Prayers of David, Ann & Us

Read Psalm 54

Psalm 54 KJV 1900

To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David, when the Ziphims came and said to Saul, Doth not David hide himself with us? 1 Save me, O God, by thy name, And judge me by thy strength. 2 Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth. 3 For strangers are risen up against me, And oppressors seek after my soul: They have not set God before them. Selah. 4 Behold, God is mine helper: The Lord is with them that uphold my soul. 5 He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: Cut them off in thy truth. 6 I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O Lord; for it is good. 7 For he hath delivered me out of all trouble: And mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies.

I want to read the background to this Psalm and the answer to David’s prayer

1 Samuel 23:19–27 KJV 1900

19 Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us in strong holds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon? 20 Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him into the king’s hand. 21 And Saul said, Blessed be ye of the Lord; for ye have compassion on me. 22 Go, I pray you, prepare yet, and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who hath seen him there: for it is told me that he dealeth very subtilly. 23 See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hideth himself, and come ye again to me with the certainty, and I will go with you: and it shall come to pass, if he be in the land, that I will search him out throughout all the thousands of Judah. 24 And they arose, and went to Ziph before Saul: but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the plain on the south of Jeshimon. 25 Saul also and his men went to seek him. And they told David: wherefore he came down into a rock, and abode in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. 26 And Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain: and David made haste to get away for fear of Saul; for Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them. 27 But there came a messenger unto Saul, saying, Haste thee, and come; for the Philistines have invaded the land.

I’m thankful we have a God who does hear and does give ear to our prayers.

I was reminded in our Sunday School paper this week about Holy Ann

What a remarkable woman of faith she was.

We become so sophisticated and reason away sometimes what God wants to do and can do

Sometimes it takes the things the world thinks are simple and foolish to remind us -

She was born in Ireland and only had about a weeks worth of education. Helen Bingham writes -

“she exhausted the patience of the teacher to the point of despair, and finally after many vain attempts to teach her the first letters of the alphabet, he gave her a significant tap upon the head as he pathetically remarked before the class, “Poor Ann! She can never learn anything.” And with this she was sent home in disgrace.

Her religious training was just about as bad. On one occasion she had been let out to work at a home some distance away. Mrs. McKay her boss had her join in family worship. She was asked to bring in the New Testament, but she didn’t know what it was and brought in a newspaper instead. I’m not talking about a kindergartner I’m talking about a 10-12 year old if not a little older.

One Sunday Ann Preston was asked to go to church. Under great protest she went. It was held in a house as they didn’t have the money to construct a church yet. The minister Bro. Halliday preached but she couldn’t remember anything that was said, but she remembered his text, “Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door pray to thy Father who seeth in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

That night between 8 and 9 p.m. Ann made her way up to the attic, she hardly knew why, but she voluntarily knelt for the first time in her life and began to cry out. She lost all control of herself praying. Her mistress heard the noise down three flights of stairs and remarked, “Ann is taking the minister’s advice.”

a little while after she went up and asked Ann what was the matter. Ann looked up

and answered, "I don't know, ma'am." But just then she seemed to have a sudden revelation of her trouble, and she added, "Oh, yes, I do. I see all the sins that ever I did from the time I was five years old all written on the chair in front of me, every one." And then, as she looked down, she cried out, "Oh, ma'am, worse than all, I see hell open ready to swallow me." Then, like one of old, she began to smite her breast, and without any knowledge that she was repeating Scripture, cried out, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." Once more she became desperate, as she cried over and over again for mercy.

After a little while she retired to her room, but conviction did not cease, and she continued to pray until twelve o'clock, when she jumped up, saying, as she rose, "No mercy, Lord, for me?"

But her heart was assured even as the question passed her lips, and Ann always said that as she looked up she saw the Saviour as He was on Calvary, and knew right then that His blood atoned for her sins. She had the Methodist way of expressing it when she said, "I felt then something

burning in my heart.

That was the start of Ann’s prayer life

and the remarkable answers leave me feeling challenged in my thinking about prayer, but also realizing we have a God who cares about all of the things of our life.

