Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/spurgeon/ps5.3

Text File | 1993-03-16 | 11KB | 208 lines

                           EXPOSITION.

        Observe, this is not so much a prayer as a resolution,
"'_My voice shalt thou hear_,' I will not be dumb, I will not be
silent, I will not withhold my speech, I will cry to thee, for
the fire that dwells within compels me to pray." We can sooner
die than live without prayer. None of God's children are
possessed with a dumb devil.

        "_In the morning_." This is the fittest lime for
intercourse with God. An hour in the morning is worth two in the
evening. While the dew is on the grass, let grace drop upon the
soul. Let us give to God the mornings of our days and the morning
of our lives. Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of
the night. Devotion should be both the morning star and the
evening star.

        If we merely read our English version, and want an
explanation of these two sentences, we find it in the figure of
an archer, "_I will direct my prayer unto thee_," I will put my
prayer upon the bow, I will direct it towards heaven, and then
when I have shot up my arrow, _I will look up_ to see where it
has gone. But the Hebrew has a still fuller meaning than this--"I
will _direct_ my prayer." It is the word that is used for the
laying in order of the wood and the pieces of the victim upon the
altar, and it is used also for the putting of the shewbread upon
the table. It means just this: "I will arrange my prayer before
thee;" I will lay it out upon the altar in the morning, just as
the priest lays out the morning sacrifice. I will _arrange_ my
prayer; or, as old Master Trapp has it, "I will marshal up my
prayers," I will put them in order, call up all my powers, and
bid them stand in their proper places, that I may pray with all
my might, and pray acceptably.

        "_And will look up_," or, as the Hebrew might better be
translated, "'I will look out,' I will look out for the answer;
after I have prayed, I will expect that the blessing shall come."
It is a word that is used in another place where we read of those
who watched for the morning. So will I watch for thine answer, O
my Lord! I will spread out my prayer like the victim on the
altar, and I will look up, and expect to receive the answer by
fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice.

        Two questions are suggested by the last part of this
verse. Do we not miss very much of the sweetness and efficacy of
prayer by a want of careful meditation before it, and of hopeful
expectation after it? We too often rush into the presence of God
without forethought or humility. We are live men who present
themselves before a king without a petition, and what wonder is
it that we often miss the end of prayer? We should be careful to
keep the stream of meditation always running; for this is the
water to drive the mill of prayer. It is idle to pull up the
flood-gates of a dry brook, and then hope to see the wheel
revolve. Prayer without fervency is like hunting with a dead dog,
and prayer without preparation is hawking with a blind falcon.
Prayer is the work of the Holy Spirit, but he works by means. God
made man, but he used the dust of the earth as a material: the
Holy Ghost is the author of prayer, but he employs the thoughts
of a fervent soul as the gold with which to fashion the vessel.
Let not our prayers and praises be the flashes of a hot and hasty
brain, but the steady burning of a well-kindled fire.

        But, furthermore, do we not forget to watch the result of
our supplications? ? We are like the ostrich, which lays her eggs
and looks not for her young. We sow the seed, and are too idle to
seek a harvest. How can we expect the Lord to open the windows of
his grace, and pour us out a blessing, if we will not open the
windows of expectation and look up for the promised favour? Let
holy preparation link hands with patient expectation, and we
shall have far larger answers to our prayers.

              EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

        Verse 3.--"_My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O
Lord_."

        When first thy eyes unveil, give thy soul leave
                To do the like; our bodies but forerun
        The spirit's duty; true hearts spread and heave
                Unto their God, as flowers do to the sun:
        Give him thy first thoughts, then, so shalt thou keep
        Him company all day, and in him sleep.

        Yet never sleep the sun up; prayer should
                Dawn with the day, there are set awful hours
        'Twixt heaven and us; the manna was not good
                After sun-rising, for day sullies flowers.
        Rise to prevent the sun; sleep doth sins glut,
        And heaven's gate opens when the world's is shut.

        Walk with thy fellow creatures, note the hush
                And whisperings amongst them. Not a spring
        Or leaf but hath his _morning_ hymn; each bush
                And oak doth know I AM--canst thou not sing?
        O leave thy cares and follies! Go this way,
        And thou art sure to prosper all the day.

Henry Vaughan, 1621-1695.

        Verse 3.--"_My voice shalt thou hear in the morning_."
"_In the morning shall my prayer prevent thee_," said Heman. That
is the fittest time for devotion, you being then fresh in your
spirits, and freest from distractions. Which opportunity for holy
duties may fitly be called the wings of the morning.--^Edward
Reyner, 1658.

