Knowing God Through Prayer

The New International Version Psalm 139

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.

5 You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

Does it ever make you wonder what it took to pray like this?

Really that’s what the Psalms are - a collection of poetic prayers, and they were overflowing from David.

The book of Psalms is really only made up of a handful of authors that we know of - a vast majority was written by David, with some additions from Moses, Solomon, the sons of Korah, and Asaph.

But to get back on point, do we still pray like this today? Going through this text, there is one main takeaway that we can learn from David:

A healthy prayer life can only be achieved by knowing God

That might sound like a simple claim, but there is a little bit more to it than what you might think.

There is a very

Within these two years, I have found out a little bit about my walk with God - I found out that I may have known a lot about God, but I haven’t taken much time to know Him at the personal level He longs for.

There is a major difference between knowing about God and knowing God

One is a relationship built on seeing a person from afar and learning about them; the other is a relationship that is built by drawing close and learning from the source.

It is easy to get caught up in different theological topics of God. I can stand here and completely nerd out with you about the topic of predestination, which is brought up in the later part of , but theology means very VERY little if we aren’t longing to seek closer the one we are studying.

An author by the name of J. I. Packer wrote an amazing book called Knowing God, which is a staple to anyone’s library. It covers a lot about what I will be talking about today. This is what he has to say about the difference of knowing about God and Knowing God:

“We must learn to measure ourselves, not by our knowing about God, not by our gifts and responsibilities in the church, but by how we pray and what goes on in our hearts.” - J. I. Packer Knowing God

I love that line. There is so much truth within that statement. Knowing God, drawing close to Him, can only be done effectively by a life devoted to prayer and talking with God.

This kind of connects to my earlier thought about David’s song, his prayer to God. David is praying with a strong Knowledge of God but it doesn’t get in the way of his personal relationship with the Creator. He’s praying from his heart, from his experience, and his trust of the Father.

The first six verses say:

The New International Version Psalm 139

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.

The New International Version Psalm 139

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.

The New International Version Psalm 139

5 You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

This speaks of God’s omniscience, which is a fancy theological term to talk about God’s all-knowing nature. David knew God so well, that he was aware that God knows all things.

For some, this is a terrifying thought. Do I really want God to be searching me and perceiving my thoughts? David even includes the words “from afar” as if God is doing this all the time, even when we do not realize.

For a sinner, which is everyone in this room, no offense, this can be troubling, but when we look a little more into this it isn’t. See, even though God already knows all things concerning us, He still makes astounding efforts to reach us. David was touching that in verse five, “You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.” As if he was saying that even though You are fully aware of my doing, You still have a hand of blessing on me and pursue me.

We see another attribute of God in verses 7-12:

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The New International Version Psalm 139

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

The New International Version Psalm 139

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

The New International Version Psalm 139

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

These verses touch on a couple attributes of God that David surely understood. First, God is omnipresent. God doesn’t have a physical form.

When we talk about God’s glory falling or filling a place, that was God’s sustenance residing in that place.

God is at all places, at all times - even in hell. That’s not a picture that we get when we see old cartoons with the devil and his pitchfork. The New International Version translated the word “depths” a little too kindly in verse 8. The hebrew word for depths is Sheol, which means underworld - or as we know it hell.

What an amazing thought. While it is clear nobody is receiving God’s blessing in hell, it shows who has authority over all things. However, David is painting a clear picture that from the heavens to the depths, from as far as the east is to the west, God is there and in His gracious way, will guide us through all things.

There is no limits to God’s provision. Again, there are certain words that do not translate well to the english language; in verse 11 and 12, the Hebrew word for “darkness” is “hosek,” which means complete darkness, or even realm of darkness - the darkest of dark.

God is completely holy, to the point that darkness cannot envelop HIm. God is at all-places, at all-times, and can guide us through any circumstance. There is nothing too big that can overshadow our Father. He is just that good.