She went over to the table and picked up a Testament which the young ladies used, and then prayed her first simple request as a child of God. "O Lord," she said, "you that has taken away this awful burden, intolerable to bear, couldn't you enable me to read one of these little things?" putting her finger on a verse. The text was, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give shall never thirst." for the first time in her life Ann was able to read a verse of Scripture.

The Egg and Milk Diet

There was one incident that she has often told which in some directions has been received with doubt and sceptical unbelief, which beautifully illustrates this. We are confident that the facts are just as narrated. In jumping over a fence she twisted her foot and injured the ankle. It got worse and worse, until finally she was unable to keep around any longer. Dr. Reid said it would be

necessary to scrape the bone. In these days, when such care is taken to relieve pain, we wonder

how it was possible that Ann submitted to this painful operation without any anaesthetic, but, as

she said, the Lord sustained her. It was a long, long time before the wound healed up, and for over

a year Ann was unable to walk. During this time of enforced inactivity she learned many precious

lessons. She had become very weak through the great strain upon her system, and one day the

doctor ordered her fresh eggs and milk. It did not occur to him that he was giving an impossible

prescription, for it was in the dead of winter, and not a fresh egg was to be had anywhere in the

village. All these matters were made subjects of prayer by Ann, who was learning already that the

things impossible with man are possible with God. She was sitting in her chair shortly after this,

between the kitchen door and the back stairway. The door having been left ajar, to her surprise a

hen came in and dropped down at Ann 's feet. Something said to her, "Lift it up and put it on the

first step of the stair." Intuitively Ann recognized that her Father was about to meet her need. The

hen went upstairs, and in her simple way Ann asked that it might not be permitted to cackle, lest

Dr. Reid's daughters should hear it. (In the village at that time there was another unique character

who was the laughing-stock of the boys because she permitted the hens to live in her house, and

Ann did not want to be likened to old Peggy Casey). After a few minutes the hen came down very

quietly and Ann reached to the door and let her out.

Then another great difficulty faced her. She had not put any weight on her foot for a long

time. It was impossible for her to walk, and while she was confident that the doctor's prescription

had been filled at the top of the stairs, she did not know how she was to obtain it. She prayed, and

felt that the answer came, "Go up for it." But in her simple way she said, "Father, how can I? It is

impossible." Some time before this she had learned a little refrain which she had taken as one of

the motto verses of her life. It ran like this:

"Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,

And looks to God alone,

Laughs at impossibilities

And cries, 'It shall be done.' "

When she spoke of impossibilities the inward voice said, "Well, say your verse." She

hesitated for some time, but at last faith conquered and she repeated the simple words. Then she

received her instructions as to how she was to act. She worked her chair toward the door, and

then, sitting on the first step, she raised herself with her hands, step after step, until she had

reached the top. The hen had laid the egg in an old box just at the head of the stair, and she was

able to reach it without getting off the top step. But how was she to get down with the egg in her

hand? In her simple way -- for she used to pray about all these little things in a very familiar

manner -- she asked for directions, and the word came, "Put it in your pocket." She then managed

to descend in the same fashion, and was just safely back in her chair when Paddy, the servant,

walked in. Ann prayed, "Now, Father, don't let him ask me where I got it," and in response to her

simple faith he took the egg without a word and fixed it for her without making any enquiry. This is

the more surprising when it is stated that he had been all through the village in his endeavor to

secure eggs for Ann.

For three weeks the hen returned every day without making the slightest noise. At the end of

this time the doctor one morning, said she did not need any more milk and eggs, and recommended

beef tea instead. Just after this one of the young ladies came in, and the hen, disturbed, came

cackling downstairs. The young woman was very much startled, and said, "What, Ann, have you

got hens upstairs like old Peggy Casey?" And as the hen came cackling down, the young girl

shooed it out into the yard and it never returned. Afterwards when Ann was able to get out again

she tried to single out this one in order to show it special kindness, but was unable to do so. When

in her customary way she appealed to her Father to show her which one it was, she heard the voice

speaking to her inward consciousness, and telling her, "My glory will I not give to another." For a

long time Ann hesitated to speak of this incident, but her diffidence in telling of God's goodness

was reproved, for she heard Him say, "I fed you just as really as I fed Elijah through the ravens,

and yet you are ashamed to make it known."