        Verse 3.--"_In the morning_." "In the days of our
fathers," says Bishop Burnet, "when a person came early to the
door of his neighbour, and desired to speak with the master of
the house, it was as common a thing for the servants to tell him
with freedom--'My master is at prayer,' as it now is to say, 'My
master is not up.'"

        Verse 3.--"_In the morning I will direct my prayer unto
thee, and will look up," or _I will marshal my prayer_, I will
bring up petition after petition, pleading after pleading, even
till I become like Jacob, a prince with God, till I have won the
field and got the day. Thus the word is applied by a metaphor
both to disputations with men and supplications to God. Further,
we may take the meaning plainly without any strain of rhetoric,
_Set thy words in order before me_. Method is good in everything,
either an express or covert method. Sometimes it is the best of
art to cover it; in speaking there is a special use of method,
for though, as one said very well (speaking of those who are more
curious about method than serious about matter), "_Method never
converted any man_;" yet method and the ordering of words is very
useful. Our speeches should not be heaps of words, but words
bound up; not a throng of words, but words set in array, or, as
it were, in rank and file.--^Joseph Caryl.

        Verse 3. "_I will direct my prayer unto thee, and will
look up_." In the words you may observe two things: first,
David's posture in prayer; secondly, his practice after prayer.
First, his posture in prayer, "_I will direct my prayer unto
thee_." Secondly, his practice after prayer, "_And I will look
up_." The prophet in these words, makes use of two military
words. First, he would not only pray, but marshal up his prayers,
he would put them in battle array; so much the Hebrew word _ârak_
<06186> imports. Secondly, when he had done this, then he would
be as a spy upon his watch-tower, to see whether he prevailed,
whether he got the day or no; and so much the Hebrew word
_tsâphâh_ <06822> imports. When David had set his prayers, his
petitions, in rank and file, in good array, then he was resolved
he would look abroad, he would look about him to see at what door
God would send in an answer of prayer. He is either a fool or a
madman, he is either very weak or very wicked, that prays and
prays, but never looks after his prayers; that shoots many an
arrow towards heaven, but never minds where his arrows
alight.--^Thomas Brooks.

        Verse 3.--David would direct his prayer to God and look
up; not down to the world, down to corruption, but up to God what
he would speak. #Ps 85:8|. "I will hear what God the Lord will
speak." Let the resolution of the prophet be thine, "I will look
unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God
will hear me." #Mic 7:7|.--^William Greenhill, 1650.

        Verse 3.--"_I will direct my prayer to thee, and will
look up_," that is, I will trade, I will send out my spiritual
commodities, and expect a gainful return; I will make my prayers,
and not give them for lost, but look up for an answer. God will
bring man home by a way contrary to that by which he wandered
from him. Man fell from God by distrust, by having God in
suspicion; God will bring him back by trust, by having good
thoughts of him. Oh, how richly laden might the vessel which thou
sendest out come home, wouldst thou but long and look for its
return! --^George Swinnock.

        Verse 3.--Faith hath a supporting art after prayer: it
supports the soul to expect a gracious answer: "_I will direct my
prayer unto thee, and will look up_," or I will look; for what,
but for a return? An unbelieving heart shoots at random, and
never minds where his arrow lights, or what comes of his praying;
but faith fills the soul with expectation. As a merchant, when he
casts up his estate, he counts what he hath sent beyond sea, as
well as what he hath in hand; so doth faith reckon upon what he
hath sent to heaven in prayer and not received, as well as those
mercies which he hath received, and are in hand at present. Now
this expectation which faith raiseth in the soul after prayer,
appears in the power that it hath to quiet and compose the soul
in the interim between the sending forth, as I may say, the ship
of prayer, and its return home with its rich lading it goes for,
and it is more or less, according as faith's strength is.
Sometimes faith comes from prayer in triumph, and cries,
_Victoria_. It gives such a being and existence to the mercy
prayed for in the Christian's soul before any likelihood of it
appears to sense and reason, that the Christian can silence all
his troubled thoughts with the expectation of its coming. Yea,
it will make the Christian disburse his praises for the mercy
long before it is received ... For want of looking up many a
prayer is lost. If you do not believe, why do you pray? And if
you believe, why do you not expect? By praying you seem to depend
on God; by not expecting, you again renounce your confidence.
What is this, but to take his name in vain? O Christian, stand to
your prayer in a holy expectation of what you have begged on the
credit of the promise. ... Mordecai, no doubt, had put up many
prayers for Esther, and therefore he waits at the king's gate,
looking what answer God would in his providence give thereunto.
Do thou likewise.--^William Gurnall.

                       HINTS TO PREACHERS.

        Verse 3.--The excellence of morning devotion.

        Verse 3 (last two clauses).--1. Prayer directed. 2.
Answers expected.