Are you struggling with unanswered prayer? Are problems mounting, and you wonder, “where is God in all of this?” David’s prayer life is a useful guide to the believer when heavens are brass, and God seems far away.
Psalms 77:1 I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.
The word “trouble” occurs 55 times in the book of Psalms. The number 55 represents the double portion of God’s grace that followed David throughout his life. Things in our lives are the way they are because of what we are doing. If we want something different, we must do something different. God is no respecter of persons, but He is a respecter of faith. If we do with our faith what David did with his faith, we will see the same results.
What does the number 55 mean? The symbol for 5 in Hebrew is a pictogram of a window. What does a window represent? We use windows to see. Thus 5 (denoting grace) speaks of the fact that whether we think so or not, God sees what we are going through and has made provision through Christ for us to approach him when we are in trouble.
When David was in trouble, what did he do? He prayed. Psalm 77:1 says that he “cried unto God.” How did David cry unto God? With a Facebook like? No, a Facebook like holds no value in petition to God. Did David cry to God with hopeful thoughts and wishes? No, that is not what the verse above indicates. The verse says that David cried unto the Lord with his voice. What are you doing with your voice before God? The Lord told me years ago that prayers that are not verbalized aloud are not prayers; they are only wishful thinking.
When God formed the earth in Genesis, He did not think the world into existence; He spoke the world into existence. Are you verbalizing prayer out loud? Most people believe that the “unspoken prayer” is a particularly spiritual or holy thing, contrary to what the Bible says. The word for “cry” in Psalm 77:1 is the Hebrew word meaning to “shriek, to cry out in distress, to make a clamor or outcry.” Doesn’t sound very “cool” does it? Not very “GQ.” Hard to see all the “cool kids” in the kingdom shrieking to God in prayer. Their needs go unmet, and rather than correct themselves; they come up with all these twisted doctrines about how God wanted them to go through these troubles “because He loves me so much, and I’m so spiritual He knows I can handle it…” Makes your spirit want to vomit hearing such foolishness.
Let me encourage you to cry out to God today. Get verbal. Let your emotions enter into your verbally expressed prayer. Go ahead and shriek. That word also means “to run together.” When someone shrieks in my house, it’s usually my wife, and she’s found a spider. Then I get to ride in on my trusty white steed and dispatch the intruder. Something about that level of verbalization makes you want to run to the rescue. That’s what God does. When He hears that level of concern in His people’s mouths and hearts, He runs to the rescue. Are you ready to be rescued? Then go out in your day, in the back yard, or the prayer closet and set up a shriek to God as David did. You will be amazed at how quickly God comes to your rescue.
