Psalm 19 - Prayers to Connect with God

KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
March 15, 2009

Read Psalm 19.

“God of wonders, beyond our galaxy, You are holy, holy. The universe declares your majesty. You are holy, holy.”¹

The first six verses of Psalm 19 use a very ordinary, generic name for God: El. El was the ancient all-purpose word for God. El was the word you used when you looked up and thought, “Wow! There must be Something Great up there or out there that made all this.” The “Something Great up there or out there” was El or God.

In his book Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller tells the story of when he went on a long road-trip to find God and to find himself. He says he found God at the Grand Canyon. He was tired and hurting from a long day of hiking, and they camped beside a river.

I was in a lot of pain from the hike, so I was in no mood to mess around. There was no trying to impress Him, no speaking the right words. I simply began to pray and talk to God the way a child might talk to his father.

Beneath the billion stars and beside the river, I called out to God softly.

“Hello?”

The stars were quiet. The river spoke in some other tongue, some [special language] for fish.

“I'm sorry, God. I'm sorry I got so confused about You, got so fake. I hope it's not too late anymore. I don't really know who I am, who You are, or what faith looks like. But if You want to talk, I'm here now. … I feel like You're trying to get through to me. But I feel like you are an alien or something, somebody far away.”

Nothing from the stars. Fish language from the river. But as I lay there, talking to God, being real with Him, I began to feel a bit of serenity. I felt like I was apologizing to an old friend, someone with whom there had been a sort of bitterness, and the friend was saying it was okay, and that he didn't think anything of it. I felt like I was starting over, or just getting started. … I felt a lot of peace.

There is something quite beautiful about the Grand Canyon at night. There is something beautiful about a billion stars held steady by a God who knows what He's doing. (They hang there, the stars, like notes on a page of music, free-form verse, silent mysteries swirling in the blue like jazz.) And as I lay there, it occurred to me that God is up there somewhere. Of course, I had always known He was, but this time I felt it, I realized it, the way a person realizes they are hungry or thirsty.²

Sometimes, we just need to know God on this primal level. Like a caveman or cave-woman, we look out into the sky … we feel the ocean waves … we stand on the mountaintop and breath the air of trees and flowers … and something deep within us connects with Someone deep within the universe, and we know there is a God because we feel him in the very fabric of the world. Sometimes, we need that natural experience of God. We need to breath God's air, climb God's rocks, smell God, taste God, feel the breath of God on our skin.

Back in the Grand Canyon, next to the river, under the stars, Donald Miller takes the next step:

The knowledge of God seeped out of my brain and into my heart. I imagined Him looking down on this earth, half angry because his beloved mankind had cheated on Him, had committed adultery, and yet hopelessly in love with her, drunk with love for her. …

I lay there under the stars and thought of what a great responsibility it is to be human. I am human because God made me. … God is reaching out to rescue me. I am learning to trust Him, learning to live by His precepts that I might be preserved.³

In every culture, in every place in the world, people try to connect with the mystical, with the spiritual, with the Beyond, with the El, with God. But how do we connect with this God? How can we little humans touch eternity? What is this God, this El, this Great Mystery, like? What does He/She/It want?

We can't find these answers in the stars. We can't find these answers in the forests or the mountains or the deserts or the oceans. We can't find these answers in yoga or meditation or Feng Shui.

We can recognize God on our own. We can experience God on our own. Because God is always speaking through the stars and the sun and everything that is, we can have that primal knowledge of God, but we can't get far beyond that – just cavemen looking up at the skies and saying: “Wooohhhggg! Bigggg!”

Now, there is something very good about that caveman “Wooahh!Goddddhhh!” Most of us need a little more caveman in us! But if we ever want to get beyond that, we need help. We need the Bible.

Amazingly, the Great God of the Universe has chosen to work through puny little people like us. Amazingly, the Great God of the Universe has chosen to teach us his character and his ways through the words of ordinary people. Amazingly, the Great God of the Universe has left a scattered journal of his dealings with people throughout thousands of years as a guidebook to help more people have similar experiences with God.

God gets our attention through the stars. God gives us the details in the Bible.

The revelation of God is whole
and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear
and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right,
showing the way to joy.
The directions of God are plain
and easy on the eyes. (19:7-8, The Message)

The Bible stands before us like a Lonely Planet Travel Guide. Countless people have traveled these roads with God before us. They have taken wrong turns and hit the speed bumps. They have tried out the motels and restaurants. They know which foods to avoid so you don't end up puking your lunch into a toilet by the beach.

