I really didn’t become much of a reader until college. But I was a fan of Michael Card, a Christian musician. His songs were so rich with biblical themes, oftentimes simply being an exposition of Scripture itself. So, when I picked up J. I. Packer’s book, Knowing God, off my dad’s shelf and saw that Michael Card had endorsed it, I figured I should read it. And it was life-changing. It’s a book I find myself referencing again and again. And it seems like there’s one particular paragraph I find myself coming to and being convicted by often. It is in a section of Packer’s book that has a heading that reads, “Knowing Verses Knowing About.” Here’s what he writes:
We need frankly to face ourselves at this point. We are, perhaps, orthodox evangelicals. We can state the gospel clearly; we can smell unsound doctrine a mile away. If asked how one may know God, we can at once produce the right formula: that we come to know God through Jesus Christ the Lord, in virtue of his cross and mediation, on the basis of his word of promise, by the power of the Holy Spirit, via a personal exercise of faith. Yet the gaiety, goodness, and unfetteredness of spirit which are the marks of those who have known God are rare among us.1
The reason I find this paragraph so often convicting is that it’s easy to lose sight of knowing God. It might be easy for us to get knowledge of the Bible. Perhaps hearing the Bible preached or attending a Sunday school class provides you with that. It might be easy for us even to evangelize, telling others how they can be reconciled to God. It might even be easy for us to pray for and serve those around us, knowing that such actions honor God. But walking through life in such a way that we know God, grow in our knowledge of God, and can say, as we walk through a particular circumstance of life, that we have known God might be rare. Perhaps simply put, saying that we know God is a statement that concerns our minds and hearts, our understanding and our affection.
And while you may hear this, agree, and even be convicted, it’s a lot easier to agree with Packer’s statement than to do something about it, isn’t it? It’s easier to agree with the diagnosis than to remedy the problem. After all, we may not even know what someone looks like who knows God. What do they think? How do they feel? What and how do they pray?
I think one reason the psalms are given to us is to help us answer such questions. I believe the Lord intends for us, in a number of instances, to take the psalms and make them our own. We might say that the psalms were written in order to be plagiarized. I think God wanted us not merely to read David’s prayer and merely dissect it but to be conformed to it, to understand what kind of mind and heart and faith produced such a prayer, and be shaped by it. The idea is not merely to repeat the words of the psalms with our mouths but to have hearts that are so shaped by the Scripture and our knowledge of our God that these prayers become fitting for us to pray ourselves – not only because we’ve memorized them but because they reflect our hearts even as they reflected the hearts of those who wrote them.
So, this morning, as we look at Psalm 140, I want us to see not only the words David prayed as he again considered enemies who were wanting to bring him harm but also his knowledge of God that guided this prayer. Perhaps by better seeing David’s knowledge of God, it might provide for us a pathway to better know God ourselves and, consequently, to have the kinds of prayers that reflect knowledge of God. After all, I think that’s what Psalm 140 provides for us – a prayer from one who knew God. Therefore, as we go through this psalm, let’s consider what David’s knowledge of God looked like and pray that God might allow us to know him in such a way that we move from understanding why David prayed this way to having hearts that long to pray this way as well.
With that said, let’s consider David’s knowledge of God in this psalm. First, we can note that,
Much like Psalm 64, that we looked at a couple of weeks ago, David starts this psalm by talking about his enemies. He describes them in verse 2 as those “who plan evil things in their hearts and stir up wars continually” and in verse 3 as those who make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s, and under their lisps is the venom of asps.” In the latter half of verse 4 and in verse 5, he notes that they have planned to trip up David’s feet, have hidden a trap for him, and have set snares to catch him. David is good at uncovering the wicked intentions and thoughts of men’s hearts, and this is why the New Testament writers mine the psalms when they are arguing that men are wicked. When Paul, for example, argues in Romans 3 that men are not righteous or good, he quotes again and again from the psalms. Again, David is good as describing the wicked thoughts and intentions of men’s hearts.
But David isn’t merely offering this prayer to get off his chest what his enemies are doing to him. He is asking God to do something about it. He writes in verse 1, “Deliver me, O LORD, from evil men; preserve me from violent men.” Again, in verse 4, he pleads, “Guard me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from violent men, who have planned to trip up my feet.” He wants God to deliver him, protect him, and preserve him from the attack of evil men.
And he’ll continue in this theme of making it clear that he wants God to act. When he says, “Give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, O LORD!” in verse 6, he’s asking God to show that he hears by acting, by responding, by doing something. He even asks that the Lord would pour out judgment on them in verse 9-11, as he asks for burning coals to fall on them, their own plans come back on them, and for them to be destroyed.