Lastly, God is Omnipotent, which means all-powerful. Verses 13-14:

The New International Version Psalm 139

13 For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

David understood full well that God is the Creator of all-things. Things that are small and often seen irrelevant to the most sophisticated creations imaginable. My favorite verse in this chapter comes from verse 13, “[f]or you created my inmost being.” David gets deep and very personal with God. “Inmost being” translates, specifically, as the core of a man. It is where the heart, mind, and spirit meet and connect together. It brings David to praise and worship God for who He is. Verse 14, is a shout of praise, and definitely the most popular verse in this chapter, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I KNOW that full well.”

Summary/transition

David does not speak of God in a way that someone who knows a think or two about God. He speaks about a God he knows personally. I could only imagine that these types of prayers just came out naturally.

This is not impossible for anyone. David was still a very flawed person and God still revealed Himself to him, which means this is achievable!

More importantly, it is crucial in our walk with God to know Him the way He longs for us to know Him, and we do this by pursuing a life of continuous conversation with God. This best way to know a person is face-to-face. If I stood up here, and spoke directly to the wall behind me, as much as this might make me more comfortable right now, this message wouldn’t be nearly as effective.

Here are three simple action steps we can take to know God through a life of prayer.

Three ways knowing God will change our Prayer life

It will change:

We change our outlook on the purpose of prayer

How we approach God

I love what Pastor Jason said the first week of this series. While it is important to know that God is a friend to sinners, it is more important to know that His name is mighty and strong! He is on high! We cannot fathom how great God is! It would be a shame to approach God like a common buddy. We need to approach Him in awe and wonder - with a posture of worship. WE CANNOT SIMPLY HAVE A JESUS IS MY FRIEND ATTITUDE.

This will not remove a personal relationship at all, but enhance it. When I take the time to comprehend that the same God who created the cosmos takes time to speak with me> and yes, I do think God can converse with us>I cannot help but to be amazed! It gives me all more reason to realize how amazing and good God is.

I will be the first to say that sometimes I approach God too quickly. This is another way we can approach God differently. If I were to talk to you like this, moving around, seeming like I am just getting words out but am not really into it, there isn’t much connection there. But if we take the time to stop, breath, maybe read scripture, or listen to a song of praise, we go from a hurried prayer to a calm, relaxed, and thoughtful posture, and I have to think that we will communicate better and God will be more pleased in us being more intentionally focused on Him.

This is not to say there are’t times that we find need to quickly come to God with an urgent prayer. Not the same at all! That is needed. When something just comes up where we need God to intervene. Peter tells us in , “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” That is a completely different posture of prayer.

7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

2. Another way knowing God will change our prayer life is how we view God. This is an important one. How we view God will change the way we talk to Him. Have you ever had that one friend growing up that you thought you knew, but then something happened that completely changed the concept of how you viewed that person? This could be for the good or the bad.

3. How we trust God

Is it possible to say our view of God could possibly be flawed in ways. I think that it is very possible there can be things we don’t know about God that can change how we look at Him. In fact, I don’t think we can ever know God too much, or hit some kind of plateau. The Lord declares, those who meditate on His law day and night is like a tree planted by streams of water, who prospers in every way.( paraphrased).

The more we know God, the more we know who He truly is and what He is like. This is why being in the Psalms is so important. It is just loaded with knowledge of God! What makes the Psalms stand out from the rest of the Bible, is the knowledge of God is what theologians call anthropomorphic, which is means to put human traits and attributes to a being or deity.

This is important because the more human traits we associate with God, the more personal He becomes. For example, God can experience anger. We see this all over the Psalms. , “The Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked, those who love violence he hates with a passion.” But we also can learn that His anger is not like our anger, and it can shift our view of God. Same Psalm but down to verse 7, “ For the Lord is righteous, he loves justice; the upright will see is face.” While the Lord experiences anger and hates those who are wicked, He acts within a righteous and just manner. Knowing these attributes will enter into our prayers. We confidently speak truths like, God, You are a just God who is slow to be angry with His children, or, God, Thank you for Your enduring patience. Our views of God will shift.

3. How we trust God

3. Lastly, when we begin to know who God is, our prayer life changes by how we trust God. I am using the term trust in a more specific standpoint. I truly believe that God has a masterplan and that the Bible is God allowing us to experience what He is doing. I also believe that nothing will be able to change what the Lord is determined to do. Therefore when I pray, there is a certain amount that I know will not fit into God’s plan.

