A Silence That Strengthens

October 8, 2018

WORD:

Ps 28:1-29:1 28 To you I call, O LORD my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit. 2 Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place. NIV	Ps 28 28 1 I pray to you, O Lord, my rock. Do not turn a deaf ear to me.  For if you are silent, I might as well give up and die. 2 Listen to my prayer for mercy as I cry out to you for help, as I lift my hands toward your holy sanctuary NLT
Ps 28 A Psalm of David. 28 Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. 2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. KJV	Ps 28 28 To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. 2   Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. ESV

I.  Minor Key

            A. Pleas (vv. 1- 3)

1.     Hear Me! - v. 1

2.     Have Mercy! – v. 2a

3.     Help! – v. 2b

            B. Imprecation (vv. 4-5)

II. Major Key

            A. Praise (vv. 6-8)

            B. Supplication (v. 9)

David’s Pleas:

1. Hear Me!

In the previous study, I dealt with the word for “cry” in verse one as well as the concept of God’s seeming silence. Verse 2 begins with the actual word “hear.”  This verb is in the imperative mood, which at first blush might make one think that David was being impertinent in this prayer. Was David commanding or demanding that God would hear him? When consulting a Hebrew Grammar, I found that the imperative mood does not always refer to a command.

Hebrew ImperativeThe imperative often represents a direct command demanding an immediate response. It differs from volitional Imperfect in being more urgent and demanding immediate, specific action from the addressee. Many contexts demand a less forceful meaning: advice, counsel, invitation, wish, request, or petition. Imperatives can be used sarcastically and rhetorically. Reference: GKC §110; DHS §60; JMG §114 m-p; W-O'C §33.4.(from Wheeler's Hebrew Syntax Notes, Copyright © 1988-2006 by Rev. Prof. Dale M. Wheeler, Ph.D. All rights reserved. Used by permission.). (emphasis added)

One can see from the ways the imperative mood can be used – as well as the words that follow in this context – that David was pleading and not demanding. How can one demand “mercy?”

What best fits here from the reference just cited is “request” or “petition.” I quote from the same resource:

Request or Petition: The speaker may use an imperative to convey a request to humans or a petition to God. The imperative conveys respect and full dignity.(from Wheeler's Hebrew Syntax Notes, Copyright © 1988-2006 by Rev. Prof. Dale M. Wheeler, Ph.D. All rights reserved. Used by permission.)

I only mention this because much prayer prayed today smacks of spoiled, privileged children demanding things from daddy. I find myself having to stop in midsentence sometimes when I am praying. I catch myself telling God what to do in a situation. On the surface, it may seem like David is doing the very same thing. However, authentic prayer is born from a heart submissive to the will of God and prays according to what they know about the Sovereign God of the universe and His holy goodness, mercy, and righteousness. Prayers then will come from humility and not haughtiness. There will be a concern for God’s righteousness and not personal revenge. His justice and not our judgment will be the motive when we are praying for relief from our enemies.

In my former study, I also referenced the old word “beseech” to describe the intensity of David’s plea. Here I want to employ another archaic word to convey the tenor in which David uses this word. That word is “harken.”

listen; used mostly in the imperative

Synonyms:

hark, hearken

Type of:

listen

hear with intention

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/harken

The Hebrew word here is um^v*  (š¹m¹±).

Strong’s definition is brief:

OT:8085 um^v* shama` (shaw-mah'); a primitive root; to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.; causatively, to tell, etc.)(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006, 2010 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

The TWOT defines the word this way:

OT:8085 um^v*  (š¹ma±) hear, listen to, obey... š¹m¹± has the basic meaning "to hear." This is extended in various ways, generally involving an effective hearing or listening: 1) "listen to, " "pay attention, " 2) "obey" (with words such as "commandment" etc.), 3) "answer prayer, " "hear, " 4) "understand" and 5) "hear critically, " "examine (in court), " The derived stems have appropriately modified meanings.
(from Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Copyright © 1980 by The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. All rights reserved. Used by permission.)

Vines says it means:

shama± OT:8085, "to hear, hearken, listen, obey, publish."
(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright © 1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers.)

David is politely and passionately pleading for God to hear.

Hear what?

His “voice.”

“Lord, please listen to me...harken to my voice.” 

The NIV translates it as “Hear my cry.” The NLT has “Listen to my prayer.” The more literal rendering is found in the KJV and ESV, “Hear the voice.” The HCSB has “Hear the sound.”

Strong’s says the word used here means:

OT:6963 loq qowl (kole); or qol (kole); from an unused root meaning to call aloud; a voice or sound:(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006, 2010 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

From this, I see David’s prayer as verbal and visceral. This was not a silent prayer, but a loud gut felt prayer. It burst forth from a soul that was seeking aid from God who seemed silent at the moment. A silence shattered by David’s loud cries for...

