How Prayers Turn to Praise

I will be answering a very important question that many of you may be asking. How can I turn my prayers into praise? How do I get an answer that causes my heart to exalt in the Lord? This is found in Psalm 28 as we're continuing our series. In Psalm 28, I want to thank you for joining us today.

If you've been with us in the past, you'll know we're going line by line, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and we're in the 28th chapter today. If you are listening at home, I want to encourage you to get your Bible out and follow along as I point my finger into the word and say, look what the Lord is saying through his word. If you're driving, obviously, why don't you just encourage you to listen? I want to read Psalm 28, then pray, and then get into this important question and help bring you to a place where your prayers are turned into praise.

In Psalm 28 of David, to you, O Lord, I call my rock. Be not deaf to me, lest if you be silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cry to you for help, when I lift my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.

Do not drag me off with the wicked or with workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts. Give to them according to their work, according to the evil of their deeds. Give to them according to the work of their hands.

Render them their due reward, because they do not regard the works of the Lord or the works of his hands. He will tear them down and build them up no more. Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard the voice of my plea for mercy.

The Lord is my strength and my shield. In him my heart trusts, and I am helped. My heart exalts, and with my song I give thanks to him.

The Lord is the strength of his people. He is the saving refuge of his anointed. Oh, save your people and bless your heritage.

Be their shepherd and carry them forever. Father, I ask you to enliven this word for the things that we would need to establish in our hearts and our minds, that the cry of our heart, that the pleas for mercy that we have would be turned into the praise, to the song of deliverance, that we know that the work of your hands have accomplished this. I pray for my brothers and sisters listening now, God, that many of them might be in a time of trouble, a time of sensing maybe even a quietness of the Lord, a silence of prayers going unanswered, of questions in their hearts and mind of why these things are not being accomplished in their lives.

But we thank you, God, that you teach us through this psalm trust. You teach us faithfulness. You teach us patience.

And you teach us the outcome of the heart, an earnest, fervent prayer of the righteous that it does avail much. We give thanks for this in Jesus' name. Amen.

The psalm could be simply divided into two parts. The first is David's concern that the Lord will not hear him, that he is not speaking to him, that he's not listening to him. And then the second part, the tremendous turn here, is the triumphant song that God does hear, that God does speak, that God does deliver, that God does work on behalf of his children, that God does lift us up out of the pit.

I have a, I guess you'd call it a spoiler alert for you. This psalm can be summarized in this one phrase, those who pray well will soon praise well. Many of you read with me this text and you can relate to it.

You say, Lord, I'm calling to you. And I'm asking you, Lord, don't be deaf to me. Don't be silent to me.

It's as if David's saying, I'm offering these prayers to you. I'm lifting my hands towards your sanctuary. And I don't perceive that you're hearing what I'm saying.

Have you ever been talking to somebody and you realize, you look over to them, maybe you're driving in the car and you look over to them and just realize they're not even listening to me. They're somewhere else. They're distracted.

They're on their phone. That's what David seems to be sensing here. And he says, don't be silent to me.

Not only is he concerned that God is not hearing him, but that he's hearing no response in return from the Lord. We often can trust that God hears us, but sometimes we don't sense that he's investing his speech into our life, that he's not talking to us, that he's not leading us, that he's not shepherding us, that he's not guiding us, that we've heard no information from him, that we've heard no instruction from him. We've heard no guidance from him.

These are two ailments that bring us to a place oftentimes of despair or despondency or concern or confusion. Where's this deafness coming from? Is it something in me? Have I done something wrong? Is God not wanting to listen to me? Well, there's no indication in this passage of scripture, nor in many other chapters that we've been studying or will study in the future, that David had gotten a deaf ear or a silence of the Lord because of sin or because of things in his heart. When that happens, he does say that and he confesses it.

And there's the restoration of these things. But sometimes it has nothing to do with sin in our life. It has more to do with circumstances in our life.

It has more to do with something that the Lord is doing. We see in this passage, this phrase, the works of the Lord or the works of his hand. God is even at times up to something in his silence.

He's up to something oftentimes when he seems deaf. He's not deaf. He's not silent.

He is constantly at work. I like the fact that David, even in the midst of his concern here, still before he talks about the deafness or the silence, he calls God his rock. I think that's important when we want to answer this question, how does prayer turn into praise is that we're coming to God, not in accusation.

We're not coming to him with a sense of, you don't listen accusationally. You don't speak to me. You have other children that you favor more than me.

Let us be concerned for ourselves first that we come to God and acknowledging you're the rock. In other words, you're steadfast. You're immovable.

You're unshakable. You're unchangeable. The God of yesterday is the God of today and the God of tomorrow.

