in your Bibles to Psalm 28. Psalm 28. Before we go into our time of prayer, I wanted to spend a little time just reflecting on a few verses out of Psalm 28. And what I'm going to do tonight is I'm going to read the whole psalm, which is only nine verses. And this week and next week and possibly the week after that in the Vesper, if I have my weeks right, We're going to spend two or three weeks just in this psalm, and I want to talk about this psalm under the category of the trusting heart in prayer. The trusting heart in prayer. So let's give our attention to the reading of God's Word, Psalm 28. Of David, to you, O Lord, I call. My rock. Be not deaf to me, lest if you be silent to me I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts. Give to them according to their work and according to the evil of their deeds. Give to them according to the work of their hands. Render them their due reward. Because they do not regard the works of the Lord or the works of His hands, He will tear them down and build them up no more. Blessed be the Lord, for He has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield. In Him my heart trusts and I am helped. My heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him. The Lord is the strength of His people. He is the saving refuge of His anointed. O save your people and bless your heritage. Be their shepherd and carry them forever." Let's follow the reading of God's Word. Well, we have here a relatively short prayer. It appears that the psalmist had before him his enemies. And next week we will talk about the imprecatory section of this psalm. But he seemed to have before him his enemies. He seemed to have before him the enemies of God. And he seems to be saying that if he is not rescued, he will be taken down to the pit. Down to the pit, a common metaphor in Old Testament psalmody, not only in Old Testament psalmody, but also in the cries of the prophets and the historicists. I'll be taken down to the pit. He is in dire straits. Are you in dire straits tonight? Some of you are. Some of us don't know it's coming this week. But look at verse 7. He says, and this is our theme tonight, My heart trusts and I am helped. In Him, my heart trusts and I am helped. This is a prayer of a trusting heart. A trusting heart. I want to make some observations on this psalm as we prepare our hearts for prayer. I'm going to give you three thoughts this evening. Number one, consider this. The trusting heart makes an earnest appeal or address to God. The trusting heart makes an earnest appeal or an earnest address toward God. Look at verses one and two again. To you, O Lord, I'll just read one. To you, O Lord, I call. My rock, be not deaf to me, lest if you be silent to me I become like those who go down to the pit. Beloved, a trusting heart knows where to go. A trusting heart knows where to go. I want you to contrast that for a moment with where we go when we are in dire straits. Where do we go when we feel like we're going down to the pit? Where do we go when we feel as if we are at our wit's end? Where do we go when maybe even literally we feel we are two clicks away from emotional and maybe even mental break? Where do we go? Maybe you go to a trusted friend. Maybe you go to a blog. Maybe you go to the news. It's a horrible place to go. Where do you go? Well, the trusting heart knows where to go. He goes to his rock. To you, O Lord, I call, to my rock. Notice the personal nature of this. It is not the rock, though that is true, but it is my rock. He is my rock. You can hear and see in this appellation the history of one who has constantly gone to this rock. He has gone to this rock so often that this rock has become personal to him. I say this in a very reverent way, but the psalmist had a pet rock. The psalmist had a personal rock. The psalmist had a rock who had had years and even decades perhaps of tears dropping down upon it. There were tear stains on it. The salt of his tears were embedded on the surface of this rock. It is to this rock that he cries. It is to this rock that he goes for help. The trusting heart always goes and first goes to the Lord. Now for many of us, that's a very trite platitude, right? Where do we go first? We go to the Lord. We tell our children that. We tell our students that. We tell others that. I guess my question is how often do we go to the Lord? First and foremost, when do we go to the Lord? When is OMG not something that we send out on a text, but it is the ardent cry of our heart? Oh my God, hear my prayer. Hear my prayer, God. You know it's interesting, I one time decided to go through the Bible, with my Bible program of course, and try to find where there is justification in the Bible for closing your eyes. Have you ever done that? Where is there justification for closing your eyes when you pray? Of course most of us close our eyes when we pray, it's a good thing to do. Most of us have ADD, we just haven't been diagnosed and we need a form of focusing and so closing our eyes is a good way to do that. But if you look in the Bible, for example, Solomon at the dedication of the temple, it says that his hands were outstretched and his eyes were focused toward heaven. Looking toward heaven. He's looking to the source of his help. He's looking to, literally, the rock that is higher than he. And I always thought that was interesting. We look up when we pray. Why do we bow our heads? We bow in reverence and that's fine, but it's okay to add some variety into our prayer life. But I want you to notice also that he calls to the Lord. And you could see in your text in the ESV, Lord is spelled with a capital L-O-R-D. Does anybody know what that means? It's not a rhetorical question. Does anybody know what it means when the Lord has all caps? Go ahead and answer if you know. Yahweh, that's right, it is the special covenant name of God. Yahweh, the most holy name. And for the trusting heart, it is the most intimate name by which he cries out to the Lord. But notice, coming back to this idea of rock, that he calls him