HELP!

Witness:

Periods of silence from God are times of stretching and strengthening our faith. They also can be a time for revealing the shallowness of our faith. This is most evident sometimes when the silence comes over smaller things prayed for. Little things that can grow larger in our eyes in proportion to the length of time it takes for an answer. That time could be an hour or a hundred hours or more, depending on the depth of our faith.

An example of this was revealed to me the other day. I have been calling my younger daughter every day to make sure she wakes up on time for work. This particular day she did not answer her phone. Neither did her son, when I tried calling his number. After repeated calls and texts with no response, my anxiety arose. I began worrying that she would fail to get up and be written up for being late. Maybe she would sleep beyond the time she would be allowed to still come into work. I thought she might even get fired. Then I began to think of the repercussions from that.

No job, then no money. No money, then she can’t pay her bills including her rent. If that were so, then I wouldn’t be able to pay the mortgage. If I couldn’t pay the mortgage, I would sink into more debt and have to sell the house or worse, have it repossessed.

You see where this is going, don’t you? In the meantime, I was praying, and as time progressed and my daughter failed to answer her phone, my prayers grew louder and more fervent.  In the silence, I began to cry out for God to hear me. I started to think He was mad at me. I began to think, “Maybe the silence is because He doesn’t really exist!” It was about that time the Holy Spirit showed me how faithless I was being. What if all these things came to pass.

Has not God been faithful in the past? Will He not be faithful in the future? If I lost it all, I would still have Him, and He is my priceless Treasure.

Well, it turns out that my daughter has to start going to work an hour earlier now. The time I usually call is now the time she has to be at work. So, she woke up an hour and a half before she had to be at work and made it to work on time. She hadn’t answered my calls or texts because she was at work already and unable to look at her phone until break time. So lesson learned... until next time (I’m a slow learner).

Epilogue: Yesterday, I called her an hour before she had to be at work. She didn’t answer, but I didn’t have time to fret because she called me back right away. Come to think of it, this highlights the fact that all the drama last week was orchestrated by the Lord to “stretch and strengthen” my faith, and to reveal the “shallowness” of my faith as well. You can learn a lot from silence.

Worship:  Cry Out to Jesus, by Third Day

When contemplating what song to sing it didn’t take long for God to reveal which one it should be. As I started to search for a song I had heard on my phone the other day, this song was playing in the background. This song has real-life meaning to me, so I paused in my search to listen to it. It then dawned on me that this was the perfect song to represent true pleading prayer and the promise of His grace and mercy.

To everyone who's lost someone they love

Long before it was their time

You feel like the days you had were not enough

When you said goodbye

And to all of the people with burdens and pains

Keeping you back from your life

You believe that there's nothing and there is no one

Who can make it right

There is hope for the helpless

Rest for the weary

And love for the broken heart

And there is grace and forgiveness

Mercy and healing

He'll meet you wherever you are

Cry out to Jesus

Cry out to Jesus

For the marriage that's struggling just to hang on

They've lost all of their faith in love

And they've done all they can to make it right again.

Still, it's not enough.

For the ones who can't break the addictions and chains

You try to give up, but you come back again

Just remember that you're not alone in your shame

And your suffering

There is hope for the helpless

Rest for the weary

And love for the broken heart

And there is grace and forgiveness

Mercy and healing

He'll meet you wherever you are

Cry out to Jesus

When you're lonely

And it feels like the whole world is falling on you

You just reach out, you just cry out to Jesus

Cry to Jesus

To the widow who suffers from being alone

Wiping the tears from her eyes

And for the children around the world without a home

Say a prayer tonight

There is hope for the helpless

Rest for the weary

And love for the broken heart

And there is grace and forgiveness

Mercy and healing

He'll meet you wherever you are

There is hope for the helpless

Rest for the weary

And love for the broken heart

And there is grace and forgiveness

Mercy and healing

He'll meet you wherever you are

Cry out to Jesus

Cry out to Jesus

Oh, cry out to Jesus

Cry out to Jesus

Lyrics: https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/8448127/Third+Day/Cry+Out+to+Jesus

Video: https://youtu.be/JmVxRl5bc4Y?list=RDi3i-_VWxOAc

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/5b/17/84/5b1784aab28e1445696b3c59f4575a33--cry-out-to-jesus-song-lyrics.jpg

THE SILENCE OF GOD

September 24 - 30, 2018

WORD:

Ps 28:1-29:1 28 To you I call, O LORD my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit. 2 Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place. NIV	Ps 28 28 1 I pray to you, O Lord, my rock. Do not turn a deaf ear to me.  For if you are silent, I might as well give up and die. 2 Listen to my prayer for mercy as I cry out to you for help, as I lift my hands toward your holy sanctuary NLT
Ps 28 A Psalm of David. 28 Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. KJV	Ps 28 28 To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. 2   Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. ESV