The God that spoke to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will speak to you and to I. He will not be silent. He will not remain silent. He will be one who speaks into our life.

That's the establishment of the rock. That's the attribute of the unchangeable nature and character of God. Once we have that rock solid in our own life, these things become certainly still a concern of ours, but to a lesser degree.

We're saying it seems deaf. It seems silent, but we know this rock is a God who's not deaf, who's not silent. And David is so concerned with this thing in his heart.

You see the emotion here. It's not just some little situation that he's concerned about, but he's saying, God, if you remain deaf to me, if I don't hear your voice, if we're not in communion and communication together, I would become like those who go down to the pit. In other words, it's over for me.

It's like a death to me. The end result, it'll be the end of me. It's like verse three says, do not drag me off with the wicked.

If I don't hear you, if you don't hear me, I feel like I'll be dragged away to the point of spiritual death, the point of emotional death, the point of relational death with you. That's why his cry is so desperate. I think it's not just, I want you to hear my particular prayer or I have this certain cry, but I think he's saying, I want you to be the God to me, the rock to me, that allows me to hear constantly, that allows me to speak to you knowing that I'm heard constantly.

It's the attribute, it's the faithfulness of God that David is chasing after here and that he wants us to chase after as well. What is the crisis in your life? What is the prayer you want turned in to praise? I have had many prayers that while praying them, I became uncertain. Is this an inappropriate prayer, a selfish prayer, fleshly prayer? Maybe I should stop praying this prayer, but there was a groan.

There was a cry. There was a pleading in my heart and I knew it was something that the Holy Spirit was stirring in my heart to bring that James passage, the effectual, fervent prayer. It was coming from a righteous heart and it was going to avail much.

I knew there was a season where this thing would need to avail much. There have been times in my marriage where I just needed a breakthrough. There have been times in my physical body when I was given the call from the doctor and she said I had cancer.

I needed to hear from the Lord. There's been financial situations where I wasn't sure certain bills would be able to be paid and all of a sudden there was this breakthrough. God heard my cry and he answered me.

Things had transitioned, but while we're in this, it's this cry. I feel like I'm going down to the pit. When God seems to close his ears, when it's as if his tongue is silent to us, we are not to end our supplication.

We are not to give up in despair, but when it seems most silent is the time we rather call out the more, cry out the more, plead all the more, contend all the more, knock all the more, believe all the more, come to God. Holding out our hands to the whole temple the more. When things seem the most silent, when things seem the most desperate, it's not a time to draw back.

It's not a time to reserve your heart and your emotion and your prayers. No, rather it is time to cry out to the Lord. Take a moment with me to turn to, we'll come back to Psalm 28 in just a moment, but turn to Luke chapter 18.

And in Luke chapter 18, there's this sandwich, so to speak, these two meaty places, the meaty place in the middle and the two pieces of bread, the manna that feeds us at the beginning and end of this chapter. And the first part of this is what's called the parable of the persistent widow. It says a certain city, there was a judge that didn't fear God, no respect man.

And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him saying, give me justice against my adversaries. For a while he refused, but afterwards he said to himself, though I neither fear God or respect men yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says, and he will, and will not God give justice to his elect.

In other words, if an unrighteous judge would hear the cry that is persistent and constant, how much more so would a faithful, righteous judge hear that persistent, that unrelenting knocking at the door who cried to him even day and night. That's what David's doing in Psalm 28, crying day and night, hear the plea of my heart. I don't want to go down to the pit and be lost into despair like sinners.

Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give them justice speedily. Nevertheless, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? This is an element to turning prayer to praise is the prayer is a prayer of faith, not a prayer of accusation, but a prayer of faith. You're believing God as you're saying this thing, will I not give justice to them? I love this word here, speedily.

Some of us need that word speedily spoken into our lives right now. You've been waiting a long time, but when God says it's time, he acts with the works of his hands and there's an immediate transformation in the situation in your life. The second part of this sandwich in Psalm, excuse me, in Luke 18 is the last part of this chapter.

It's found in verse 35 through the end of the chapter and it speaks here of Jesus healing a blind beggar. Verse 35 says, and he drew near to Jericho and a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging and hearing a crowd going by. He inquired him what this meant.

And they told him Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. You see David's cry pleading.

Interesting. He even says, son of David, he, maybe this man had, had heard some of the Psalms recited to him. And he had the sense in his heart, just like David cried out to the Lord, this man cries out the Lord, just like you and I today can cry out to the Lord as well.

And he cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And those who were in front of him, rebuked him, telling him to be silent, telling him to be silent. What would you do in that circumstance? I'm being told by the elders.

I'm being told by the disciples. I'm being told by those who, who have sight, those who are seeing what's going on. Those who know more than me, all I have is my pain.

