In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. [Psalm 5:3]
What does he wait in expectation of? On a superficial level, one might think that he waits for God to answer his prayer, in the sense of specific prayer requests as we think of prayer requests today - "God, do X for me". To some degree that may be true, but I think that is hardly the main point. When you pray for God to do something, you don't just stop and wait there in your prayer place for it - not, "God, please do X for me" and wait there for a response. Rather, it concerns something deeper, something not related to the kind of self-focused prayers that we modern Christians think of.
What does a really spiritual person as for, as his/her primary prayer? Not specific supplications for help as we often think of it. The main thing that prayer is about is seeking God. That's the main point of prayer. Like Paul said, "I want to know Christ" (Phil. 3:10), and that was all he desired. When we read the prayers of the Psalms, the psalmists are primarily seeking God, not primarily seeking God's help or answers to particular problems - those are important, but secondary to the main goal of proper prayer. The main goal is to know God, to experience his presence, to seek his face, to know him more. Thus, the writer of Psalm 5 here waits in expectation for God to reveal himself more to him. He prays, waits in silence for God's Spirit to speak to him, to experience hear his voice, to experience God's presence, to know and experience him more.
Gosh, I need to do that.
in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. [Psalm 5:3]
What does he wait in expectation of? On a superficial level, one might think that he waits for God to answer his prayer, in the sense of specific prayer requests as we think of prayer requests today - "God, do X for me". To some degree that may be true, but I think that is hardly the main point. When you pray for God to do something, you don't just stop and wait there in your prayer place for it - not, "God, please do X for me" and wait there for a response. Rather, it concerns something deeper, something not related to the kind of self-focused prayers that we modern Christians think of.
What does a really spiritual person as for, as his/her primary prayer? Not specific supplications for help as we often think of it. The main thing that prayer is about is seeking God. That's the main point of prayer. Like Paul said, "I want to know Christ" (Phil. 3:10), and that was all he desired. When we read the prayers of the Psalms, the psalmists are primarily seeking God, not primarily seeking God's help or answers to particular problems - those are important, but secondary to the main goal of proper prayer. The main goal is to know God, to experience his presence, to seek his face, to know him more. Thus, the writer of Psalm 5 here waits in expectation for God to reveal himself more to him. He prays, waits in silence for God's Spirit to speak to him, to experience hear his voice, to experience God's presence, to know and experience him more.
Gosh, I need to do that.
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