You see, in all of these requests, David can only pray this way because he knows that God is in control of the world. This is perhaps most clearly seen in verse 8, where David prays, “Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked; do not further their evil plot or they will be exalted.” Do you see the understanding that goes into praying such a thing? David thinks that if the desires of the wicked are fulfilled, then it will only be because God allowed it. If their evil plot is furthered, it will only be because God permitted it.
This prayer comes from a man who knows that God is in control of the world. You see, there may be an appearance of comfort in thinking God’s not in control of the world. We may comfort ourselves with the understanding that God could not stop certain things. Joseph, for example, could have been tempted to comfort himself with the thought that God could do nothing about his brothers abusing him and selling him into slavery, but if he had told himself that lie he never would have been able to say to his brothers that what they intended for evil, God intended for God (Gen 50:20). He never would have been able to look them in the face and say, “God sent me before you to preserve life. . . . So it was not you who sent me here, but God” (Gen 45:5, 8).
But in addition to comfort in our suffering, another benefit of knowing that God is in control of the details of the world is that it undergirds our prayers. You won’t pray and ask God to deliver you, protect you, and preserve you if you don’t know him as the God who is in control. You won’t ask him to reverse situations, heal people, or even change people’s hearts if you don’t know him as the God who is in control of the world. It actually won’t even be fitting to lament before him in prayer as David does so many times throughout the Psalter, unless you know he’s in control. Lament wouldn’t be appropriate if God’s response is, “I couldn’t do anything about it. Why are you lamenting to me?”
If prayer is an avenue through which we know God, then knowing that God is in control of the world in all of its details is the entryway to praying in all times and all situations. David knew (and we should know) that God is in control of the world (including our lives).
Second, we see that,
This psalm also reflects David’s knowledge of God’s character and will. Throughout history, men have acted in light of what they knew of God’s character and will. In Genesis 18:25, when Abraham thought that God was going to destroy the righteous with the wicked in Sodom, he prayed and declared, “For be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” Why did he think that God wouldn’t destroy the righteous right along with the wicked? It’s because he knew God was just. When Jonah was told to go preach to the people of Nineveh whom he hated and wanted dead, he decided that he wouldn’t go but would run the other way to Tarshish. Why? Jonah gives us the answer, as he said to the Lord after Nineveh repented and the Lord spared them, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? This is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (Jonah 4:2).
Throughout history, as men knew the character of God that directs his actions and will, they have responded in accord with what they knew of God. And that’s exactly what we see David doing in this psalm. David prays this prayer in confidence. In verse 12-13, he says, “I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy. Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall dwell in your presence.” But how can David know these things? How can he be sure of them? It’s because he knows God’s character. He knows that God is a God faithful to his promises, so when he promises that his people will dwell in his presence, they will. He knows that God has said in Deuteronomy 10:18 that he “executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.” He is a God who exercises care and compassion on those who cannot protect themselves (like the widow, fatherless, or sojourner). That’s why David knows that God will maintain the cause of the afflicted and will execute justice for the needy.
He knows that God will share his glory with no man, so when he asks God not to grant the desires of the wicked, he notes that if God allows their plans to succeed, the wicked will be exalted. That is, glory will come to wicked men. So, David, knowing God’s commitment to uphold his own glory, prays in line with that. He knows that God will not acquit the guilty, pouring out on them the punishment they deserve, so he prays for God’s justice in verses 9-11. Again and again, David’s knowledge of God’s character and will shapes his prayer. Even David’s knowledge of God’s commitment to provide for him a dynasty in Judah informs David’s prayer to ask for deliverance from his enemies.
And again, if prayer is an avenue by which we walk with God and grow in knowing him, then knowing his character and will is a guide for how we can walk with God in prayer. Our knowledge of God’s character and will should shape and guide our prayers.
One of the most helpless feelings I had in life was when we were waiting to go get Nick from Russia. There was nothing I could do. I mean, we all know that with our kids to a certain extent. A child gets a virus, and there’s nothing we can do. But at least we get to be with them. We get to try to comfort them or at least tell them we love them and wish we could do more. With Nick, none of that was the case. I would kiss the other kids goodnight and not know if our little boy who was on the other side of the world was seeing any affection at all. I didn’t know if he was scared or sad or confused. It was painful. And so I would pray for him, and what always guided my prayers were texts where God proclaimed himself to be the God of the fatherless. I could boldly ask God to care for him, and I would say, “God, I ask you to do this knowing that you are a God who takes care of those who cannot care for themselves. You are like a father to the fatherless. You delight in showering your love on those who do not know love. So, please do it.” And I feel like through that journey I knew God. I knew him to be the father of the fatherless in a way that I may not have experienced before. But I couldn’t have prayed that way without remembering who God had first told us he is in the Scripture – the father of the fatherless. So, like David, may we know God’s character, let it guide our prayers, and then know him all the more.