Chapter 9 The Story of the Well

One of the most remarkable answers to prayer in Ann's experience was that in which she

obtained water in a dry well. This incident has been told and re-told scores of times, with all sorts

of variations and additions. I was most careful to get the full particulars and surrounding

circumstances taken down as Ann narrated it. The event occurred in the long, dry weeks of

summer. During this period the well at their home was usually dry for two or three months, and the

boys were compelled to haul water in barrels from the well about half a mile away. This was very

hard work, and especially when they had to provide, not only for household needs, but for the

stock as well. One evening at the close of the day Ann was sitting in the kitchen with the boys

around her, telling them some of the remarkable ways in which her Heavenly Father had answered

her prayers

When she had just concluded one of these narratives, Henry said, "Ann, why don't you ask

your Father to send water in that well, and not have us boys work so hard? I was down in the well

looking at it to-day, and it is just as dry as the floor." This was thrown out to Ann in a half-joking,

half-earnest way, as though to challenge her faith. He little dreamt of the serious way that Ann

would take it. When she got up into her little room that night she knelt in prayer and said, "Now,

Father, you heard what Henry said to-night. If I get up in class meeting and say, 'My God shall

supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,' the boys won't believe I am

what I profess to be if you don't send the water in the well." She then continued to plead that the

water might be sent, and finally, rising from her knees, she said, "Now, Father, if I am what I

profess to be, there will be water in the well in the morning."

When she came down the next morning Henry was out preparing to go for the water as

usual. To his surprise and great amusement he saw Ann take up the two pails and start for the well.

He watched her from the kitchen window as she hooked the pail to the windlass and began to

lower it. If she had done it the night before it would have gone with a bang to the bottom, but after

a while there was splash, and still down the pail went, and Ann began with difficulty to wind up

the windlass again, and at last put the pail upon the well-stand full of water. She repeated this, and

with both pails full of clear, sparkling water, she walked up to the house. And who could wonder

that there was a little air of victory as she set down the pails and said to Harry, "Well, what do you

say now?" To her surprise he simply answered, "Well, why didn't you do that long ago, and have

saved us all that work?"

Meditation upon that question, thrown out so thoughtlessly by this young boy, might yield

some very profitable results. How often we go hungry and thirsty, suffering the lack of all sorts of

needed things, when a full supply might be ours! "We have not. because we ask not." Years after a

friend visited the well and was told that from the time referred to the well had never been known

to be dry summer or winter.

Even the children in their play would run to Ann for a solution of the little difficulties that arose. One of the

boys on one occasion had lost a spade, and was dreading the wrath of his father when he should

discover that the article was missing. In his distress he went to Ann and appealed to her to ask her

Father about it. She at once in her simple way closed her eyes and said, "Father, where is it?" We

cannot explain how she understood, or in what form these answers made themselves known to her

consciousness, but she immediately made a beeline for the back of the garden, where the spade

was lying hidden in the grass.

Many, many years after she had left the Reid family she came to live at our home. The boys

had heard a great deal about Ann's wonderful experiences, and naturally expected to see some

demonstration. They hardly liked at first to ask Ann to demonstrate these things, but they used to

hide things which Ann would need to use, and then watch to see how she would find them. Perhaps

some article of clothing would be put in the most out-of-the-way place they could think of, and then

they would watch for the time when Ann would need to use it. Being perfectly ignorant of what had occurred, she would go up to her room or walk up to a corner with her eyes closed, and in her

simple way she would say, "Father. where is it?" and after standing a moment or two in silence she

would turn around and go direct to the spot where the thing was hidden. We do not profess to

explain this; we simply narrate what has occurred over and over again. At one place the boys hid

the cat and Ann was asked where it was. She had no idea of what had been done, but in her simple

way she looked up in prayer, and then made straight for the stove and opened the oven door, when

the cat at once jumped out. (p25-26)

David a Shepherd boy on the run asked God to hear his prayer and give ear to the words of his mouth

Ann Preston a fiery Irish woman in simple faith asked God for many many things and God answered time and time again

You and I whatever we are have the same access the same opportunity the same privilege to a prayer hearing and prayer answering God.