A King's Prayer

 

COLERAINE INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SUNDAY 27 OCTOBER 2024 – MR BRYAN CRUISE

2 Samuel 15 verses 13 to 17, 31 to 34 – A King’s Prayer

Here in 2 Samuel 15 I want to show you something very important today.  How a godly king who was backed into a deadly corner teaches us a liberating truth about prayer.  This is one of the most tragic stories in the whole of scripture.  David’s son Absalom has exploited his fathers love and stolen the hearts of the people of Israel and conspired against him.  The rebellion was so strong there was no option but to flee Jerusalem in the hopes of living to fight another day.  Then David learns his most promised advisor has joined in Absalom’s rebellion.  Yet in the most awful of circumstances we find David’s first automatic reflex is godward.  David begins to pray.  There are 3 things we can learn from our passage – the person, the prayer and the providence.

In our chapter King David’s automatic reflex is godward.  I want you to see what he does – verse 31 “O Lord I pray thee turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.”  We see that prayer to King David was not a last resort but the first response.  This is King David after all.  Psalm 109 verse 4 “I am a man of prayer.”  Most translations say “I am a man of prayer” but in the original Hebrew the definitive articles are left out “I am prayer.”  We know we need the definitive articles “I am a man of prayer” to make sense but the original Hebrew says “I am prayer.”  We see that David’s life is so open, so in communion with God.  His life is consistent with prayer.  He was a walking prayer meeting.  In Psalm 55 verse 17 we see he prays 3 times daily and in Psalm 119 verse 164 he praises God 7 times a day.  David was a man of prayer. I have little books at home entitled Quiet Talks by S T Gordon – there is one on evangelism, one on scripture but there is also one on prayer.  He makes this remark – “you can do more than pray after you have prayed but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.” We are all familiar with Luke 11 verse 1.  It is a verse quoted in prayer meetings “Lord teach us to pray.”  While familiar with that part of the verse we are not familiar with the end of the verse.  The disciples asked Jesus “Lord teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.”  This verse teaches us that John the Baptist and Jesus had followers who did not know how to pray or else they wanted to grow in their understanding or the practice of prayer.  We see in this verse prayer was not something that came naturally to them like eating or drinking or sleeping.  Prayer like any language has to be learnt.  Philippians 4 verse 6 “Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”    Believers shouldn’t be anxious about anything.  It doesn’t mean to have a complete lack of concern, or to be careless as we go through life but we should not be over paranoid, fearful, or anxious.  The one we call to today is the creator of the heavens and the earth and the sky and the sea and all that is in them. He is the one who spoke and creation stood fast.  He is the one who says in scripture “who can straighten that which I have made crooked?”  The Almighty Creator God.  The one who has authority over all time.  Travelling to the nearest galaxy to day would take you 749 million years.  Travelling to the end of the known universe would take 225 trillion years.  Yet we can come into the presence of the creator of it all and all we have to do is say “Father”.  That is the God you have access to today.  The one who we pray to today.  As we look at King David we should be of the same substance of prayer.  Are you a church that prays?  Or are you a praying church?  There is a difference.  A pastor once said to me “if God is first in your life you will go to him some times. But if God is everything in your life you will go to him all the time.  Do you go to God all the time?  We should be a people of prayer, should we not? The person that is king David.

Secondly the prayer we read here in 2 Samuel 15 verse 31.  There is so much we could say about this prayer but there is one thing I want to draw your attention to above all else – the prayer was short.  “O Lord I pray thee turn the counsel of Ahithopel into foolishness.  The Lord’s prayer found in Matthew 6 is really our prayer.  The Lord’s prayer is the one found in John 17.  In Matthew 6 when he teaches this prayer it is a mere 50 words in our English languages.  It is 4 sentences long.  I cannot remember the last time I prayed a prayer of a mere 50 words.  Can you remember a time?  Joshua 10 is another example of a short prayer whenever he calls unto God to cause God for the sun and moon to stand still.  Joshua 10 verse 14 “and there was no day like it before it or after it that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man.”  Think of Elijah on Mount Carmel in that great contest between man of God and prophets of Baal.  When he called down fire from heaven he spoke 32 Hebrew words and fire fell from heaven.  Sometimes we are like the false prophets of Baal who called from morning until noon.  A powerful prayer does not have to be a long prayer.  It doesn’t have to be a theologically eloquent prayer and it doesn’t have to be prayed in a certain posture.  They are not bad things but a simple sentence said in faith is a powerful prayer.  Elijah prayed in earnest prayer.  In James 5 verse 17 it says “Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it did not rain for a space of 3 yeas and 6 months.”  A good prayer, earnestly prayed that it would not rain for 3 ½ years.  The Bible commentators cite 1 Kings 17 verse 1 to be the prayer that he prayed.  Elijah was more conscious of God’s presence than man’s presence.  He says a simple sentence in faith before the God of Israel.  God considered it an earnest sentence.  If you go to James 5 verse 18 tells us Elijah prayed again and the heaven gave rain.  The word “earnest” is not mentioned.  What did he pray the second time?  1 Kings 18 verse 42 to 44.  Here we have Elijah praying a second time for rain to fall upon earth.  He gets down on the ground puts his head between his knees and he prays 8 times.  This is a more earnest prayer.  James 5 verse 18 records this one as a prayer and yet the first one records the first one as earnest prayer.  A powerful prayer does not have to be a long prayer.  Don’t misunderstand me there is nothing wrong with praying long prayers or assuming certain posture in prayer.  Jesus was known to go through whole nights praying.  A long prayer is not necessarily a powerful prayer.  We can see that in David’s prayer  He prays and what happens?