We also see that,
Psalm 140 isn’t simply a prayer from David to a powerful and good God – though it is that. As Scott noted last week, when David prays, he prays to a God who is both good and great. But David prays not just to a good and great God but to his good and great God.
We see this most clearly in verses 6-7, as David prays, “I say to the LORD, You are my God; give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, O LORD! O LORD, my Lord, the strength of my salvation, you have covered my head in the day of battle.” David was praying to his God and his Lord. And this isn’t simply reflective of the fact that David had devoted himself to God but that God had devoted himself to David.
God had chosen David to be king. God had made him covenant promises. God had said to David, “You are my son, today I have begotten you” (Ps 2:7). God had committed his covenant devotion and love to David, and David knew it. And you better believe that informed David’s prayers. Verses 6-7 I don’t think should be read as anything less than David saying, “God, I know you’ve devoted your covenant love to me. That’s why I’m asking you to help me.”
Any child, for instance, could need help and cry out to us as a passerby, but there is a reason your children stand on solid ground when they cry out to you to help them. You’re their mom or their dad. They know your love for them, and on that basis they cry out to you. So it is with David here.
And David had seen God demonstrate his love. That’s why he says in verse 7, “You have covered my head in the day of battle.” David had seen the Lord’s care as he went into battle. He’d seen the Lord show his loving devotion to David when he allowed him to slay Goliath, for example, or when he delivered him from Saul. David believed God’s declaration in the covenant promise that he was devoted in love to him, and he had witnessed it in his life.
But, we might say, “Well, good for David.” It must have been nice to walk in his shoes (or sandals, or whatever he wore). But the reality is that in this sense we do walk in David’s shoes. In Romans 8:18-30, Paul gives us a number of reasons why we should be comforted in the midst of suffering with the Lord, but it all builds up to him reminding us in verses 29-30 that God foreknew us. And to be known by God doesn’t mean that God is aware of you like I might not know some of you who are visiting with us this morning. I may not be aware of your name, where you live, what you do for a living, etc. But when the Bible says that God knows someone, it doesn’t mean that he is unfamiliar with all the other people in the world. It means that he’s devoted himself in love toward that person.
Therefore, when the Bible says that we were foreknown by God, it means that before the foundation of the world, God set his affection and love on you. He devoted himself to you. If you are a child of God, then know that you’ve been the object of his devotion, affection, and love before you were ever born. That’s why, Paul tells us in those verses, that he predestined you to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he called you, justified you, glorified you, and why nothing at all can separate you from his love for you. It’s because he set his love on you before the foundation of the world.
So what this means is that we can pray like David. We can say, “God, you are my God. You are my Lord. You love me, and you’ve loved me before I had ever done anything good or bad. And nothing can thwart the devotion of love for me that you have had before the world was even created.” You can pray like David. You can pray like that. And you can pray like that because it’s true. And the reason you know it’s true is because God has told us it is true in his word. And the reason God has told us that it’s true is because he wants us to know this truth. He wants us to know that he loves us, is devoted to us, and that we are the object of his affection.
And you’ve seen it, haven’t you? Sadly, it’s oftentimes easier for us to remember the disappointment and pain than God’s comfort and care. But you’ve seen it. You’ve known it. God has upheld you when you didn’t think you could go on. He has provided for you when you thought there was no way to have provision. He’s comforted you when you thought you could never rise out of the despair. He’s strengthened you when you didn’t think you’d make it through. He’s shown his love for you again and again. And if you lose sight of these things in your life, then you can look to the cross and remember. Each week as we celebrate the Lord’s table, it’s a chance for us to remember as we see the elements, hold them, taste them, and ingest them to remember how God has demonstrated his love for us.
So, this morning, let us remember that God is in control. Remember his perfect character. And remember his loving devotion to us. And let that knowledge guide our prayers so that we might know him more. Even this morning, as we come to the table, confessing our sins. Let us come, knowing that God is able to forgive. Let us come, knowing that God’s character is such that he is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Let us come, knowing that because he loves us, he delights in forgiving us on the basis of Christ’s work. And let us come, setting our focus on the God whom we know as our God and our Lord because Christ lived, died, and was raised to make us his children. Amen.