I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: Teach me thy statutes (Psa 119.26).
Intimacy requires communication. You cannot really know someone, and they cannot deeply know you, without “dialogue,” the two-way give and take of candid talking and careful listening, each with the other.
This alone constitutes authentic conversation, and there is precious little of it in this world. We often say things we do not really mean. We sometimes withhold our true thoughts and feelings that ought to be disclosed. When we seem to be listening, we can be planning instead what to say next. And should we come to the point where we are ready to speak with total honesty and listen with humble patience, how rare it is to find another willing to do the same! Is it any wonder that we are often terribly estranged from others, sometimes even from our immediate family members who live in the same household with us, and we find ourselves profoundly lonely?
This kind of true conversation is necessary both on a purely human level and in the process of anyone coming to know and to be known by God. Not for a moment do we mean to imply that God cannot know us without our self-revelation to Him. Our omniscient Lord knows everyone through and through, even better than we know ourselves (Psa 139.1-3; cf. 1 Kgs 8.39 and Jer 17.9). The glorified Christ, the living Word, has eyes like a flame of fire, searching the mind and the heart (Heb 4.12-13; Rev 2.18, 23).
Still, it pleases God that we should come to Him with all candor and to expose our innermost being to Him verbally. He will hear any and all who approach Him as He requires. Yet this is only half of what must be done for an intimate and growing relationship with God. We must also be coming in silence to Him, with a listening ear, to hear what He says in His Word, which is Scripture alone. Prayer is our speaking to God and the Bible is God speaking to us. Each by its very nature is one-way communication, but together they constitute genuine conversation with God.
This spiritual conversation is so critical to our salvation and sanctification that it is a chief object of attack by the enemies of God and His people. Liberals deny the divine inspiration of Scripture, saying that the Bible is merely a human book with man’s ideas about God. Charismatics distract us from Scripture by urging us to “hear God speak” to us in extra-biblical tongues, prophecies, and visions. Even non-charismatic evangelicals err by expecting a “still small voice” during prayer to offer words of comfort and guidance.
In 1995 a series of nine books began to appear in bookstores with the title, Conversations with God (CwG), written by Neale Donald Walsch. “Each book is written as a dialogue in which Walsch asks questions and ‘God’ answers. Walsch claims that these dialogues are truly inspired by God.”1
The author describes the inception of the books as follows: at a low period in his life, Walsch wrote an angry, imaginary letter to God asking questions about why his life wasn’t working. After writing down all of his questions, the author claimed in his interview with Larry King he heard a voice over his right shoulder say: “Do you really want an answer to all these questions or are you just venting?” Though when he turned around he saw no one there, Walsch felt answers to his questions filling his mind and decided to write them down. The ensuing “dialogue” became the Conversations with God books.2
Not surprisingly, Walsch’s message is a jumble of New Age heresies, including the ideas that 1) we are all one, 2) there is nothing we have an obligation to do, and 3) ours is not a better way, but merely another way.3 It is also not surprising that this tripe met with the world’s popular approval, as the first book in the series allegedly stayed on the New York Times Best-Seller’s list for 137 weeks, and the others appeared prominently on the same list. Steer clear of such false and dangerous teaching!
Despite all the confusion, true conversations with God really are possible, and we cannot be saved and mature spiritually without them. Psa 119.26 teaches us that
God listens to a godly man, and a godly man listens to God.
FROM MY MOUTH TO GOD’S EARS
“I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me.” So the psalmist testifies of his relationship with God. The first phrase implies God was the audience of this declaration. The Hebrew word for “ways” means “way of life, conduct, behavior.”4 The declaration here should not be narrowed to a confession of sins. The psalmist is saying that he plainly, openly, comprehensively declared all about his doings to God, which surely included virtues, vices, and even perplexities.
We are apt to limit prayer to petitions, coming to God in prayer only when we feel our need in some particulars, and with a deliberate purpose to acquire those things from Him. More spiritually-minded Christians incorporate praise in prayer, knowing that prayer is mainly for God’s glory more than my need. Humble believers would not think of omitting regular confession of sin from their prayers, but even these three elements—petition, praise, and confession—do not exhaust what prayer can and should be. It is telling God all our spiritually-significant thoughts and ways, as if He knew them not. It is exposing our fears to Him, reviewing our conduct with Him, complaining of our suffering before Him, and affirming our love for Him. The most godly people habitually talk to God in these ways. These under-appreciated elements are illustrated throughout the whole book of Psalms which remain a model for Christian prayers.
By faith the godly man of our text confesses, “thou [God] heardest me.” This is more than admitting that the all-knowing God was intellectually aware of the words that had been spoken; it implies an interested, loving, and favorable hearing. And how did God manifest to the psalmist that he was heard? Surely by the divine response to the things prayed, whether commending his virtues, forgiving his sins, or clearing away his confusion. Puritan Thomas Manton admirably summed up the nature of how God “hears” a godly man:
Either inwardly by His Spirit, or outwardly by providence. First, inwardly by His Spirit, when he begets a persuasion of their acceptance with God, leaves an impression of confidence upon their hearts, and a quietness in looking for the thing they had asked. Before they have an answer of providence, they have a persuasion of heart that their prayer has been accepted. . . . The second consideration, namely, the outward mercy in his providence, is either in kind or in value. God doth not always answer us in kind, by giving us the thing asked; but doth give us something that is as good or better, which contents the heart, by denying the thing desired, and giving something equivalent.5
In other words, God always answers a godly man’s prayers, either by giving us inward assurance or outward favors, whether the particular thing we think we need or something we need even more.
FROM GOD’S MOUTH TO MY EARS
The second part of the psalmist’s prayer is, “teach me thy statutes.” He follows Eli’s advice to Samuel, “If he [the Lord] call thee, thou shalt say, ‘Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth’” (1 Sam 3.9). This eagerness to hear God speak is a condition of our assurance that He hears us. “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination” (Prov 28.9).
It is by the word and prayer that our communion with God is kept up. God speaks to us by his law, and expects we should hear him and heed him; we speak to him by prayer, to which we wait for an answer of peace.6
Our listening to God must be more than paying attention to Him. It must include utter submission to His authority and an eager desire of His valuable wisdom for actual implementation in our lives. How can you reasonably expect the infinitely high and holy God to give you favorable audience if you will not give Him the same when He is greatly owed it by you and He is granting unspeakably great grace to grant it to you?
True intimacy with God, then, begins and proceeds with these two, basic activities of the divine-human dialogue—offering prayer and hearing Scripture. One great difference between human relationships and our relationship with God is that in the latter, if we will but speak with total honesty to the Lord, and hear Him with faith and humility, we can know for sure on His part that all the requirements of intimacy with us are fulfilled. By gospel grace, He invites us to approach Him through Jesus Christ, and those who come to Him in this way, He will in no wise cast out. Truly, God listens to a godly man, and a godly man listens to God. May we prove to be sincere with the words of Psa 119.26 in our own mouths, “I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.” Amen.
Notes
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversations_with_God
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. UBS Handbook on the Psalms, in loc.
5. Works of Thomas Manton, VI.249-250.
6. Matthew Henry’s commentary.
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