All I have is my sorrow, but they seem to have the wisdom and the proper etiquette and instruction and protocol. What would you do in those circumstances? This man's, it says of him, but he cried out all the more, cry out all the more, my friends, when you're hurting, cry out all the more, when you're desperate, cry out all the more. When circumstances seem to be folding underneath you in, in horrible ways, cry out all the more, cry out to Jesus as he is passing by, as he's coming to the situation in your life, cry out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me.

And Jesus stopped. Powerful words right there. And Jesus stopped in his tracks and Jesus turned to this man.

And Jesus looked at this man and Jesus touched this man. And he commanded them to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, what do you want me to do for you? Jesus may be at, might be here asking the question that we're asking today.

What prayer do you want turned into praise? What situation in your life do you want changed? What, what do you keep knocking at the door for? What one, what is that one craving thing in your life? And he said, Lord, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, recover your sight. Your faith has made you well.

And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, they gave praise to God. Prayer was turned to praise here, hallelujah.

And immediately he recovered. Look how often that word recovered here is Lord asked him, what do you want? I want to recover my sight. Jesus says, recover your sight.

And immediately he recovered his sight. What do you want recovered in your life? What situation do you want to recover? Maybe it's first love for Jesus that needs to be recovered. Maybe it's a marriage covenant that needs to be healed and restored and recovered.

Maybe it's, it's, it's your calling on your life. There's, there's a destiny that God has for you. And you've not seen it come to fruition in your life.

What is it that you want recovered in your life? Cry out to Jesus all the more. When it seems the prayers have been touched and stopped ears, cry out all the more. When you're waiting for that response and you're not hearing it, cry out all the more.

When you've been praying for weeks, months, years, and you have no answer, cry out all the more, because there will come a day where the Lord will stop in front of you and ask you what you want. And you'll ask him for that recovery and you will recover it. And immediately that recovery is taking place.

And the prayer is turned into a praise back to back to Psalm chapter 28, looking at now at verse two, he continues this cry. Remember, we started this message by saying this starts off with a plea, but it turns into a praise, a prayer that turns into praise. So we're still in the, in the plea part, we're still in the prayer part.

And he makes his prayer that much more clear. Sometimes length of waiting clarifies the desires of our heart, our temporal desires, our secondary desires, our really unnecessary desires, things we think we want that we really don't need. Those things often fall off the way side when we're waiting and not seeing response.

But the desperation of a heart shows its reality. It shows its truth. The real depth of the desire of the things that God has put in our heart come to the surface when we are continually needing to pray over them.

And he says, hear the voice of my pleas. Hear the voice of my pleas. When I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands towards you, towards your most holy sanctuary.

Interesting here, it doesn't say hear my voice, but what it does say is hear the voice of my cry. This may seem insignificant to you, but I think it's very profound. David is not saying here that you're hearing my voice because maybe I'm not even voicing something particularly.

What you hear is the voice of my cry. In other words, our cry has its own wordless voice. We all know Romans 8.28, for all things work together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purposes.

But in the context of Romans 8.28, you can look at this yourself. Just two verses before Romans 8.26 says, with groanings too deep for words, the response of all things working together for good doesn't come willy nilly. It doesn't come lightheartedly.

It comes to those and through those who are groaning with things too deep for words. It's a wordless cry. It's a wordless, but yet it is a voice.

It's a voice that has a cry to it. And it's a cry that has a voice to it. And God hears that voice.

You know what? Sometimes my opinion, I think God hears that cry often more than our clever words, our articulate words, our crafting words that we think might move him, refining our speech in such a way that it's dignified to come before the most holy one. That's fine in itself. But I think what the Lord really responds to, at least the experience of my life, is he responds to my cry.

When I cry over my prodigal children, he responds. When I cry over the brokenness of my own heart, when I cry over the situation of the church in America, he tends to hear that cry often more than the articulated voice that you or I might have. God sees the brokenness of his children and he is, as we were talking about the attributes of God, one of them is his mercy, his compassion.

And he sees the cry of your heart. Today, let me tell you, if you're listening to this message and there's that cry in your heart, that cry in your voice, get ready because God hears that and he's going to respond. It also says here, he lifts up his hands towards the what in Hebrew here could be the holy of holies, not just the outer temple, not just the inner place of the holy, but the most inward of the holy of holies.

And interesting picture here, if you could picture this with me, it's not just these lifting his hands to heaven. It's not a praise service that he's in. He's actually directing his hands like he's reaching out, like he wants to grasp hold of something.

I lift my hands towards your most holy sanctuary. Strangely enough, David, who cried out often, I'd rather spend one day in your house than a thousand elsewhere. David, who said just one day in your courts, he loved that inner sanctuary of the Lord's presence.

