Page 50 - Psalms Ebook
P. 50
prayer book. There are more prayers in Psalms than anywhere else in
the entire Bible. So we need to also look at it as a prayer book. Now, we
are going to see a lot about prayer in the book of Psalms, but I will
remind you of what you already know, and that is Psalms is also in the
Old Testament. What that means is the truth is in seed form.
It does not mean there is less truth in the Old Testament; there is not less
truth. You have the same truth in the Old Testament that you have in the
New Testament, but in the New Testament it is fully developed and in
the Old Testament it is just in seed form, and so what is said about prayer
in Psalms is designed to be the beginning but not the end.
In other words, you could not make a thorough study of prayer if you
limited yourself just to Psalms. You see, you need the New Testament.
You really have not studied prayer if you have not studied the prayer life
of the Lord Jesus. You have not studied prayer if you have not studied
“The Lord’s Prayer,” the model prayer for all prayer. You have not
studied prayer if you have not studied John 17, the high priestly prayer of
our Lord Jesus. You have not studied prayer if you have not studied the
four prayers of the Apostle Paul in Philippians, Ephesians and
Colossians. You see, that is the fully developed mention of prayer.
I do not want to convey the idea that if you had any questions on prayer
they are going to be answered in these couple of sessions. That is not the
case because it is not a complete study. But everyone of us has Romans
8:26 in our Bibles and so for all eternity here is the truth about prayer.
“We do not know how to pray as we should.”
That will never go away. You will never know how to pray as you
should. I will never know how to pray as I should. You see, if you think
you have learned how to pray, then you can just take that verse out of
your Bible. That is not true anymore. It will always be in your Bible,
and whatever you learn about prayer it will never take you beyond that
verse where you can say, now I know how to pray. The Apostle Paul is
the one who said “We do not know how to pray as we ought”. Paul did
not know how to pray. I do not know how to pray. You do not know
how to pray. So let’s relax and learn from God together.
Now that does not mean we should throw our hands in the air and say, oh
well, let’s give up on the whole idea. It is Scriptural to pray: “Lord,
teach us to pray”. That is in the Bible. You cannot get rid of that verse
either. And so, we will never know everything, but God wants us to