God's instructions are here for our good. God is not just trying to keep us under control or keep us from having fun. The Bible is here as a guidebook of life with God, to help us make this journey well. When we read the Bible like a guidebook, this is a form of prayer. When we sit down to read, expecting to learn, expecting to hear, expecting God to guide us in how to live, this is a form of listening. We are putting ourself in the classroom of the Great God of the Universe, so that we can learn His ways.

And this is worth more than gold or diamonds or emeralds. Living life God's way tastes better than strawberries or honey or ice-cream or chocolate.

We need God's nature because we need to feel God on that deep inner level. We need to know God like we know we are hungry or thirsty.

We need God's Word because we are on a journey to a new place. We have never walked this road before, but others have. We need a guidebook to show us where to go and how to go.

May our words and our thoughts and our actions and all of our lives be pleasing to you, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer!

Prayers for Guidance - Psalm 25

KNU International English Church

Josh Broward

March 8, 2009

Imagine a story with me. Somehow your friends convince you to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip. After three planes, an old pick up, and a sputtering boat, you are in the heart of the Amazon Jungle. ¹

Your guide leads your group into the thick forest. For the first two days, you walk along in awe as your guide points out the various kinds of plant and animal life. On the third day, you are walking at the end of the line. You see a Bird of Paradise, a rare and beautiful bird. When you take out your camera to take a picture, your backpack comes unzipped, and everything spills out onto the muddy trail.

By the time you get everything cleaned off and back into your backpack, the Bird of Paradise has floated off into Paradise, and you are alone on your jungle trail. You can't see the rest of your group anywhere.

You run ahead to try to catch up, maybe a little too fast. Suddenly the trail just disappears. There is a hint of a trail to your right, so you try that, but no luck. You tumble 20 meters down the side of a hill. Now you’re standing in the middle of the jungle with no trail and no people in sight, and you’re not even sure where you left the trail. You scream, “HELP!!” But the only thing that answers is a little monkey in a nearby tree, and you're pretty sure he's just laughing.

You search desperately in a hundred different directions trying to regain the trail, but eventually you must face the bitter truth. You are lost. Hopelessly lost. It's just you and the wild animals and the jungle.

Max Lucado says that life is a jungle. “Not a jungle of trees and [animals]. … Our jungles are [made] of … failing health, broken hearts, and empty wallets. Our forests are framed with hospital walls and divorce courts.”² The animals hungry for our life-blood are our bill collectors, our teachers, our bosses, and the forest around us is our hurried pace of life. Our jungle is full of roaring temptations: workaholism, gossip, entertainment-escapism, debt, over-shopping, fear, selfishness, worthlessness, manipulating others for our own gain, judgmentalism, hypocrisy, and apathy.

David understood that life can be a jungle. David's jungle was made of human enemies who attacked him, thoughts that ate at his soul, and even his own sins. Listen to David's prayer about life in the jungle. Let's read Psalm 25.

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If we are honest, life is always a jungle. Sometimes the jungle is a little more tame – like we've cleared away some trees and built a house. The jungle is still there, but we feel like we're in control. Other times, we are completely lost in the deep, dark jungle, disoriented, and wondering where to go or what to do next.

In the jungle, what we really need is guidance. We need to know where to go and how to go. And so, we pray. We pray: “God teach me where to go. Teach me how to live.”

This is what David prays. He is surrounded by enemies. His “problems go from bad to worse,” and so he prays for guidance. David is so desperate for guidance that he uses almost every possible verb:

• “Show me the right path” (4).

• “Point out the road for me to follow” (4).

• “Lead me by your truth” (5).

• “Teach me” (5).

• “He leads the humble in doing right” (9).

• “He teaches them his way” (9).

• “The LORD leads with unfailing love and faithfulness” (10).

• “He will show them the path they should choose” (12).

• “He teaches them his covenant” (14).

• “Save me” (17).

• “Protect me” (20).

• “Rescue my life” (20).

• “Ransom us all” (21).

God has guided me in many different ways throughout my life.

The summer before I entered high school, God overwhelmed me with a strong feeling that he was calling me to preach. It wasn't a voice, but it was an overwhelming, very clear feeling that God wanted me to be a preacher.