Psalm 90, that he'd sit under the wings of the most high, that was in the ark of the covenant and the holy of holies. David loved and longed to be in that intimate presence with God, but something has caused him to be outside of that. He's not, whatever the situation was, but his hands, do you see this? His hands were extended to God.

That's the place I want to be. That's where my heart desires. That's what I want to cling to.

And even though circumstances have pulled me away from that, maybe it's a dullness in your heart. Maybe it's a backsliddenness in your life. Maybe a certain sin patterns in your life and you just don't sense you're in that holy of holies.

Do what David does. Reach out your hands even right now. God, I want to cling to that.

I want to draw back into that place. That's where I belong toward the holy of holy. He's not entered here, but he's extending his hands here.

His hands of longing. His prayer is not just, I want to be heard or I want my enemies destroyed. But his prayer is, I want in that place.

I want to go to that place where I'm intimate with you, where I'm hearing you, where your ears are open to me, where there's that communion and that communication with one another. That's what his cry is. So you see here, I'm calling, verse one.

Don't be deaf, verse two. Verse one. Don't be silent, verse one.

I don't want to become like those who go down to the pit. And then verse two, he's continuing this call here. Then he says, my please, when I cry, when I lift and it's towards your most holy sanctuary.

Interestingly, he's not lifting up his hands. Later on in verse four and five, we'll see where it talks about the work of their hands compared with the works of the Lord's hands. But he says, I'm going to lift up my hands.

Man, it's not going to be my hands. It's not going to be my work. It's not going to be my effort.

It's not going to be my endurance. It's going to be trusting that you'll pull me into the place where I can hear from you the things that God has for me. Verse three.

Do not drag me off with a wicked or with workers of evil who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts. This is the first actual indication of what David is crying about, what he's voicing to the Lord, what he's concerned he's not hearing. This is the first actual statement he makes that he says, what I'm asking you, Lord, is don't drag me off with the wicked.

Lord, I see the party spirit of the world. Don't drag me off into that. I see the money making world.

Don't drag me into that. I see the self glorifying part of the world trying to become full of fortune and fame and popularity and notoriety and power. Don't drag me off with worldliness that's around me with these people who work evil.

Secondly, he says, don't drag me off into the kind of people who are hypocrites. It's not a direct evil working of their hands. You don't see them doing that.

They're more cunning than that. And they're more dangerous than that as well. These are those who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their heart.

They have the sweet buttery conversation with you. They might even do nice deeds for you. They speak well of you, but in their hearts and behind your back, they are speaking evil.

They are thinking evil. They are plotting evil. They live to be against you while evil is in their hearts.

There's something evil and that evil is directed towards you. See, many people think that people really aren't that evil. They just think that they're good.

I've heard one preacher say 99.9% of people are basically good. Well, I would contend for that and say the opposite is true, that none are righteous. No, not one.

And particularly those who have not been saved and sanctified and touched with the love of Jesus, they're going to have evil in their hearts and they might cover it with a cloak of outward peace towards you and delight in you. But in reality, they're doing that. I went through a circumstance once in my life where I was being falsely accused, where people were trying to arouse conflict against me, trying to stir up people's heart against me to try to set up an agenda to destroy my ministry.

And I couldn't believe they were doing it. And I was talking to a good brother, a pastor friend of mine, and he said, you know, Gary, your problem is you say you believe in the depravity of man, but in your heart, you don't actually believe that. You think everybody's good and kind and nice and nobody would be out to hurt you and nobody would come against you.

But that's not the reality. There are people with evil in their hearts. We need to be aware of this and be careful of this and pray our prayer that the Lord would hear here.

David finally gives indication of what that prayer is. Don't drag me off into this kind of lifestyle. Don't pull me into places where evil people are going to say nice things about me and then live the opposite.

Or don't let me be engaged in that. We see actually two things that he's saying here is don't let me become one of those kind of people. But secondly, don't drag me off into the crowd of those kind of people.

Don't let me become a hypocrite, but don't let me be around hypocrites. Don't let me become a person who does works with my own hands and the cleverness and skills of my own abilities, but don't let me be around people. Put me in place in your holy of holies with people that love you, respect you and honor you.

It doesn't mean we don't live in a world and witness in the world and share our love and mercy and grace to others in the world, but we don't become worldly in the midst of that. Don't drag me off with these kind of people. I wish I could speak and write like Charles Spurgeon did and I can't, but I tell you what I can quote his words and it's quite a long passage.

So bear with me, but I think it's pertinent to this particular verse, verse three about people who are, uh, say they have peace towards us, but there's evil in their hearts. Here's what he says. They have learned the manners of the place to which they are going.