I.  Minor Key

            A. Pleas (vv. 1- 3)

1.     Hear Me! - v. 1

2.     Have Mercy! – v. 2a

3.     Help! – v. 2b

            B. Imprecation (vv. 4-5)

II. Major Key

            A. Praise (vv. 6-8)

            B. Supplication (v. 9)

David’s Pleas:

1. Hear Me!

The first plea of David in this psalm is for God to listen to him. One can sense the anxiousness in his petition. He needs mercy, he needs help in regards to his enemies (v. 3-5). One can also discern an impassioned pleading in his prayer. The old-fashioned word, “beseech” comes to mind in this passage. 

Webster defines “beseech” as:

1: to beg for urgently or anxiously

// beseeched him to write while he was away—R. W. Hatch

2: to request earnestly: IMPLORE

// besought their protection

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beseech

David is not merely praying (NLT), nor is he simply calling (NIV, ESV). No, he is imploring God to hear him (“cry” – KJV). The Hebrew word used here is elastic and can be used in various ways in scripture.

OT:7121 ar*q* q¹r¹°: A verb meaning to call, to declare, to summon, to invite, to read, to be called, to be invoked, to be named. The verb means to call or to summon, but its context and surrounding grammatical setting determine the various shades of meaning given to the word.
(from The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament Copyright © 2003 by AMG Publishers. All rights reserved.)

OT:7121  qara' 1)        to call, to cry, to utter a loud sound2)        to call unto, to cry (for help), to call (with the name of God)3)        to proclaim4)        to read aloud, to read (to oneself), to read5)        to summon, to invite, to call for, to call and commission, to appoint, to call and to endow6)        to call, to name, to give name to, to call by
(from The Online Bible Thayer's Greek Lexicon and Brown Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, Copyright © 1993, Woodside Bible Fellowship, Ontario,
Canada. Licensed from the Institute for Creation Research.)

The context in this Psalm justifies an emphatic meaning to the word “qara'” here.

It would seem that David had been crying out to the LORD his rock for a while, but all he had received so far was a stony silence. Every believer has experienced times like these. If you haven’t, please share your secret.

I must go back to a quote from Calvin I used in my study of Psalm 25:6. There, I quoted his whole comments. Here, I will only quote the pertinent points.

This, therefore, is the complaint of a man suffering extreme anguish, and overwhelmed with grief. We may learn from this, that although God, for a time, may withdraw from us every token of his goodness, and, apparently regardless of the miseries which afflict us, should, as if we were strangers to him, and not his own people, forsake us, we must fight courageously, until, set free from this temptation, we cordially present the prayer which is here recorded, beseeching God, that, returning to his former manner of dealing, he would again begin to manifest his goodness towards us, and to deal with us in a more gracious manner. This form of prayer cannot be used with propriety, unless when God is hiding his face from us, and seems to take no interest at all in us.(from Calvin's Commentaries, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 2005-2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Although Calvin is commenting on Psalm 25:6 one can see how perfectly it can fit in the context of this passage as well.

Spurgeon comments:

Psalms 28:1 Be not silent to me. Mere formalists may be content without answers to their prayers, but genuine suppliants cannot; they are not satisfied with the results of prayer itself in calming the mind and subduing the will — they must go further and obtain actual replies from heaven, or they cannot rest; and those replies they long to receive at once, if possible; they dread even a little of God's silence. God's voice is often so terrible that it shakes the wilderness; but his silence is equally full of awe to an eager suppliant. When God seems to close his ear, we must not therefore close our mouths, but rather cry with more earnestness; for when our note grows shrill with eagerness and grief, he will not long deny us a hearing. What a dreadful case should we be in if the Lord should become for ever silent to our prayers! This thought suggested itself to David, and he turned it into a plea, thus teaching us to argue and reason with God in our prayers.
(from The Treasury of David, Biblesoft formatted electronic database Copyright © 2014 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Therefore, in the silence between our cries and His coming. Between the trial and the triumph. In the delay before the deliverance. When God seems to hide, I will abide. I will trust in His goodness and mercy He says follows me all my days (Psalm 23:6). When He seems far away, I will seek and draw near (James 4:8). When I am down, I will rejoice in my humbling, and He will lift me up (James 4:10). I will cry out to the Lord, and He who made the ear will hear (Psalm 94:9).

In the silence

In the darkness

In the violence

In the starkness

When He speaks

I will hear

When I seek

He draws near

Witness:

I can identify with David here. Life has its ups and downs. When my wife left me, I sought the Lord, and His fellowship was sweet. I found my strength in Him. I became more acutely aware of His presence in my life. But spiritual entropy inevitably set in causing dryness of soul and the absence of the awareness of the Lord’s company. I am not saying that this was the reason for David’s predicament here, nor am I saying that every time we lack the sense of His presence that it is due to neglect or sin. In fact, David’s predicament was more about his enemies than about entropy. However, what was once fresh, Spirit-filled, and driven by a thankful heart and a renewed mind, can turn into a stale and flesh driven ritual.

