Are you holding on to a promise from
the Lord, something He has promised you, and it is long in coming? Is your
expectation being stretched? Are you getting weary? Are you feeling desperate,
or even despairing? Is He not moving according to your time frame? Are you
saying, “Why, Lord? Where are you? Where is the answer? What is happening? Why
the silence? When will you move and fulfill your promises?
You have searched your heart for sin. You’ve pleaded. You’ve bargained. You’ve pouted some. You’ve felt sorry for yourself. You’ve gotten scared. It doesn’t take much for panic to seize you. God seems so far away that your prayers seem to fly short of the throne as if you were shooting birdshot at the moon.
You have searched your heart for sin. You’ve pleaded. You’ve bargained. You’ve pouted some. You’ve felt sorry for yourself. You’ve gotten scared. It doesn’t take much for panic to seize you. God seems so far away that your prayers seem to fly short of the throne as if you were shooting birdshot at the moon.
If anyone in Scripture did those very
things, David did. He had been anointed as the next king of Israel (1 Sam 16).
He had killed a giant (1 Sam 17). He had been hailed as a great leader (1 Sam
18:7). But he was not yet king. Instead, he was running for his life from the
king he served, King Saul, who hated him in jealousy (1 Sam 18:8).
In Psalm 86, we find a prayer
(tephillah) of David. He is desperate for an answer and needs God’s mercy and
protection (Psalm 86:1-4). Tephillah means intercession, entreaty,
supplication, a hymn, or prayer set to music and sung in worship. This is the
most general Hebrew word for prayer and was used in the titles of five Psalms:
17, 86, 90, 102, and 142. (See also Psalm 72:20.) Tephillah is intercessory
worship. David sang his prayer for God to be near and hear his cries, for the
Lord’s Presence to stay close, for God to deal with his enemies, and for the
Lord to come and glorify Himself.
Tephillah is used in other places in
the Bible. Habakkuk’s revival prayer is intercessory worship (Hab 3:1). It is a
reciprocal, or two-way prayer. Jesus quoted Isaiah 56:7 when he cleansed the
Temple, saying, “My house will be called a house of tephillah (intercessory
worship) for all nations (Mark 11:17). All the nations and all the peoples are
the subject of intercessory worship, and Christ’s Glory is the object of it
(Rev 7:9).
Intercessory worship waits on God. It
waits to hear the word of God (Psalm 86:11). It feels the heart of God. It
worships before Him who is faithful and loving (Psalm 86:12-13). Intercessory
worship acknowledges that He is and will accomplish His purposes on the earth
in the response to grateful hearts. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus called on his
Father with a hallowed Name and asked that “Your will be done, Your Kingdom
come, on earth as it is in heaven,” ending with a focus on God’s Kingdom,
“Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. (Matt 6:9-13).
Intercessory worship is faith in
action. We don’t yet see the answer, but we know the character of the One who
is forgiving (Psalm 86:5), who is faithful to His Name, to His Glory, and to
His Promises (Psalm 86:8-10). Intercessory worship is as simple as singing, “He
is Lord,” because it declares the authority of Jesus’ rule over all.
Intercessory worship praises God even when the situation does not change
immediately, because we know His character, and we trust His purposes (Psalm
86:14-17). And we praise Him for His answer that He will bring in His appointed
time.
Adapted from Sylvia Gunter, Prayer Essentials 2.
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