In other words, they, they look at what everybody's doing and they try to fit in the doom of liars is their portion forever and lying is their conversation on the road. Listen to this now. Soft words, oily with pretended love are the deceitful meshes of the internal net in which Satan catches the precious life.

Many of his children are learned in his abominable craft. Speaking of these, these evil, evil people in their hearts that they learn the craft of Satan. Many of the children are learned in the abominable craft and fish with their father's net almost as cunningly as he himself could do it.

It is a sure sign of baseness when the tongue and the heart do not ring the same note. Deceitful men are more to be dreaded than wild beasts. It were better to be shut up in a pit with serpents than to be compelled to live with liars.

He's saying, don't drag me down to this kind of pit, this kind of place, Lord, where they learned the craft of Satan, where they're caught in this net of cunning. It's better to, look at this, man, I love this. It is a sure sign of baseness when the tongue and the heart do not ring the same note.

The tongue might say one thing, but the heart rings another note. There could be a sweetness in the tongue and a sourness in the heart, and it's dreadful. And it comes from the pit that David's saying, I don't want to be drugged down to these things in our life.

So he continues to pray. He's still in the prayer thing. Verses one through five are the prayer, but things are about to change.

Verse four, give to them according to their works, according to the evil of their deeds, give to them according to the work of their hands. It sounds almost mean-spirited here. David's saying, if you're going to be a hypocrite to me, if you're going to say nice things, but then speak evil about me, if you're living for the work of your own hands, then God, just give them over to that.

But it's not mean-spirited here. It's really an understanding in history of something that was to come in the future of Romans chapter one. Romans chapter one has a very clear teaching on this, and I know we need to have mercy and compassion on people, but there comes a time where we see people so given to the work of their own hands, their own righteousness, their own deeds, trusting in them, and they time and time again turn from the things of the Lord.

And it comes down to this, Romans 1 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is made plain to him because he has shown it to me, shown him the works of their hands, of his hands, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in whom in that in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give him thanks, and they became foolish in their thinking and foolish in their hearts. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men and birds and animals. Therefore, God gave them up to the lust of their heart.

That's what David is praying. Either change them or judge them, but don't let them continue dragging people down into their pit, getting people caught in their net. It's a cry for transformation of the cultural situation in which he found himself.

Maybe it was a situation that was happening in Jerusalem in his time of leadership, when people were trying to snare him. And the prayer is, Lord, either change them, let them get on the righteous path, Lord, or move them out of the way. This is the giving to them.

And it's interesting, he says to give them, and back to Psalm 28, give them according to their work and according to their evil deeds. It's their work that they're doing. And give them according to the work of their hands, to the work of their hands.

This phrase, the work of their hands, leaps off the page much more if you tie it into verse 5, because they do not regard the works of the Lord tied into the works of their hand, nor the works of his hands. You see the contrast here. How are you going to live your life? Based on the works of your hand or based on the works of God's hand? The works of your hand in New Testament context talks about self-righteousness.

It talks about a works-based faith where the work of his hands is a work in our life of grace and of mercy and of kindness and compassion, of salvation, justification, and sanctification through the power of the cross of Jesus Christ compared to trying to pull ourselves up in our own bootstraps and say, I can become righteous. I can do this. I can become clean.

I can take care of myself. And really what we're saying there is we're trying to be self-righteous without God. We're trying to pick ourselves up and become like God in our own strength.

It's the work of their own hands as compared to the work of the Lord. And David is crying out, rightfully so. Judge this.

Judge this. Give them if that's what they want. If they want to work with their own hand, give that to them.

But as for me, I want the works of the Lord, his hands, in my life. That's what he says in verse 5, because they do not regard the works of the Lord or the works of his hand. He will tear them down and build them up no more.

It is not only their works that are insufficient or incomplete, but God opposes the proud and will reveal the works of his hands as being that which tears down and will not rebuild. Does that make sense to you? The works of their hands, they think they're building the life that they've always dreamed of, but it doesn't work. That proud and haughtiness will be brought down.

He will humble the proud. And he says here, you want to try to work it out in your own strength, your own flesh, your own cleverness. It's going to be torn down.

But those who regard the works of the Lord, his hands, you'll be built up. This is a message for Christian leaders today. This is a message for the church in America and around the world today.

The scripture says, unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain. And there is a vanity going on today, a vanity of thinking we can build a house through our stagecraft, through our lighting, through our cleverness, through our skits, through our skills, through our articulation, through our humor, through our showmanship, through the entertainment mentality that has gripped the church in an unholy fashion today. I believe this passage not only speaks to evil people, but it speaks sometimes to those who have this mixture in their heart in Christian leadership, who want the works of the Lord's hand, but are trying to do it with the strength of their own hand.

Unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain. And it says here, he will tear them down and build them up no more. I believe there's coming a day in America where the Holy Spirit will not only be distant or missing from churches, but will literally be at work to tear them down, to bring them down in their unrighteousness, to rid the church of its filth, to cleanse the house of the Lord.

That judgment would start with the house of the Lord. There is a day, an hour coming, and I believe it's very soon, where the Holy Spirit will clean out the pure church. And those, obviously, those that are outside of the real church of the purity are left to their own devices, the work of their own hands.

But God wants to do a cleansing in his own church. Oh, would you not invite that in your life? Would you not invite that in your leadership? Would you not invite that in your prayer meeting, in your worship service, in your preaching? Invite the Lord building the house, the work of his hands, not the work of my hands. As David is crying these things out, we see now a radical shift.

Here's now where we get to the place where prayer is turned into praise. And he says this, blessed be the Lord. Ah, what a change from I call, I cry, you're deaf, you're not listening, you're not speaking, you're dragging, am I going to be dragged off to the pit? Now look at this, this marked difference in his tone, in his conversation.

Now his hands are lifted, but not like a draw me back, but his hands are lifted in praise to the Lord. Blessed be the Lord. A man or a woman who contends with the Lord in faith, believing the righteous prayers, the effective prayers of the righteous will avail much.

These are the people that are going to be able to say, blessed be the Lord. Why? For he has heard the voice of my pleas. Here again, it's not he's heard my voice, but he's heard the voice of my pleas.

He heard the cry. And this verse says it so well. Let me repeat what I said at the beginning.

Those who pray well will soon praise well. Those who pray well will soon praise well. Praise is coming to the household of faith.

Praise is coming to people desperate for a move of God. Praise is coming to those who pray day and night, who knock on that door, asking God to open up the windows of heaven and bring revival and awakening and a move of God in our hearts, in our church, and in our land. Blessed be the Lord.

For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. Have mercy in our pulpits. Have mercy in our churches.

Have mercy in our nation. Have mercy in our government. Have mercy around the world, Lord.

Praise is coming. God will not leave his beloved to Sheol. No more than he would leave Christ on the cross.

He is a resurrection God. He has resurrection power, bringing life to things that seem are seemingly death. God will not leave you in a place of desperation and prayer, but he will bring you to a place of praise.

Real praise is established upon a rock of reality. You see what I'm saying here? He says, blessed is the Lord, because something actually happened, not just nothing has happened, but I'm going to bless him anyway. That's the heart we should have, no question about it.

But there comes a time also where we bless the Lord because something does happen. It's a praise report for he has heard the voice of my pleas. He has heard my cry.

There has to come in our life sometimes this sense of praising because now two things can happen here. We can praise him before the answer comes, and that's glorious. But oftentimes praise has a portion to it when the answer has come.

I knew what it was like to praise the Lord in my hour of distress when my son was out on drugs, but I have the double portion of praise when now eight years he's clean and sober, living for Jesus, happily married. That's the kind of praise that has that rock solid. It's established.

It's firm. It's rooted. It's grounded in an actuality.

It's an acknowledgement that something has been raised up, has been established. Again, it's going back to this phrase, the work of his hands. In faith we believe he will work, but in praise we see that he has worked.

He has worked out the situation in your life. My friend, I'm telling you, he can and will and wants you to come to him and he'll work out the desire of your heart and his hands will be at work in your life. There is a praise born of faith, waiting and hoping for the unseen, for the answer to arrive.

But then there's the praise that leaps from the heart when the answer is seen. When you have seen what you've been asking for become a reality in his life. And that's what David's saying in Psalm six, verse six here, blessed be the Lord for he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.

Then on to seven, the Lord is my strength and my shield in him, my heart trust, and I am helped in attempting to know the answer to our question. We're asking today, how does prayers turn into praise? First, we acknowledge that there's a test. We, we, we, the test is, is the Lord, my strength and my shield, the works of his hands, or is it a second part of the verse seven or is it this in him, my heart trust in him, my heart trust.

You see, if you trust in yourself, you may not get this result in verse seven, and I am helped. But if you trust in him, you can be assured that you will be helped. You will be helped out of that pit.

You will be helped out of that quagmire. You'll be helped out of that situation that seems hopeless and helpless. He will help you.

He will try you out. And because of that, David says, my heart exalts. And with my song, I give thanks to him.

His, his, his call has turned into a song. His cry has turned into a thanksgiving. The sense of silence is now seeing that I am helped by the Lord.

He's become my strength. He's become my shield. I am help.

Trust helps answer. Trust helps. Trust brings help.

Even more than anything else in our life, just trusting him. When you're praying, there's a trust in him. And that trust turns into a song.

That trust turns into a delight. And this now is that thing I've been talking about here in this message. This is the praise report.

