Psalm 65 & Prayer

Prayer has been on my mind a lot lately as our men’s group has been studying it and trying to practice it. It seems like this extremely powerful spiritual tool is often ignored in favor of other spiritual activities such as: ministering, fellowshipping, and studying the scriptures. These are all valuable activities and do not always exclude prayer, but when they do I believe this is a problem. That said let’s takes a moment to look at what Psalm 65 says about the subject.

God Hears & Answers Prayer
God hears the prayers of His people. (verse 2: O You who hear prayer,
to You all men will come.) What is more, God desires to provide good things for His people from His massive domain. (verses 4 & 5: Blessed are those You choose and bring near to live in Your courts! We are filled with the good things of Your house, of Your holy temple. You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas,)

God is All-Powerful
God created everything and has the ability to control all of His creation. (verses 5-8: You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, who formed the mountains by Your power, having armed Yourself with strength, who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. Those living far away fear Your wonders; where morning dawns and evening fades You call forth songs of joy.)

We Are Completely Dependent on God
Even more than that, all things that are produced ultimately come from God, even the food we eat. (verses 9-13: You care for the land and water it; You enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so You have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges; You soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and Your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.) We are utterly dependant on God for all things.

Conclusion
In the U.S. we are taught to be independent from a very young age. Unfortunately this mindset has become ingrained even in our Christian society. Why is this bad? Because it keeps us trusting in ourselves instead of God. We have created another type of legalism. We grasp that it is through God’s grace that we receive our salvation, but we act as if God’s grace ends there. We spend our time laboring in “God’s” work without asking the all-powerful God for His help. We forget the promise “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” (John 15:7) God wants to and will help those who are doing His work; they just need to ask. This is so vital because whether we believe it or not we are dependent on God anyway. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13 “I can do ALL things through Him who strengthens me.” Not just the hard things, or the impossible things, the Bible says ALL things. That includes the simple everyday things. What a relief that would be to rely on God’s indefatigable power rather than our own minuscule strength, completely accept God’s grace, and truly say “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:16)


For more read:
The Ministry of Intercession by Andrew Murray