January 13

For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer. - Psalms 109:4.

DAVID was a man of prayer. We here read of his giving himself unto prayer; that is, he made it the leading business of his life. Now in this he is an example worthy of our imitation, for prayer is the very life of religion, without which it cannot exist, much less prosper, therefore we should be found much in the exercise of it. For this purpose we may take three views of it.

First, View it as a duty. Though God knows all things, and sees the end from the beginning, and works all things after the counsel of his own will, yet he hath said, “For these things I will be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them;” thus they are commanded to “seek the Lord and his strength.”

Secondly, It is a due acknowledgment of his nature, and our dependence upon him, as our Benefactor, Preserver, and Governor, and “the God of our salvation, to whom belong the issues of life.”

Thirdly, We may view it as an honour. We should deem it an honour if we had free and full access to an earthly sovereign-and is it nothing that we can have access at all times to the “blessed and only Potentate, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords”? Prayer places us nearly upon a level with the glorified spirits above, with this difference-they approach the throne of glory, and we the throne of grace. We can enter the secret of his pavilion here, we can come even to his seat, can pour out our hearts before him with more freedom than we can to the dearest friend or nearest relative upon earth.

Fourthly, Let us view it also as an advantage. “It is good for me,” says David, “to draw near to God.” What a relief does the very exercise of prayer afford! How it eases the aching heart, and binds up the broken spirit! Oh, there are times and seasons in which every refuge seems to fail us, and God is our only resource; when we look inward, and perceive nothing but decaying affections and withered hopes. We go forth, and there we meet with an unfeeling and repulsive world. The mind is thrown upon futurity, and there we find a vast ocean, where we are wearied with winds, and waves, and without a compass, without a chart. It is then devotion comes, and wraps us up in” its soft mantle, bearing us away to him in whom we may find an asylum into which no enemy can enter, and where no ill can approach. Thus we enjoy an emblem and earnest of that state “where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.”

Oh, the luxury of prayer! How relieving is it to pour our complaints into the bosom of a friend, who, having rejoiced with us when we rejoiced, does not suffer us to cry in vain, “Have pity on me, have pity on me, O ye my friends, for the hand of the Lord hath touched me.” But how much more relieving and delightful is it to make God our Friend, and, like David, to pour out our hearts before him! And this is what he himself enjoins:-“Cast thy burden on the Lord, and he will sustain thee.” He would not have us struggle and turmoil with it ourselves, but we are commanded to roll our burden on the Lord, for we can roll what we cannot heave.

This is done by prayer, and each petition we offer takes off some of the load, and lays it upon him:-“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.” The apostle also says, “Be careful for nothing;” but how is this to be accomplished? This is the way:-“Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.” The heathens allowed that care was an evil, and they wished to cure it: but all their efforts reached only to the paroxysms of the complaint; they knew not God, and that “peace of God which passeth all understanding.” But we can tell God all our complaints, and leave all with him; nothing will tranquillize the mind like this, but this will do it. He blesses us in the exercise of our various graces, and it is thus he prepares us for the manifestations of his love and the communications of his goodness.