I remember in our church, when I was a kid, we had what was called the midweek service. It was, it was somewhat of a worship service, a bit of a prayer meeting, but it also took the form of what was called praise reports. And I remember a pastor would stand in the pulpit on Wednesday night and say, does anybody have a praise report? And if I could confess, honestly, at this point, the songs and some of the teaching and some of the prayer times, I would get sleepy and maybe distracted and, you know, really not connected to what's going on.

And all of a sudden, they would turn and say, it's time for praise reports. And I would hear one after another people stand up and say, you know, the doctor gave me this diagnosis, but now I'm cancer free. My marriage was falling apart, but God restored health to my marriage.

My son was a prodigal, but he turned back to the Lord. I had lost my job and the boss came back and apologized to me. One after another, a praise report.

My friends, I want your life to be a praise report. I want you to constantly give thanks to the Lord. I want you to be a person who says, I am helped.

I want you to be a person who says, blessed be the Lord. He has heard my cry so many prayers that he has answered for you. But oftentimes you forget all those gracious things he's done for you.

And in response, what you're doing is saying, oh, but there's one thing here. He's not listening to me. He's not speaking to me about this one issue.

No, take the time to give thanks. Take time to be a person who gives a praise report. Oh, even if nobody's around, give the praise report to the Lord.

Lord, I thank you. Lord, I bless you. Lord, I'm grateful to you.

Lord, you've heard me. Lord, you've healed my body. Lord, you've helped my physical needs.

Lord, you've changed my family. Lord, you changed my job. Lord, you changed my attitude.

Lord, you changed my spiritual life. Thank you, God. I have a praise report.

Thank you, God. You have turned my prayer into a praise. Last two verses, let's continue and then begin to close.

The Lord, verse eight says, the Lord is the strength of his people. He is the saving refuge of his anointed. The second answer to the question that we are asking today of how prayer turns into praise is this.

It's not that it's not our cry. It's not it's not our moaning or groaning. It's not our faithfulness.

All those things are necessary to be brought to the Lord. That's our cry. But it is placing our trust upon him that the Lord is the strength of his people.

Prayer is not the strength of his people. Prayer attaches ourselves to the strength of the Lord. A cry is not the strength of his people.

Crying to the rock that is our salvation. The strength is the strength of his people. He is our strength.

He is our rock. He is our fortress. He is our shield.

It is our strength. It is not counting upon our skill, our cleverness, the work of our hands. It is counting upon the work of his hands.

It's counting upon the rock who is Christ Jesus. It is counting upon the attributes of God that he's unchanging, that he's faithful, that he's good, that he's gracious, that he's kind, that he's merciful, and he's unchanging in these things. And therefore, I can count on him.

He's the strength. Not even answered prayers can become our strength. It's not that I feel strong when all my prayers are answered.

We need to be strong even when our prayers aren't answered. Our strength is not our answer prayers. Our strength is in the Lord who is moved by our prayers, who moves on our behalf, who has the power.

We have no power in our own prayers. It is our prayer coming to the source of power, which is Christ Jesus, our Lord, the rock. We come in weakness, and we are given his strength.

He is the strength of us, his people. And lastly, in verse 9, there's an important shift here. There's a powerful shift here, and there's one that we must take into account in our own prayer life and in our own praise life, that it is not just a personalized cry, prayer, or pleading, but it's one of a corporate prayer and pleading.

It's one that is praying for the church. Look at verse 9. Oh, save your people and bless your heritage. Be their shepherd and carry them.

Another translation says, listen to this. It's a little bit older language, but I think it speaks more deeply to what David is after here in his cry. Save thy people and bless thine inheritance.

Feed them also and lift them up. In our generation, in this hour in which we live, in the spiritual declension in the church and the apathy that we find therein, in the turning from God and our nation, in the reprobate minds that have spewed out their violence against God, and a nation that is so far backslidden, many wonder if there is any hope in this situation. It is time we cry out, save thy people, bless thine inheritance, feed them, lift them up.

What we're praying for here is a holy, healthy, dynamic, powerful church in the midst of an evil generation, of a corrupt, depraved nation, that we could be a people that are saved, that are blessed, that are of inheritance, that we are fed, that we are lifted up, not for our own sake, but that we might become a testimony to this nation, that we might become a turning point for this generation, that we might have a voice that has power and weightiness and gravitas in this generation, that we might become a people that have something to say, rather than a church full of folly, foolishness, entertainment, and self-motivation to become all that you can possibly be. No, we need more than that. We need to be saved.

We need, as his inheritance, to be blessed with the blessing of the power of the Holy Spirit. And it says here, feed them also. We need this in this hour.

