“Every Prayer Has a Story” (Psalm 54)
Every prayer has a story connected with it.
It would be fascinating to hear the stories behind your prayers this past week. When you asked for help or safety or wisdom or patience or forgiveness – you weren’t asking for that in a vacuum. There was true need, true stories of helplessness and frustration and confusion and guilt. Perhaps there was true danger in body or soul for you.
If you haven’t already, you should’ve brought your stories to church with you today. You are in a safe place for those stories.
I’d like for us to pray the Introit again, and if you didn’t already, allow God in the Psalm to address your stories:
Psalm 54:1–3, 7; antiphon: vv. 4–5
Behold, God is my helper;
the Lord is the upholder of my life.
He will return the evil to my enemies;
in your faithfulness put an end to them.
O God, save me, by your name,
and vindicate me by your might.
O God, hear my prayer;
give ear to the words of my mouth.
For strangers have risen against me; ruthless men seek my life;
they do not set God before themselves.
With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;
I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
For he has delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Behold, God is my helper;
the Lord is the upholder of my life.
He will return the evil to my enemies;
in your faithfulness put an end to them.
The original story of this Psalm, like all prayers and the stories connected with them, is a complex one.
But this Psalm actually comes with a title to give us some context:
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, “Is not David hiding among us?”
Saul was king at this time, but he has been unfaithful to God and his people and God had chosen to take the kingship from Saul and have Samuel anoint boy Shepherd David to be the King.
Saul was not willing to go down without a fight – even if that meant it was a fight against God and His will.
Saul pursued David. Tried to kill David several times. David fled and kept fleeing, kept hiding and finding another place to hide because many feared Saul and didn’t want to protect David.
Again the Title:
A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, “Is not David hiding among us?”
Wherever David went, Saul and an army of hundreds and thousands followed seeking to find and destroy David.
At one point, it was found out that some faithful priests sheltered and David and the little group of men who were with them and Saul then ordered those priests to be slaughtered, along with wives, children and infants, ox, donkey, and sheep – all put to the sword. That’s what happened when you were faithful to God and David.
David prays these specific words when he and his group had found temporary relief hiding in the wilderness of Ziph, a region well south of David’s birthplace of Bethlehem.
Once the Ziphites found out David was hiding there, they ratted David out to Saul. They feared Saul more than God. They didn’t want what happened to the priests and their families to happen to them.
A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, “Is not David hiding among us?”
David is not safe hiding there.
David’s cries out:
For strangers have risen against me; ruthless men seek my life;
they do not set God before themselves.
Saul’s army get’s nearer and nearer. David’s chance of escape becomes less and less likely until there’s almost no chance. The story from 1 Samuel 23 says Saul and his men were closing in on David.
Behold, God is my helper;
the Lord is the upholder of my life.
O God, save me, by your name,
and vindicate me by your might.
O God, hear my prayer;
give ear to the words of my mouth.
David’s cry is full of hope and confidence in God. David doesn’t know if he will be found and caught, if he will live or die. But no matter what, God is his helper. The Lord is the upholder of his life.
Saul doesn’t hold David’s life in his hands. Neither do the Ziphites. The Lord does.
David is not safe hiding among the Ziphites.
But David is safe hiding himself in God.
David prays and writes this song and poem for the congregation to pray with him.
He doesn’t pray it alone, it’s for the choirmaster – it’s be sung and prayed together in confidence that God is my helper and the upholder of my life – but they and we are all saying it together.
David is so confident that God hear him and is good that even before he knows how this chapter of the story will end, he prays:
6 With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;
I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
7 For he has delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.
The Psalm doesn’t tell the end of the story, but 1 Samuel 23 does. Saul is suddenly called away in an emergency to defend the kingdom against the Philistines and David is safe once again.
Every prayer has a story.
It’s been a long Christian tradition that before the Psalms are your prayers with your stories, and they are, and even before they are David’s prayers with his stories, and much of them are, they are Christ’s prayers and His stories.
We keep saying the Creed so we don’t forget Christ’s stories.
We keep reading the Gospels so we don’t forget Christ’s stories.
We celebrate a Church year that highlights the birth, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension along with His primary teachings so we don’t forget His stories
and in His stories we begin to hear His prayers and our stories and prayers are brought into Him and find their safety and peace and hope and confidence in Him.
Jesus is the Lord and upholder of our life.
Jesus is the only Help we know.
Jesus knows our stories, hears our prayers, and we know His story.
We love to tell that story:
It’s the story of the true King Jesus being under constant assault from other kings who are jealous or fearful, but Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. They can’t take it away from Him or you.
It’s the story of how Christ was betrayed by Judas who knew exactly where Jesus would be hiding so he could bring a band of soldiers with their lanterns and torches and weapons.
3 For strangers have risen against me;
ruthless men seek my life;
they do not set God before themselves.
But Judas isn’t in control anymore than Saul or the Ziphites.
4 Behold, God is His helper;
the Lord is the upholder of His life.
Jesus does this all willingly.
John 10:18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
As the Psalm said, Jesus could pray,
6 With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to You;
Jesus willingness is your confidence that your sins are hidden, and all your stories are hidden in Christ toward God.
And God doesn’t hide from you when you pray.
He is here and for you and in you and you are in Him.
We set God before ourselves today, together, because God has set Himself before us.
Given us His Word.
Given us His Son’s body and blood.
So here together, and in the time of trouble, any time of trouble, even when you are alone, He will hide you from the enemies of sin, death, and the devil.
God is your Helper, and the Lord is the upholder of your life.
Your prayers have stories attached to them. They are stories that could bring your Christian brothers and sisters to tears in both heartbreak and joy.
But let’s never forget that your stories and prayers are attached, baptized into, hidden in the story of your God’s love for you in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate us from the love. We are safe.
I love to tell that story and hear it, too.