situation better.

Is that not how our prayer lives are supposed to look? God doesn’t want for our prayer lives to be stagnant, routine, or shallow. No, God wants us to be honest with ourselves and with him.

Adam and Eve showed us that our default nature is to not be vulnerable with anyone, even God.

But how we can expect to grow if we’re not honest with God or ourselves for that matter.

And I think that David in all that he did wrong, shows us of our need to be vulnerable.

But why is it so hard for us to be vulnerable?

Sometime a few years ago during youth Sunday School at Galloway, the writer of the lesson instructed the facilitator of the lesson to bring a shattered hand mirror and to allow everyone to look into that mirror.

And everyone who looked into that mirror saw a broken reflection. And the point of this particular object lesson was to remind everyone that we all are broken.

(Pass around the broken mirror)

Friends we are all broken and we all are in need of a good and loving God to heal us. And seeing our broken reflection in this mirror reminds us of that fact.

I think that David in his room full of mirrors, is essentially alluding to two things and rendering two types of confessions:

1. We are broken and we are in need of God.

IV. Confession is more than admitting wrongdoing

You see, I don’t want you to leave here thinking of confessional prayer in only one way because I think that David shows us that a prayer of confession is more than admitting that we’ve sinned.

In Psalm 51, David is confessing more than his wrongdoings. When we look at verse 11, David says “Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit.”

In these verses David is acknowledging his humanity. He is acknowledging that he needs the good and merciful God. David is humbling himself before God.

Confession is so much more than admitting that we have done wrong. No, confession is also admitting to God that we are limited beings due to our humanity.

We are broken and the only person who heal our brokenness is God.

David in this text recognizes that he can’t heal himself. He recognizes that he’s nothing without God. Here it is a man,

the greatest king of ancient Israel.

Someone who was chosen by God to become king.

The slayer of Goliath

The unifier of the 12 tribes

A person after God’s own heart

Someone who experienced great wealth

Someone who had access to anything his heart desired.

Yet, he recognized that he is broken and that he is limited due to his humanity and that he needed a loving, strong, and gracious God.

In a few minutes, each of us will receive the ashes. When you receive those ashes, you will hear these words:

“From dust you came, to dust you shall return.”

And then you will receive the mark of the cross on your forehead.

Those words and that cross remind us of our humanity and our brokenness, and they are the epitome of what the season of Lent is all about.

We don’t fast or pick up a spiritual discipline because it’s the “in thing” to do in this season. No, we do these things because they remind us that we indeed need God.

As we move through this season of Lent, I want to encourage you to practice the spiritual discipline of confessional prayer.

Embrace it and recognize that we serve a good, loving, and gracious God who wants to heal our brokenness.

Friends as you hear those words and reflect upon the ashes you’ve received, I encourage you to let those words simmer.

Let those words penetrate your heart and point you to reflect upon your own humanity and God’s grace.

“From the dust you came, to dust you shall return. Repent and believe the Gospel”

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Benediction: Friends after the benediction, we invite you to leave in silence.  

May God, who has forgiven and fed us,

Now make us strong for these days ahead.

May Jesus lead us, and we be found faithful to follow.

May the Spirit drive us into the wilderness,

Burning away the chaff of our lives,

And purifying our hearts for all to see and be blessed.

And may the blessing of God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Be with us and remain with us always!

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Ps 51.