We need spiritual feeding. We need depths from the word of God, not trite words. Jeremiah the prophet says, what has this draft had to do with gold? What does this thing thrown out on the street have to do with the real wheat, the bread of the Lord? These things don't compare.

And we need to be fed the true word of the Lord, rather than pastors getting up in the pulpit and telling jokes and stories and trivia and triteness and entertaining people. We need them to open up the word of God and feed the people of God. David is saying, yes, I'm crying out for my own help and my own strength, but God, let it go beyond me.

Let it come to your congregation. Let it come to your church. Save us, God, because we're in trouble.

Bless us, God, because we are downcast. Oh, but feed us. Feed us the word of God.

Feed us from, as 1 Corinthians says, the deep things. Yes, even the deep things of God that we might know him in his power and his resurrection. We might know the things of the cross and the burial and the resurrection that we'd not just be talking about how to have a healthy, happy, prosperous life, but we might be talking about how about kingdom life, a giving life, a surrendered life, a cross-centered life.

Save us, God, from unholy churches. Save us from trite preachers. Save us from insignificant messages.

Save us from things that have no importance in the kingdom of God. Be our feeder. Be our shepherd.

And then carry them. That's the word, carry them, is a similar word to what David is saying when I lift up my hands towards your sanctuary. Verse 2, now he's saying, but lift me up.

Lord, you lift me up. I'm lifting up my hands trying to get in, but Lord, once you lift me up, I'm in. I'm there.

I'm settled because that's the last word forever or for eternity or throughout the ages. The work of the Lord is lifting them up rather than what he will do to those who are working in the power of their own strength. He will tear them down and build them up no more.

So David is praying, Lord, let your church not be that kind of church that's torn down and not built up anymore, but let it be the kind of church that is shepherded by you, that is saved by you, that is blessed by you, that is fed by you, and that you would lift us up and carry us. Lord, carry us into places where we have impact on the world. Carry us into places where we have a testimony.

Carry us into places where our praise report draws people to the power of the Holy Spirit and causes them to realize the folly of the strength of their own hands. Help them to turn to the Lord through our praise report. I thank the Lord that he's turned so many of my prayers into praises, and I know he can do that for you.

There's a scripture in, I believe it's in Zechariah, and it says that even the weakness of David, there's something stronger in the Lord. It's the strength of the Lord. You see, David is even in his own testimony has weaknesses, but what God is doing is raising up a generation, a generation that has a greater strength, a sense that we have the strength because the Lord is our strength, not ourselves.

I want to close in prayer. I want to pray for you. I want to pray that your prayer, that you're desperately crying out to the Lord, that voice of your cry would be heard by the Lord today, and that quickly he would respond to meet your need.

But can we agree together in prayer also for something even, I believe, more important than our own needs? It's at the need of our church, the need of our nation, the need of this hour, the need of this generation, that there'd be a great revival in the church and a great spiritual awakening in our nation. Pray with me. Agree with me.

Believe with me. The effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous will avail much. Lord, we're asking you to let there be something avail in our heart, in our need, but even more so, we're asking you to avail much in our churches, revive our churches, touch our pastors' hearts, touch the hearts of pastors, Lord, who have grown cold or lukewarm, lost the fire in their bones.

Stir them once again, God, not just to political action or political messages or entertaining messages, but stir their hearts to preach your word, to feed the flock of God that's among them, to contend with them for the faith, to even at times when necessary, to reprove and rebuke and train and teach. Give us from this pulpit power to preach your word faithfully, fully, wholly, diligently, passionately, effectively. Thank you, Jesus.

And we pray that, Lord, there would be great prayer meetings stirred up in your church. We would return to times where we seek your face together and then be able to stand together and ask the question, are there any prayers that have been turned to praises, praise reports? And one by one by one, multitudes would stand and say, I bless the Lord because he saved me. I bless the Lord because he broke the addiction in my life.

I bless the Lord because he healed my baby child. I bless the Lord because my wife, she couldn't get pregnant, but now we're having our first child. Bless the Lord.

Oh my soul and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Let the church rise up and give you a blessing and speak blessing to a world that's lost and hurt and broken.

Lord, let us have again a testimony of power and life transforming ability to contend with a broken, hurting, lost world and bring them to the glory of Jesus Christ. We give thanks for this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.

God bless you. I want to just encourage you in closing to check out our World Challenge website and you'll see there an invitation to some of our pastors conferences taking place in America here. There's one in August of 2023 in New York City at Times Square Church called Fire in Our Bones.

If some of what I've said today stirs your heart to want to be that man, that woman of God, and you're in Christian leadership ministry or pastoral ministry, we want to invite you to find out that information there at worldchallenge.org. God bless you. Grace and peace to you. Joy to be with you here in this psalm series.