PSALM 55
2 Outlines
Psalm 55:16-17
THE PRAYER
DECISION
As for me, I will call upon God;
and the LORD shall save me.
Evening, and morning, and at
shall hear my voice.
If we are going to
be men and women of prayer, we must decide some very basic things. We find that:
PRAYER IS A
PERSONAL DECISION - As for me…
PRAYER IS A
PRACTICAL DECISION - … I will call upon
God;
PRAYER IS A POWERFUL DECISION - …
and the LORD shall
save me.
PRAYER IS A PERSISTENT DECISION -
Evening, and morning, and at
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Psalm 55:16,17, 22
IN TOUCH
Psalm 55:16-17 - As for me, I will call upon God; and the
Lord shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at
Psalm 55:22 - Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall
sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
It is important
that we be in touch with God in prayer.
We need to remember just how much prayer can help and encourage us.
The context of
Psalm 55 is that of David being in trouble.
David's problems
are summarized in Vss. 1-5.
David is so
troubled with his problem that he wishes he could just flee! Psalm 55:6
To make matters
worse, David had been betrayed. Psalm 55:12-14
We can relate to
David's misery. There have been times when we wished that we could escape our
problems. There were other times when people we loved and trusted have harmed
us or turned on us.
In the midst of
David's problems, David kept in touch with God.
And Psalm 55:16,
17 and 22 encourage us to keep in touch with God especially when we come upon
troubled times.
CALL - Vs. 16
David begins this
verse with some very important words, As for me.
In the preceding
verses David tells us about his troubles.
In this verse he
begins to tell us what he's going to do about them.
Others had not
lived righteously and would be punished.
Others had chosen
to be deceptive and to stick a knife in David's back, so to speak.
Instead of
choosing to behave himself in an inappropriate way, David is choosing to do
what is right, so he says, as for me I
will call upon God...
David is saying,
"I chose to reach out to God when I hurt!"
This, of course,
is a good choice and a Biblical one. Jeremiah 33:3, Psalm 91:1-2, Psalm 46:1,
Matthew 11:28-30
Like David, your
decision should be to call upon God. The
results are always good. Philippians 4:6-7, Jeremiah 32:17,27,
Hebrews 4:15-16
We should call
upon God because He along can save or rescue us. Psalm98:1
CONTINUE - Vs.
17
The Jewish day
began in the evening. That's why the Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday night, and also why evening is mentioned first here.
Although David may
have had three set times for prayer in a day (the prophet Daniel did), I think
referring to the three times of day means that David would be in a continual
habit of prayer.
So often we pray
about something and forget it. That's
the wrong approach. We should be talking
to God continually, and we should continually bring the same requests to God,
until He answers them. 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Luke 11:5-20, Luke 18:1-8
CAST - Vs. 22
Psalm 55:22 - Cast thy burden upon the Lord…
Imagine walking down a road carrying a heavy
load.
A friend in a
pick-up truck stops and offers you a ride.
You gladly accept.
The first thing
you will do is throw that heavy load into bed of the truck.
You won't hold it
on your lap, you'll let the truck carry the load.
In Vs 22, we are
told to cast our care on God. Whatever the load we bear we are to give it to
him. If we give it to him we need to let him have it continually and
permanently.
We give it to him
continually as we have already said, continuing to pray over it.
We give it to Him
permanently. Although we talk to Him about it, we leave it in His hands to
worry over. And of course, he will not worry. He'll act in His time.
This verse reminds
me of a similar verse in the New Testament.
1 Peter 5:7 - Casting all your care upon him;
for he careth for you.
As we cast our
burdens upon the Lord, we must realize that God cares about us and what happens
to us.
CONFIDENCE -
Vs. 22
Psalm 55:22 - Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall
sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
If a baby is born very
small, say 3 or 4 pounds, what will the hospital do? They will put that child in an incubator to
sustain him until he is big enough to make it on his own.
If a person has a
serious accident or a heart attack or stroke, and are not able to function on
their own, they very often are placed on life support. They are sustained by
machines.
As a Christian, I
can be confident because the living God has promised to sustain me no matter
what my problem. As I bring my problem
to God He takes care of me. And the Lord sustains me even when He doesn't
directly deliver me from the problem. 2 Corinthians 12:7-9
John 10:27-30
CALL - Vss. 16
CONTINUE - Vs. 17
CAST - Vs. 22
CONFIDENCE - Vs.
22