Teach us to Pray-1

As we have finished the study on the poor, it is now time to concentrate on a subject that many will agree is an area that needs drastic improvement. That is our prayer life. Fortunately, God has given us many wonderful examples of prayers throughout His Word. We will start with King David and Solomon. Solomon’s prayer to consecrate the building of the Temple will reveal a lot about prayers. But to get a correct context to this prayer, we must look back into the life of David, Solomon’s father. Remember, David is a man after God’s own heart.

Acts 13:21  "Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. "After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, 'I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.

How are we to understand this very important acknowledgement from God? Let us go back to David as a youth. First we will read about the context.

1 Samuel 17:3  The Philistines stood on the mountain on one side while Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with the valley between them. 

17:4  Then a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 17:5  He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was clothed with scale-armor which weighed five thousand shekels of bronze. 17:6  He also had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders. 17:7  The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron; his shield-carrier also walked before him. 

17:8  He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel and said to them, "Why do you come out to draw up in battle array? Am I not the Philistine and you servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. 17:9  "If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us." 17:10  Again the Philistine said, "I defy the ranks of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together." 

It is clear that Goliath was a giant of a man and fearless in battle. He challenged any man of Saul’s army to a fight, man to man. Yet, none dared take the challenge. A cubit is one of two lengths. First, the length from the elbow to the tip of the fingers, nominally about 18 inches. A royal cubit was longer. Even at 18 inches, Goliath was at least 9 feet tall and proportionately huge. Who would fight him and win?

1 Samuel 17:20  So David arose early in the morning and left the flock with a keeper and took the supplies and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the circle of the camp while the army was going out in battle array shouting the war cry. 17:21  Israel and the Philistines drew up in battle array, army against army. 17:22  Then David left his baggage in the care of the baggage keeper, and ran to the battle line and entered in order to greet his brothers. 

17:23  As he was talking with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine from Gath named Goliath, was coming up from the army of the Philistines, and he spoke these same words; and David heard them. 17:24  When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him and were greatly afraid. 17:25  The men of Israel said, "Have you seen this man who is coming up? Surely he is coming up to defy Israel. And it will be that the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel." 

17:26  Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?" 17:27  The people answered him in accord with this word, saying, "Thus it will be done for the man who kills him." 

17:28  Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab's anger burned against David and he said, "Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart; for you have come down in order to see the battle." 17:29  But David said, "What have I done now? Was it not just a question?" 

17:30  Then he turned away from him to another and said the same thing; and the people answered the same thing as before. 17:31  When the words which David spoke were heard, they told them to Saul, and he sent for him. 17:32  David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail on account of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine." 

What was David thinking! What did David know that all the other men did not know? Clearly, David was looking vertically not horizontally. Goliath was not bigger than his God. He feared God more than he feared Goliath.

1 Samuel 17:36  "Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God." 

17:37  And David said, "The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and may the LORD be with you." 

17:38  Then Saul clothed David with his garments and put a bronze helmet on his head, and he clothed him with armor. 

17:39  David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. So David said to Saul, "I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them." And David took them off. 

17:40  He took his stick in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his pouch, and his sling was in his hand; and he approached the Philistine. 

17:41  Then the Philistine came on and approached David, with the shield-bearer in front of him. 7:42  When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, with a handsome appearance. 

17:43  The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 17:44  The Philistine also said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field." 

17:45  Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. 17:46  "This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 17:47  and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD'S and He will give you into our hands." 

17:48  Then it happened when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 17:49  And David put his hand into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground. 17:50  Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David's hand. 

17:51  Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. 

God plus one true servant is an army of immense strength. David did not use the armor or swords of men, but the tools of a shepherd. He trusted God more than shields and swords. He was thoroughly convinced in defending God’s righteousness and that God would help him defeat Goliath. Truly it always is the Lord’s battle. We need to have the same mindset as David exampled here.

We will look at some other events in David’s life that will lead us to Solomon and his prayer.

More next Saturday.