For this reason, God may choose to remove the awareness of His presence in order to draw us back. The shepherd uses his shepherd’s crook to pull back a straying lamb or pull out a sheep caught in the bramble. I believe God’s withdrawal is a crook to draw us back into His presence. Lately, I feel God is doing that with me in my life. The “have to” has taken over the “want to.” Oh yes, the desire to is still there, but fear of punishment rather than the loss of the pleasure of being in His presence has made me attribute specific occurrences as a punishment for not spending enough time in prayer or the Word.

In contemplating all this, I am drawn to a passage in Revelations 2:1-5.

"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.NIV

I am not making a one to one correlation between my situation and these verses. However, we have here a church that was doing things in the power of the Spirit and the desire to express their love for the Lord. Yet something happened, and that love had grown cold. They were still “doing,” but their motive for doing had changed. To this, the Lord gives two prescriptions – “Remember” and “Repent.”

Remember how it use to be. What your motives were for what you did.  Then repent – do an about face – and return to what you were doing before. We must not confuse what the Lord is saying here. This is not but about the external aspects of our works. Jesus was not telling them to change what they were doing, only the reason why they did it – from love, not duty – from a relationship, not ritual.

So in the silence when God seems quiet. In the darkness when I can’t see Him working. In times of violent upheaval in my life when I wonder where He is. In the starkness when things look bleak and bland. I will call upon the Lord for His mercy and goodness. I will seek His face. I know I will hear from Him and He will draw near. 

When times like these appear in our lives, we have two ways we can go:

Ø Give up and take the much-traveled path of our own pleasures

                                                OR

Ø Go on and take the road less traveled

This is what the Lord says:"Stop at the crossroads and look around.Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it.Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls.Jer 6:16a NLT

But do not respond like those did in Jeremiah’s day:

But you reply, 'No, that's not the road we want!'Jer 6:16b NLT

And persevere, which is proof of your calling and election:

³⁵ So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. ³⁶ You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. ³⁷ For in just a very little while,

"He who is coming will come and will not delay.

³⁸ But my righteous one will live by faith.

And if he shrinks back,

I will not be pleased with him."

³⁹ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

Heb 10:35-39 NIV

And God’s chosen will persevere:

Ø Because we are... “being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time...” 1 Peter 1:5 (from The Lexham English Bible, Fourth Edition <NL><NL>Copyright © 2010, 2012 Logos Bible Software.)

Ø And He is... “able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—” Jude 24 NIV

Ø To which we cry out... “to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. Jude 25 NIV

Therefore, persevere in prayer as well:

Be earnest and unwearied and steadfast in your prayer [life], being [both] alert and intent in [your praying] with thanksgiving. Col 4:2 AMP

John Piper commenting on this verse says:

There is so much power to be had in persevering prayer. Don’t forget the “impudent friend” of Luke 11:8 and don’t forget the parable Jesus told to the effect that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1–8). Perseverance is the great test of genuineness in the Christian life. I praise God that some of you have persevered in prayer 60, 70, or 80 years! O, let us be a praying church, and ... be saturated with prayers to the Lord of the harvest. Won’t it be great to say in the end, “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7)?https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/persevere-in-prayer

https://loosehim.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/img_4495.jpg?w=1400

Worship: The Silence of God by Andrew Peterson

It's enough to drive a man crazy; it'll break a man's faith

It's enough to make him wonder if he's ever been sane

When he's bleating for comfort from Thy staff and Thy rod

And the heaven's only answer is the silence of God

It'll shake a man's timbers when he loses his heart

When he has to remember what broke him apart

This yoke may be easy, but this burden is not

When the crying fields are frozen by the silence of God

And if a man has got to listen to the voices of the mob

Who are reeling in the throes of all the happiness they've got

When they tell you all their troubles have been nailed up to that cross

Then what about the times when even followers get lost?

'Cause we all get lost sometimes...

There's a statue of Jesus on a monastery knoll

In the hills of Kentucky, all quiet and cold

And He's kneeling in the garden, as silent as a Stone

All His friends are sleeping, and He's weeping all alone

And the man of all sorrows, he never forgot

What sorrow is carried by the hearts that he bought

So when the questions dissolve into the silence of God

The aching may remain, but the breaking does not

The aching may remain, but the breaking does not

In the holy, lonesome echo of the silence of God

Lyrics:  https://www.newreleasetoday.com/lyricsdetail.php?lyrics_id=15680

Video: https://youtu.be/qn5-2nZR9AA