rock. You see, David was a good Israelite who knew, according to the second commandment, that he was forbidden to make an image a carved image of God and to bow down and worship it. Nor was the Israelite even allowed to picture God because he cannot be contained in an image. And that is why we find in Scripture so many metaphors and so many figures of speech to describe God according to his character. That's why we have different names of God, to help us picture, if you will, not so much God, because who can picture God, but picture His saving and redeeming activity. Picture that He is, for example, Jehovah-Rophia, a God who sees. He is a God who sees me. He is a God who cares for me. He is a God who is not ignorant to my cries. He is not ignorant to my tears. He is not ignorant of what is going on in my life. He is very much involved and invested in what is going on. But here we see that He calls him a rock. This is an exquisite name of God which reveals something about His character. What do you think of when you hear that? You hear stability. You hear consistency. You hear that which holds me up. Especially, I imagine in this congregation with so many who have been deployed, after you've been out on deployment on sea and you're just constantly moving about and there's just this movement all the time going to and fro to get back to solid ground is a blessing to have stability. Contrast stability with being at your wit's end. Contrast stability with being in another fight with your spouse. Contrast stability with utter frustration with your teen. Contrast stability with being terminated from your job or getting some news, some negative news from your doctor. It's in those moments that you are scrambling because you've already tried everything you can. You've already tried everything you can. You've already tried everything in your human power. You've already tried all of your bag of tricks. And guess what? There's no change. And so all you can do is to go to your rock, the rock of stability in prayer. He grounds us. He calms us. And it is to this God that a trusting heart immediately goes. So as we come to God, do you have a name for Him? Can I just encourage you tonight, if all you ever call God is God, I mean that's not bad, there's nothing wrong with that, but I think that a prayer life can be deepened, it could be broadened, it could be heightened, if we call God by the many names that He has given us, by the many metaphors that He has given us, that we see Him as a rock. That we, if I could say this without being misunderstood, feel Him to be the rock that He is to our life. The rock of stability, the rock of consistency. So as we come to Him, come to Him as one who has a name. Rock of ages, the hymn says, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee. Prayer can embody that very sentiment of the hymn writer. We say to God that I want to hide myself, God, in You, in Your power, in Your majesty, in Your grace, in mercy, in Your wonder, and in Your love. It is when I hide myself in the cleft of the rock of ages that I am reminded that I am cared for by the God of all eternity. And when you are enveloped by this rock, as Moses was enveloped in the cleft of the rock, you are stable. So, a trusting heart knows where to throw his line when he's sinking. A trusting heart knows to whom he might cling. But now secondly, consider this. A trusting heart is earnest about its need. A trusting heart is earnest about its need. Look at v. 2. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. You see, a trusting heart is not ambivalent about its issues. The heart is... A trusting heart is all alive to God in prayer. What does it mean to be all alive to God in prayer? Well, first off, it means that you're awake. It means that you're conscious. It means that you're pouring out your heart to the Lord. It means that you're all there as much as you can be. It means that you put your phone on do not disturb or vibrate or just chuck the thing in a closet somewhere. It means that you're not distracted. It means that you really have carved out time, intentional time to pray. And I know for some of you moms and young kids, that's hard. I get that. But it's certainly something that we should strive for and not give up striving for. But a trusting heart is not ambivalent about its issues. It's all alive in prayer. It's not simply praying and not simply talking, but there's a sense of need. And the trusting heart is earnest that it be heard. It's not, listen to me, the trusting heart is not simply content to just pray prayers. Some of us just pray prayers. We sometimes just pray prayers, right? Sometimes I just pray prayers. I'm feeling time, I'm sending noise out into the ether, but I'm not really all alive in prayer. And sometimes I have to pinch myself. Sometimes I even walk around the perimeter of this church as I'm praying for the needs of the saints. I need to be moving. I need to not fall asleep. I need to be all alive in prayer. I need to be talking to God. But the psalmist says, don't be deaf. Don't be deaf. That almost sounds offensive, but it's not offensive. It's real, right? It's honest. It's gritty. It is the psalmist saying, Lord, don't be deaf to me, hear me. The trusting heart is not like many who simply find comfort in praying. And we should get comfort just from the act of praying, but in other words, if I just get in my praying space and pray, whether or not anybody hears it, that's not what the psalmist is going for. He wants God to hear him. Don't be deaf, he says. I'm not interested in a one-way address. I want God, you, to meet me in prayer. I want you to answer me. So listen to this. The trusting heart, by contrast, wants the ear of God in prayer. Why does the trusting heart want the ear of God in prayer? Because connected to the ear of God is the heart of God, and connected to the heart of God is the arm of God. And the arm of God is the one who moves heaven and earth. The arm of God is the one who makes the things happen that our petitions ask and request. And so the trusting heart prays to the ear of God so that he can get to the heart of God and finally get to the arm of God. But now finally, a trusting heart surrenders. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, verse two, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. The lifting of hands is a very common theme and practice for the Jews as well as Christians today. I would venture to say that many Christians, or let's just say some Christians who lift their hands, really don't know what it means. But really, among other things, it's a sign of surrender. Notice two things about the lifting of hands. Number one, the lifting of hands, as I said, it's often associated with prayer, but as I said, it's a sign of surrender because think about it, in prayer we are ceasing from our own striving. It's kind of like, okay, I'm done, God, I give up. I'm now on my knees and I'm praying to you, please hear me, because these hands have been ineffective, right? They've been ineffective in my parenting. They've been ineffective in my husbanding and my wifing. They've been ineffective in my working. I just can't get my mouth to say the things that are gonna make people do the things that I want them to do. Lord, I just can't do it, so I'm lifting my hands, I give up, I'm surrendering, and I'm praying to you. That's a lot more nuanced and qualified than letting go and letting God. I'm lifting my hands and saying, Father, I surrender. In prayer, we are transparent. In prayer, we are surrendering. In prayer, we are undone before the Lord, and surrender is one of the chief aims of prayer. But then secondly, I want you to notice here in verse 2, I want you to notice that he lifts his hands toward what? In the ESV it says your sanctuary and so it gives the idea of your temple. Have you ever thought about that? But it's not actually the temple. The word in the Hebrew literally means the inner part. What he's talking about is the holy of holies. He's lifting his hands toward the holy of holies in the temple. And I thought about that and I thought, wow, that's interesting. What is the significance of that? Because these aren't just throwaway phrases you see. To the Jew it was very important the direction in which he lifted his hands. Let me suggest three reasons why he's lifting his hands toward the Holy of Holies. Number one, because in the Holy of Holies there is a reverent and holy fear of God. What do we find in the Holy of Holies? We find the Ark of the Covenant with the two cherubim, their wings are covering them, they are bowing their heads and they are sitting upon the mercy seat. So right from the beginning in that Holy of Holies there is complete and utter reverence It is the place where God meets man. It is the place where, and we'll get to this in a second, the priest on the day of atonement brings the people, as the old writers say, nigh unto God through that Yom Kippur sacrifice. It is the holy of holies. And so it is a holy and reverent place, and I lift my hands in holy obeisance to Him. But secondly, in the holy of holies, That's where we meet God, at least for this Old Covenant Saint. After God described to Moses the instructions for the Ark of the Covenant, He told Moses in Exodus 25-22, For it is there that I will meet with you. It is there that I will meet with you. It is in the Holy of Holies that the sins of all the people were atoned on the day of atonement, and God was brought nigh unto the people, and the people brought nigh unto God. But then third and finally, and these are intertwined, in the Holy of Holies, God speaks to us. After God describes the instructions for the ark, again, he tells Moses, put the testimony in the ark. What is the testimony? Well, the testimony is the covenant between God and man. It's that Mosaic covenant. If this, then that. If you do this, then I will do this. Do this and live. There is within that covenant promises. There is within that covenant law. But it is essentially the message of God to the people. It is God speaking to His people. And in fact, the word for holy of holies is devir, and it has a derivative in Hebrew, which is debar, which means to speak. And so in the holy of holies itself, there is a speaking, and it is God speaking His word of law and promise and covenant. So the holy of holies is a place where God speaks. And if you and I were to have gone into the holy of holies, we would have died. We would have died. Even the priest sometimes would die because they didn't do everything perfectly. Even the common Israelite knew that, and that is why the common Israelite here merely lifts his hands toward the sanctuary. You see, there is still space. There is still distance for this old covenant saint. But in Jesus Christ, you see, the curtain is torn. In Jesus Christ that distance is taken away. In Jesus Christ we come completely into the Holy of Holies. It is still holy, it is still terrible, it is still awesome in that place, but we have a shielding, we have a covering, and it is not the cherubim, it is the Son of God who shields us with His righteousness. And it is in that place that we lift now our hands to the true sanctuary, the true holy of holies, the true temple, Jesus Christ. And that is what we in the new covenant do. And that is what we are going to do tonight as we lift up our prayers to the Lord. So let me pray and then we will corporately enter into some prayer. Father God, thank you for Psalm 28. I pray, Father, that we would not be content tonight as the psalmist was not content, was simply praying for praying's sake, but that Father, like the psalmist, we would ardently pray and request and petition that you would bend your ear to us, and that ear would not be deaf, and that that ear would be connected to your heart, and that heart be connected to your hand, and that you would do, Father, the things that we ask of you, not for our glory, but for our good, but for Your glory and Your renown. Father, we pray that You would do this for Christ's sake. For it is in His name we pray. Amen.