Psalm 6 and 7 … Consider Him, the Righteous God Who Receives Our Prayers

Originally posted: 9/26/2020

 The Lord has heard my supplication,
The Lord receives my prayer, (6:9).

O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous;
For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds, (7:9).

David is under attack. In Psalm 6 he is physically suffering, under the weight of God’s discipline. Sick, as well as buried beneath the guilt of his sin, he is feeling it, all the way down to his bones.

O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger,
Nor chasten me in Your wrath.
² Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am pining away;
Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are dismayed, (6:1-2).

And so great is his affliction, David feels it may even end in his death.

Return, O Lord, rescue my soul;
Save me because of Your lovingkindness.
For there is no mention of You in death;
In Sheol who will give You thanks? (6:4-5).

And to make matters even worse, his enemies are taking advantage of his weakened state.

Depart from me, all you who do iniquity,
For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping, (6:8).

In Psalm 7, the attack comes completely from an enemy. The title of this Psalm reads “A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush, a Benjamite.” While scholars are not absolutely certain but have surmised that “Shiggaion” is probably a literary or musical term, there is no doubt about who David’s enemy was; he named his pursuer.

While we don’t know who Cush was, we do know he was of the tribe of Benjamin. King Saul was a Benjamite, so it’s likely Cush was somehow associated with the wicked and devious Saul in his determination to capture and kill David.

David, the shepherd boy who was very well acquainted with dangerous attacks on his flocks by wild beasts, now finds himself in the precarious place of being pursued, as though by a ravenous lion.

O Lord my God, in You I have taken refuge;
Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me,
² Or he will tear my soul like a lion,
Dragging me away, while there is none to deliver, (7:1-2).

Believing he has done nothing whatsoever to deserve  this onslaught, he places himself in the hands of God’s judgment and justice.

If I have rewarded evil to my friend,
Or have plundered him who without cause was my adversary,
⁵ Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it;
And let him trample my life down to the ground
And lay my glory in the dust. Selah.
⁶ Arise, O Lord, in Your anger;
Lift up Yourself against the rage of my adversaries,
And arouse Yourself for me; You have appointed judgment, (7:4-6).

And in his appeal, David expresses exactly Who is Receiving his Prayer; He is the Righteous God.

…For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.
¹⁰ My shield is with God,
Who saves the upright in heart.
¹¹ God is a righteous judge… (7:9-11).

Consider Him, the Righteous God Who Receives Our Prayers

• He Receives Our Prayers when we call on Him in truth.
  • The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
    To all who call upon Him in truth.
    ¹⁹ He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
    He will also hear their cry and will save them, (Psalm 145:18-19).

• He Receives Our Prayers for ourselves.
  • I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
    From where shall my help come?
    ² My help comes from the Lord,
    Who made heaven and earth, (Psalm 121:1-2).

• He Receives Our Prayers for others.
  • With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, (Ephesians 6:18).

• He Receives Our Prayers for every need.
  • “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened,” (Matthew 7:7-8).

• He Receives Our Prayers, even when we don’t know how to pray.
  • In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, (Romans 8:26)

And because He is the Righteous God, we can trust Him with all Our Prayers.

• He is the Righteous God; He is perfectly just and faithful, and upright in all His ways.
  • “The Rock! His work is perfect,
    For all His ways are just;
    A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
    Righteous and upright is He,” (Deuteronomy 32:4).

• He is the Righteous God; He is trustworthy to the very ends of the earth.
  • By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,
    You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea, (Psalm 65:5).

• He is the Righteous God; He delivers justice for the oppressed.
  • The Lord performs righteous deeds
    And judgments for all who are oppressed, (Psalm 103:6).

• He is the Righteous God; He is gracious and compassionate.
  • Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
    Yes, our God is compassionate, (Psalm 116:5).

• He is the Righteous God; His Righteousness is immutable and His law is truth.
  • Righteous are You, O Lord,
    And upright are Your judgments…
    ¹⁴² Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,
    And Your law is truth, (Psalm 119:137, 142).

• He is the Righteous God; He is the only Righteous God and Savior.
  • “Declare and set forth your case;
    Indeed, let them consult together.
    Who has announced this from of old?
    Who has long since declared it?
    Is it not I, the Lord?
    And there is no other God besides Me,
    A righteous God and a Savior;
    There is none except Me, (Isaiah 45:21).

• He is the Righteous God; He is the Lamb of God, the King of the nations.
  • And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
    “Great and marvelous are Your works,
    O Lord God, the Almighty;
    Righteous and true are Your ways,
    King of the nations!” (Revelation 15:3).

How do we respond to Him, the Righteous God Who Receives Our Prayers?

• Like David, let us pray in confidence and joy, knowing He Receives Our Prayers, in the Name of Jesus.
  • Depart from me, all you who do iniquity,
    For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.
    ⁹ The Lord has heard my supplication,
    The Lord receives my prayer.
    ¹⁰ All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed;
    They shall turn back, they will suddenly be ashamed, (6:8-10).
    • “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. ²³ In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. ²⁴ Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full,” (John 16:22-24).

• Like David, let us pray in boldness and thanksgiving; confident He is the Righteous God Who is Righteous in all His ways, and will never do anything that is not in keeping with His Righteousness in Jesus.
  • The Lord judges the peoples;
    Vindicate me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and my integrity that is in me.
    ⁹ O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous;
    For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds, (7:8-9).
    • “because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead,” (Acts 17:31).

In closing, I found myself so filled with gratitude as my mind flooded with all my Prayers over the years that He has Received. And then another thought immediately followed; and you just may be able to relate. Those times when we could have sent Him a Prayer to hold instead of murmuring, or fearing, or doubting, or trying to fix it on our own.

Oh, let us run to Him, the Righteous God Who Receives Our Prayers. Because He is Righteous, we can have full confidence that as He Receives Our Prayers, He answers; always working for our good as He grows us in the likeness and image of His Son.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; ³⁰ and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified, (Romans 8:28-30).

Let’s Grow Together!