Thank God for Answers to Prayer

"Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch." Psalm 5:1-3

Here is another Psalm of David written at a time when he was faced by "bloodthirsty and deceitful" persecutors. We're not told exactly when David wrote this Psalm, however, just in this opening portion of the Psalm we see how David cries out anxiously and expectantly. He has an urgent prayer, but he also expects that it will be answered. He trusts in God to help him.

Now, let's get into some translation notes. The ESV renders a portion of verse 3 as "in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you..." Most other translations say something more like "in the morning I will direct [it or my prayer] to you..." The ESV study notes say that the Hebrew here is difficult. It could be translated either way but the ESV translates it as it does because of two facts: the psalmist is writing this in the morning and in verse 7 he mentions entering the Lord's house and bowing down toward the Lord's holy temple. I'm not sure which translation is correct or even if it matters. Prayer can be sacrificial. Fasting and prayer go hand in hand. Also, we should sacrifice our own pride in prayer. We should sacrifice our time to pray. We should sacrifice our own sinful desires to pray. When faced with a temptation, we should pray.

Finally, in verse 3, after mentioning this prayer or sacrifice, David says that he will "watch," or "look up," or "wait in expectation." After we pray, we should be watchful for answers to our prayers. It is prudent to pray when faced with decisions (big or small) in life. We need Christ's direction in our lives. We want to live within His will and, therefore, we should ask what that is. When you are watchful for an answer to prayer and open to what God puts in front of you, it will make these decisions much easier.

I remember last year I was considering an opportunity to go back to work part time. I was only going to be working 10 hours a week but most of that was going to have to be at the office and not at home with Alex. This wasn't the ideal situation that I was looking for, but it would provide us with a little more money and my sister would be able to watch Alex for me while I was at the office. This would have even provided her with some additional pay (which would have been very helpful at the time for her as well). It seemed like everything was pointing toward me returning to work. Peter and I prayed about it and talked about it and had pretty much come to the decision that I would do it. The night before I was going to give my employer word of my decision, I had an OVERWHELMING feeling that I should NOT do this. I looked at Peter and simply said "I don't want to do it" and he said "Then don't...we'll be fine, Jenny." So, the next day, instead of calling in and starting a new 10 hr a week job, I called in and told them that I would be sending a letter of resignation that afternoon. That's what I did and I can't say that I have regretted that decision once.