Untitled Sermon (19)

2. To whom should we pray? We should pray to the only true God, great in power, love, grace, and mercy.

This psalm shows that David knew the God to whom he was praying. Knowing God’s attributes and His promises gives us hope and endurance in prayer. To approach God’s holy throne, we must know that He is good, ready to forgive, and abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon Him (86:5). We must know that He is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth” (86:15). In this prayer, David basically pits who God is against his enemies and leaves the outcome to God.

A. GOD IS THE ONLY TRUE GOD, GREAT IN POWER.

David exclaims

Psalm 86:8–10 NASB95

There is no one like You among the gods, O Lord, Nor are there any works like Yours. All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And they shall glorify Your name. For You are great and do wondrous deeds; You alone are God.

Seven times in this psalm, David uses the name, Adonai, or Lord (3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 15). It emphasizes God’s lordship and sovereignty.

He made the nations. He has ordained that they will all come and worship before Him. He is great and does wondrous deeds. The Lord alone is God.By referring to “the gods,” David means the idols or demons that the heathen worship.

Satan is called the god of this world (or, “age,” 2 Cor. 4:4; John 12:31). The whole world lies in his power (1 John 5:19). Paul, referring to the demons, says that there are many gods and many lords in heaven and on earth (1 Cor. 8:5; 10:20). These demons are spirit-beings, organized under Satan, with great power over individuals and entire nations (2 Thess. 2:9; Acts 19:13-16; Dan. 10:13, 20).But, at the time which God determines, He will bring fire down from heaven to destroy His enemies. Satan and all of the demons will be thrown into the lake of fire, where they will be tormented forever and ever (Rev. 20:9-10).

And even now, before that time, we are assured (1 John 4:4), “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”This should give us great confidence to pray. Although the forces of darkness are powerful, none of them can compare to God.

Because God has willed that all the nations whom He has made will worship Him, we can pray for the lost peoples of the world, knowing that God will bless our missionary efforts. There may be temporary setbacks, as there often have been in church history. But ultimately and finally, God will prevail. We can pray to Him as the only true God, great in power.

C. GOD IS LOVING!

1 Jn. 4:8,16

1 John 4:8 NASB95

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

1 John 4:16 NASB95

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

READ PS. 103

Romans 8:31–39 NASB95

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

B. GOD IS GREAT IN LOVE, GRACE, AND MERCY.

Twice (86:3, 16), David entreats God to be gracious to him. Twice again (86:5, 15), he cites Exodus 34:6-7, where God revealed Himself to Moses. Here is how God disclosed Himself:

Exodus 34:6–7 NASB95

Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

This great self-revelation of God is one of the most frequently quoted texts in the Old Testament. It is referred to in Numbers 14:18; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalms 103:8 & 145:8; Joel 2:13; and Jonah 4:2. Here, in 86:5, David uses it to appeal to God to answer his prayer: “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You.”

Again (86:15), David prays, “But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.”Since this is God’s repeated revelation of Himself to us, it provides us with a sure basis to approach His throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help in our times of need (Heb. 4:16).

If you have never come to God through Jesus and His shed blood to receive forgiveness for your sins, He invites you to come and ask. You will receive His abundant mercy and grace.If, as a Christian, you have failed God by sinning, He invites you to come for forgiveness, mercy, and grace.

When David asks God to preserve his soul and adds (86:2), “for I am a godly man,” he does not mean that he deserves for God to answer based on David’s godliness. David sinned often, sometimes in major ways, as you know. Rather, the word godly stems from the Hebrew word (hesed) for lovingkindness, or God’s loyal covenant love. It means that David is a loyal follower of the Lord (H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Psalms [Baker], p. 618).

David is not being self-righteous, but simply stating the fact that he was committed to the Lord.If you’re following the Lord, but you’re struggling with overwhelming problems beyond your ability to handle, He invites you to come as you are to His throne of grace to receive mercy and grace to help in your time of need. And in case you’re worried that your problems are too great or that you’ve bugged Him once too often, He repeatedly reminds you that His lovingkindness is abundant! You can’t exhaust His love!God’s abundant love, grace, and mercy should motivate us to come to Him in prayer with all our needs, whether great or small.