4. The Persistence of David’s Prayers Psalm 86:14-17

Text: “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear my voice. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me. God shall hear, and afflict them, even He tha abideth of old. Selah (now think on this). Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.”

Psalm 55:17-19.

Good morning, persevering Christian!  Because you and I seek to persevere in the faith ‘…once delivered unto the saints…’, as instructed by the Lord in our KJV Bibles – we incur the persistent wrath of God’s enemies – the world, the flesh, and the Devil. Therefore, we learn to be most persistent in earnest prayer to the Living Lord God – for we desperately need His help, protection, and strength to contend for our faith day by dangerous day.

Needs must! Because our enemies are never idle in their schemes against us, and against the Almighty Lord God Who has chosen us to be ‘soldiers’ in His ‘exceedingly great army’ of redeemed souls – our need of His help, guidance, strength, and direction is continual and ongoing day by day. If our needs are continual, then our prayers to God are a persistent must.

A prayerless Christian is no Christian at all!  Persecution and hindrance and opposition to genuine Christian practice and faith is promised to all who would dare to stand for the risen Christ Jesus. Fact! This is full on Spiritual war. Come right now and help in the daily Battle!

“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.” (2 Timothy 3:12-14)

Let us look now at some of David’s enemies are what they were up to at that particular time of his life – for these enemies of David’s soul, continue to plague true Christians today.

Verse 14. “O God, the proud are risen against me.  Pride in the heart of natural, unregenerate men and women, fosters immediate opposition to our Holy Lord God of wrath against all disobedience and sin. Pride and unbelief sent Christ to the Cross to die.

Plain Bible Teaching, Online, Comments:

“We Have No King But Caesar”: Pilate knew that the trial of Jesus was unique. Jesus explained to him that His kingdom was “not of this world” (John 18:36). Pilate then recognized that Jesus claimed to be a king (John 18:37), even though the Jews rejected Him as their king (John 18:33-35). But the Jews’ rejection of Jesus was more than just a refusal to support Him as a king; they wanted to kill Him (John 18:31) even though Pilate was able to find “no guilt in Him” (John 18:38; 19:4-6).

“Then Pilate became “even more afraid” when the Jews told him that Jesus “made Himself out to be the Son of God” (John 19:7-8). How much of this Pilate believed is immaterial. The fact is that the events transpiring with the claims and charges being made were producing a volatile situation. So, Pilate “made efforts to release Him” (John 19:12), but the Jews would not let him do it. Pilate then made one final effort to defuse the situation and allow the innocent Jesus to be released.

“Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth house. And he said to the Jews, ‘Behold, your King!’ So, they cried out, ‘Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’ So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified” (John 19:14-16).

“This case was not about some random insurrectionist. There was much more to this than Pilate could have imagined at the start. But in the end, the Jews – influenced by their leaders (Matthew 27:20) – very clearly and boldly repudiated Jesus and demanded His crucifixion. Why was this so significant? It has to do with what they rejected, and what they chose to focus on instead.

“What Did They Reject? First and foremost, the Jews rejected Jesus. This point may seem too obvious to be worth mentioning, but it is important. They rejected Jesus even though Pilate found Him to be innocent (John 18:38; 19:4, 6). Peter wrote that Jesus “committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). They accused Him of blasphemy because “He made Himself out to be the Son of God” (John 19:7). This was in spite of the fact that Jesus performed undeniable miracles. A blind man who was healed by Jesus even pointed out this fact: “We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him” (John 9:31). He then correctly said, “If this man were not of God, He could do nothing” (John 9:33). Jesus was unquestionably the sinless Son of God. Yet the Jews rejected Him and called for His crucifixion.

“In addition to rejecting the Son, the Jews also rejected God the Father. If Jesus were a blasphemer and a wicked man, they could have rejected Him and called on Pilate to punish Him. But they did not just do this. They went a step further. They said, “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15). Their forefathers were guilty of rejecting God when they called for a human king to rule over them (1 Samuel 8:6-7). “God was [their] king” (1 Samuel 12:12), but they wanted to be “like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:20) instead of being God’s chosen people (Deuteronomy 7:6). However, by this time, the Jews were to recognize the authority of the Roman rulers. Jesus said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s”; but they were to also render “to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Allegiance to human rulers was fine to a point (Acts 5:29). But Jesus said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). By saying they had no king but Caesar, they were rejecting God who was over the civil authorities (John 19:11).

“Finally, the Jews rejected the word of God. They claimed to be “disciples of Moses” (John 9:28). Yet Jesus said, “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me” (John 5:46). Paul would later describe the Law of Moses as a “tutor to lead us to Christ” (Galatians 3:24). Yet they rejected this testimony, choosing rather to hold onto their own false beliefs.” (Plain Bible Teaching, Online)

It therefore follows that such ungodly oppositions are also levelled at those of us that have received God’s Sovereign grace in Salvation, and you and I need to pray persistently for the Lord God’s help to overcome such proud, antichristian rebels daily. Let us now pray.

Thought: Verse 17. “Show me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because Thou, Lord, hast holpen (helped) me, and comforted me.”