God’s Answers to Personal Prayer Psalm 65:5-6

Text: “By terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou answer us, O God of our Salvation Who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea.”

Psalm 65:5.

          “Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.  When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.  Hide not Thy face far from me; put not Thy servant away in anger: Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my Salvation.”

Psalm 27:7-9.

Good morning, Praying Christian!  Your fellowship is, at all times, a worshipful two-way fellowship with our Father, the Living Lord God, through Jesus Christ, your Saviour and mine, in the power of God the Holy Ghost, all three Divine Persons One true God. 

You and I speak plainly from our hearts to the Lord God in prayer, and He speaks to us plainly through the medium of His inspired Word contained in our KJV Bibles.  That is a two-way fellowship, and much to be so very thankful to God for today. 

We have a blessed, most personal, fellowship with God, because of Christ’s Sacrifice for our sins at Calvary’s Cross.  Glory to the worthy Lamb!

God answers all our prayers, when we pray in the Name of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

However, at all times, He answers our personal prayers to Him, in His Divine and Supernatural way, and not in our mere human and therefore, natural expectation. 

All things are done unto us according to God’s Sovereign will and Eternal purpose – and therefore, all answers to the personal prayers of Spiritually regenerate, Bible-believing, Christians, are answered in three Divine ways:

1. God says to us, ‘His people’: ‘Yes, I love you, and have heard and shall answer your prayers ’. 

2.  He says, ‘No, I will not give you that petition because I love you, and know that giving you what you are asking for would not be for your eventual good.’ 

3.  And, ‘Yes, I love you, I will grant you what you are praying for, but you must WAIT for My perfect timing in this matter.’

The Lord Jesus Christ, when praying to God the Father in Gethsemane’s Garden, just prior to His arrest and Crucifixion for our sins, prayed that God the Father might ‘…remove this cup…’ from Him – the ‘cup’ of having our vile sin placed upon His impeccable Holiness for the first time ever in all Eternity. 

However, at the end of the prayer Christ prayed, ‘…Nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done.’  (Luke 22:41-42)

At all times, the Lord Jesus came down to do the Father’s will, and not His own.  God the Father’s will is perfect, and Christ proved this for us in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me,  I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within my heart.”  (Psalm 40:7-8)

“Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in Heaven.  Many will say unto Me in that day (the Day of Judgement), Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name; and in Thy Name have cast out devils; and in Thy Name done many wonderful works?  And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Non-elect sinner’s prayers, due to their unrepentant iniquity, are never heard, no matter how sincerely mouthed to the Heavens.  Redeemed Christian’s prayers are similarly hindered, IF engaged in what they think are ‘secret sins’; sin harboured in the heart; or secretly practiced iniquities.

“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”  (Psalm 66:18)

“Behold (Look, and fully understand), the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither is His ear heavy, that is cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.  Your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.  None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.” (Isaiah 59:1-4)

Dictionary Definition: Iniquity – (noun) lack of fairness and justice; gross injustice; wickedness, sin; a crime…scandal; unreasonableness. (Chambers Dictionary, page 827)

For the prayers of genuine Christians to be both clearly heard and answered according to God’s Sovereign will, day to day sin, failings, fallings, and wrongs must be both confessed to the Lord God alone, and forsaken to the best of our, all-too-often-limited abilities.

When our daily sins are confessed and forsaken, then the pathway to our Holy Lord God is made clear for our prayers to be heard, and answered according to God’s Sovereign will.

“If we say that we have fellowship with Him (the Lord God), and walk in darkness (iniquity, practiced sin), we lie and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.”  (1 John 1:6-10)

Verse 5.“By terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou answer us, O God of our Salvation. We seek sanctification, and trial will be the reply: we ask for more faith, and more affliction is the result: we pray for the spread of the Gospel, and persecution scatters us.  Nevertheless, it is good to ask on, for nothing which the Lord grants in His love can do us any harm.  Terrible things will turn out to be blessed things after all, where they come in answer to prayer.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 281)

Verse 6. “…Being girded with power. Let us learn that we poor, puny ones, if we wish for true establishment, must go to the strong for strength.  Without Him, the everlasting hills would crumble; how much more shall all our plans, projects, and labours come to decay.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 281)

Thought: Pray on, dear Christian!  Your personal prayers and mine are being heard and answered by our Holy and Divinely loving Lord God.  All glory to His Name!