I intreated thy favour with my whole heart:
Be merciful unto me according to thy word (Psa 119.58).
We should not pray only for ourselves, but we must not neglect praying for ourselves, whether through some false view of piety, presumption on God’s grace, or any other spiritual pitfall. God has implanted in the soul of every man a legitimate self-interest. “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church” (Eph 5.29). Otherwise the requirement to love your neighbor as yourself would be irrational. We need not worry about inadequate self-love, but inordinate self-love. I don’t know of any place where Scripture warns us of thinking too lowly of ourselves, but only too highly (Rom 12.3). Our problem is not that we lack self-esteem, but God-esteem and others-esteem.
Since we do care about our own happiness, God appeals to this self-interest throughout the whole Bible. Peter exhorted his hearers, “Save yourselves from this untoward generation” (Acts 2.40). Proverbs is full of such appeals. Much of the book amounts to this, “My son, if you will apply this wise counsel, you will be richly blessed forever and ever,” and conversely, “My son, if you give in to the temptation of sinners, you will suffer for it beyond measure” (e.g., Prov 1.8-19).
One of the ways of getting ahead spiritually, God blessing you, is by praying for yourself, if you will pray aright (cf. Prov 2.3-5). The man with any spiritual sense knows he ought to pray, but realizes something of his ignorance in the matter. For such guidance we must look to God’s Word. Our text is practically a mini-theology of how to pray for yourself, somewhat like the instruction Westminster Shorter Catechism:
What is prayer? Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies (#98).
. . . except in this text, the psalmist shows us how to pray for oneself in the right way. From his worthy, Spirit-led example I may gather four basic principles of spiritual and effective prayer for myself. The Lord help you and me both to understand and apply these counsels of His Word.
SEEK GOD’S FAVOR
“I intreated Thy favor.” A literal and accurate rendering is, “I have sought your face.”1 For what should we pray? What is the most important thing we should seek from God? To be comfortable, healthy, perhaps not wealthy but not poor either? No, these things are all pittances compared to the supreme blessing for which David here pleads.
To seek God’s face is to pray for His favor. The literal expression is figuratively used. It amounts to asking God to turn towards you and to have a countenance that expresses His love for you and His purpose to bless you for time and eternity.
Of course as sinners before a holy God, if He were to act only on principles of strict justice, we could expect no such thing. God is holy, and we are rebels against Him by nature. God is angry with the wicked every day (Psa 7.11). David prays as one conscious of his own sins and fearful demerit, and at the same time of God’s ineffable holiness and justice. Yet David prays as one hopeful, even expectant, of God’s favor. How can that be? God’s smile and reconciliation with Him go together, and David knew that to be possible by the grace of God.
Our prayers are severely defective if we focus on asking for trifles instead of treasures, because then even if we receive what we ask, we remain devastatingly impoverished.
When you pray for yourself, ask above all things for God’s loving favor.
DESIRE GOD’S ANSWER
“I have intreated thy favor with my whole heart,” or, “with all my heart.” This idiomatic expression is still used and understood today. To do anything with all your heart is to engage in it sincerely and ardently. We contrast doing something “half-heartedly” with this. David was not playing when he sought God’s favor through prayer. David was in dead earnest. He felt he must have it or die. He was like a man falling from a plane with strong desire that his parachute will open, or like a man on death row pleading for a pardon. Exhorting to heart-felt prayer, John Bunyan wrote,
The greatest part of men make no conscience at all of the duty; and as for them that do, it is to be feared that many of them are very great strangers to a sincere, sensible, and affectionate pouring out their hearts or souls to God; but even content themselves with a little lip-labor and bodily exercise, mumbling over a few imaginary prayers. When the affections are indeed engaged in prayer, then, then the whole man is engaged, and that in such sort, that the soul will spend itself to nothing, as it were, rather than it will go without that good desired, even communion and solace with Christ.2
When thou prayest, rather let thy hearts be without words, than thy words without a heart.3
Surely the reason many who pray for themselves after some manner procure no blessing, besides asking amiss, is that they do not ask with any real earnestness and fervor. They don’t really mean to conduct any business with God and so none is conducted. They are not like the importunate widow who kept on nagging the unjust judge until he avenged her (Luke 18.1-8). They know nothing of the man’s spirit who had an unexpected visit from a friend and knocked on the neighbor’s door at midnight, and kept knocking, until he got up out of bed and handed over the three loaves (Luke 11.5-13)! Jesus gave us these illustrations specifically to teach us about the spirit and practice of true prayer.
When you pray for yourself, make your petitions with your whole heart.
DEPEND ON GOD’S MERCY
“Be merciful unto me.” The verb is imperative, the form of command, but here it is rather expressing the urgency and insistence of his appeal. It means, literally, “to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior,” and thus, “to favor, . . . have pity upon,”4 or, “be gracious to me.”5
No one who marches up to God’s throne and makes demands upon Him with self-confidence of worthiness will get anything in response, unless it is swift and severe destruction! The only hope of a sinful person in prayer is the grace and mercy of God to the utterly undeserving. “God, be merciful unto me, a sinner” is a prayer followed by a promise of God’s favor, while the self-righteous man remained under divine wrath (Luke 18.9-14).
This ought to be a great encouragement to people suffering the greatest guilt on account of their sins, and most fearful of being rejected by God. Your sins will only separate you from God as long as you cling to them. But if you will truly accept God’s judgment against you and hope instead in His mercy and grace through Jesus Christ who died for sinners, you have every reason for confidence that you have, and will yet enjoy, God’s favor.
When you pray for yourself, depend on God’s mercy alone, and know that this humble dependence on your part is evidence of favor toward you on God’s part.
APPEAL TO GOD’S WORD
“Be merciful to me according to your word.” This is a very literal rendering of the original Hebrew text. The sense seems to be, “Have mercy on me as you promised!”6
We must ask only for what God has promised in order to be assured that He will give us what we have requested. But the good news is that there is nothing of true and lasting blessing that is omitted from His promises, and that, humanly speaking, nothing moves God to grant these blessings more than appealing by faith to His promises! Ultimately it is not our intense asking that moves God to answer, but a jealousy for His own glory and reputation which would be damaged if He should prove unfaithful to His own Word—an unthinkable prospect! We recall little kids saying repeatedly to mom and dad, “You said! You said!” and pressing this reminder upon them for a favorable response to their petition. In a reverent way, we should do the same in prayer. And you must know Scripture in order to pray Scripture back to God.
Surely this accounts for much anemic and fruitless praying. The poor souls offer petitions with no biblical basis. When you pray for yourself, appeal to God’s Word, and He will hear you (1 John 5.14-15), just as He heard His servant David. Amen.
Notes:
1. Surprisingly, the NIV, which is often unreliably loose.
2. “A Discourse Touching Prayer,” Works Vol. I.
3. “Mr. Bunyan’s Dying Sayings,” ibid.
4. New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words, #2603.
5. TWOT, #694.
6. NET Bible.
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