We have to be okay with that. We have to trust God and know that, like David so clearly spelled out, the all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful God has everything in control. This has to be applied in our prayer life in a few general ways:

Whether or not God gives us what we petition to Him in prayer, God is just. God’s answer to prayer does not determine His faithfulness during our time on earth. He already proved His faithfulness through Christ Jesus. Everything else is just a bonus.

2) Our prayers need to be in-line with His will. God’s will is greater than anything we can

says,” For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

Our hope and trust in the Lord is not to give us what we want all the time, but that His will for us will prosper us to come and know what He has lined up for us.

Our prayers need to be in-line with His will. As I said earlier God is holy and just, and our sinful nature can get in the way of that, even as we pray. So in a way, when God answers our prayers it does not simply mean He is giving us what we are asking, More importantly, it means we are drawing closer and closer to His will.

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When our prayers become less about us, and more about what God wants, we come to see how amazing God really is. This is how Jesus commands us to pray. It is even part of the “Our Father” prayer, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

R. C. Sproul wrote, “Prayer, like everything else in the Christian life, is for God’s glory and for our benefit, in that order. Everything that God does, everything that God allows and ordains, is in the supreme sense for His glory.” - Sproul R.C., 2009). - Does Prayer Change Things?

We need to remember that God won’t act in a way that will not bring him the glory He deserves. However when he does act, everyone benefits from it. The more and more we realize this, the more in tune we will be to His supreme plan in our lives and the more conversations we have with God will reflect that.

Could you imagine what could be accomplished if ever single Christian prayed this prayer, “God, please help and use me to accomplish Your will.” This prayer alone has so much potential to change everything! What would the local church look like? What would our nation look like? What would the world look like? I truly believe that we don’t see the supernatural side of God happen often because His will has been lost.

It is important to note that Jesus still tells us to ask! But this is what He says about the prayers the Father answers, “This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” Always ask! But more importantly, if God hears and answers, know with great confidence that He is pleased with what You asked.

what now?

This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

You can easily say that I told you a lot of things why it is important to know God, but very little on how to act on here.

Here are three very basic action steps to help change the way we pray:

Know Your Bible! There is very little more I have to say about this one. However, to take this to the next step, I am going to include to pray your Bible, and no better place to start than in the Psalms! When I pray the Bible I like to do one of three things,

Pray word-for-word. Very basic, but I find when I am reading areas of the Bible like the Psalms or proverbs, it is on point and very little more needs to be said.

Paraphrase - What I do most often, but it is important to remain true to the context!

Respond - This is when you read scripture and reflect and respond to the Word of God!

Schedule Prayer Times! Studies show that when you schedule you plans ahead of time (this is with anything) you two to three times more likely to follow through with them. Why not use this model with something as important as prayer!

Meditate before prayer! This is not a call to cross your legs, with your eyes closed and focus on breathing. While that could possibly help, meditating on God’s word and reflecting puts our mind and heart in-check before we pray. It helps with approaching God in the right manner.

I like to use the SOAP method we talked about before, Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer.

I also like to read scripture and ask a few basic questions I got from Timothy Keller’s book, Prayer:

What does this text show me about God and how I should praise and thank him?

What does this text show me about my sin that I need to confess and repent?

What does the text show me about a need that I have, and how should I petition to God for it?

How is Jesus or the grace that I have in him crucial to helping overcome my sin?

How would this change my life?

All of these questions help prep for time of prayer. I usually move straight from these questions into prayer written or spoken.

BAND

These three action steps will definitely help anyone who wants to learn how to pray or deepen their relationship with God through prayer.

I want to add just one more thing before have the band come up. It would be foolish to talk about prayer and not mention Jesus as the perfect model for prayer. Read the gospels and note how Jesus prayed. There has been nobody, and will ever be anyone else who prayed the way Jesus did. It is why his disciples asked him to teach them to pray! So if there was ever a time to seek Jesus for counsel, take a good look at his prayer life and learn! Jot a few notes when you do, and begin sneaking them into the way that you pray.