When I was trying to decide where to go to university, I made a chart of the advantages and disadvantages of my top two choices. Then, I prayed and prayed about that list. Slowly, one set of advantages seemed to become more important.

When I was a university student, I was famous for sleeping in class. But one day, when I wasn't sleeping, I heard God talk to me. My professor was talking about how God said to Abraham, “Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). A Voice in my head said, “I want you to do that, too.” The Voice was so strong that I turned around and looked behind me. I was sitting on the back row, so all I saw was the wall about two centimeters from my nose. I thought, “I'm either talking to myself or God is calling me to missions.” I started praying, “God if that was really you, please confirm it in my spirit.” Over the next days and weeks, I felt very clear that God wants me to be a missionary.

When I was finishing seminary, I started searching for a multicultural church to pastor, so that I could get experience to be a “real” missionary. We were thinking about big cities in North America, but one day I said, “Sarah what about that little English church at KNU. I wonder if they need a pastor.” Not long after Gail Patch replied to my email, I had a growing feeling this was the place – that we were supposed to come to Korea and pastor this church.

We signed the contracts, and we started making plans to come to Korea. Then, one of my mentors invited me to come on staff at her church. This was a job I had been trying to get for years, but I had already promised to come here. “Integrity and honesty” protected me (21). That church kind of fell apart, and this church is far better in terms of my calling to missions.

People often ask us how long we will stay here at this church. The longer we stay here, the longer I feel called to stay here. Slowly, a deep sense of calling to this place and to this church is building in me. I can't predict the future, but it seems to us that God is guiding us to stay here for a long, long time.

But most often, God guides me (and most of us) in much simpler, less dramatic ways. Most guidance is not about where to go but about how to go. Most of God's guidance is not about the big decisions of life: where to live, where to work, who to marry. Most of God's guidance is about basic character: how to live, how to work, how to love, how to be a friend.

Most of the time, God guides us by teaching us how to be like him. David asked God to teach him God's way of life, and David's prayer also shows us what God's way is: faithfulness, compassion, unfailing love, forgiveness, mercy, goodness, friendship, integrity, and honesty.

“The Lord is my shepherd. … He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name … Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me” (Psalm 23:1-4). God's rod and staff often come to me and to most of us in the form of simple callings and reminders. “Love more.” “Forgive her.” “Ask that man to forgive you.” “Be his friend.” “Be faithful and reliable.” “Humble yourself and serve others.” “Don't push for your way.”

This prayer of David in Psalm 25 is actually an acrostic. Each verse starts with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is like writing a poem with the lines starting with A, B, C, or ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ. This is a teaching method to help people remember the prayer.

So, today, I'm going to do one of those cheesy preacher things. I'm going to give you an acrostic for prayers of guidance. God will answer your prayers for guidance if you are HOT. (No, I don't mean you have to be sexy for God to answer you.) God will answer your prayers for guidance if you are Humble, Open, and Trusting … H-O-T.

Humble. God “leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way” (9). Why does God only teach the humble? Well, because, when we're proud, we can't learn. Before we can get help, we have to admit that we need it. Before God can show us the way, we have to admit that we're lost. The path to righteousness starts with repentance.

Open. Sometimes we only pray part of Psalm 25. Sometimes we pray, “Save me! Protect me! Rescue me! … But do it my way. I don't really want to change. I just want you to solve my problems.” If we really want God to guide us, we've got to be completely open to letting him change us.

That takes a lot of T – Trust. David starts with total trust, “O Lord, I give my life to you. I trust in you, my God!” (1)

A man was on an African safari deep in the jungle. The guide was walking ahead of him, hacking away the leaves and weeds to make a path in the jungle. The traveler was hot and tired of walking. Full of frustration and mosquito bites, he shouted out: “Where are we? Do you know where you are taking me? Where is the path, anyway?!” The guide stopped and looked back and the man and replied, “I am the path.”³

God is our Guide. He is our path. When we pray for guidance, we are asking God to show us how to live his life in our life. This takes total trust. We trust that love, faithfulness, integrity, and compassion are the best way to live in the jungle of life. We trust this path because we trust God our Guide.

If you want God to answer your prayers for guidance, you've got to get H.O.T.: Humble, Open, and Trusting. May God make us all H.O.T.

1 The references to and images of the jungle are heavily dependant upon: Max Lucado, Experiencing the Heart of Jesus, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 82-6.

2 Ibid, 83.

3 Lucado, 85.