The providence  - notice God’s hand at work in this prayer.  He prays and it seems utterly unlikely, if not humanly impossible to come to a reality.  He prays for Ahithophel’s wisdom to turn to foolishness.  No-one was wiser than Ahithophel excluding King Solomon and Christ himself – 2 Samuel 16 verse 23 “And the counsel of Ahithophel, which he counselled in those days was as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God.”  It shows us if someone consulted Ahithophel for advice it was as if you were consulting the word of God.  That is how much regarded this man’s wisdom was.  It was for these moments that God has given us prayer.  He opens his ear to his people.  That is what he does. Prayer is not for the calling down of comforts to our already comfortable existence.   It is precisely for the times when your backs are against the wall.  If you only pray when you are in trouble then you are in trouble.  Prayer is for those moments when whenever the desired course of outcome seems painfully unlikely to unfold.  It seems that the natural course of action is going against what you need or desire, therefore you pray.  Prayer is not making an educated guess out loud to God.  It is not telling God what is naturally unfolding.  Prayer humanly speaking is for the turning of the tide.  It is for those desperate moments when you are backed in the corner and humanly speaking it seems you are defeated.  That is the time you pray.  It is when you need God to intervene.  Providence is tied more to prayer than you realise.  “Ye have not because you ask not” James said.  Cause and effect do not carry the day, God does.  So David prays.  He prays and then he acts in faith.  No sooner has he prayed than Hushai the Archite who is loyal to David shows up.  David has prayed for Absalom’s counsel to turn sour and now he acts in faith upon it.  He sends Hushai to fain loyalty to Absalom.  To act as a spy and to defeat the counsel of Ahithophel.  Hushai goes and is accepted into Absalom’s inner circle and conspiracy.  One of the first orders of business is whether to continue to pursue David while he is weak and retreating.  In chapter 17 verses 1 and 2 Ahithophel speaks first “pursue after David this night while he is weary and weak handed.”  This is considered wise counsel.   In 2 Samuel 17 verse 4 we read “And the saying pleased Absalom well and all the elders of Israel.”  This great sage has spoken and it looked as if it was a done deal.  It looked as though it spelled the end for David if not for Hushai who speaks up in 1 Samuel 17 verse 7 “And Hushai said unto Absalom, the counsel of Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time.”  Hushai begins to paint this picture of David, as this man of warfare, one accustomed to killing giants, to guerilla warfare, one who knew what it was to fight.  The bible tells us in verse 14 that the Lord had appointed Hushai to defeat the counsel of Ahithophel.  “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” Not only did God answer David’s prayer but he answered beyond David’s asking.  He gave them Hushai the Archite into their counsel.  God answered it better than he asked.  That is the God we pray to today.  Is it something we take advantage of?  Do we grow in our discipline of it?  David prayed and acted in faith.  Psalm 91 verse 2 “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress.”  The word refuge means a small shelter used for storms.  Many Jews had these shelters in the back of their homes.  A bunker they went in to in time of small scale attacks.  God is your place of refuge in the small things.  Verse 2 goes on to say “and my fortress.”  The Hebrew word means a castle, a stronghold.  Where you go to when there is an attack, in a large attack.  The psalmist is saying God is the one you go to in the small and in the big things.  God is your protection in both the small and the big.  There is nothing too big for Gods power or too small for God’s heart.  If it matters to you then it matters to God.  The person – King David.  The prayer – it was short.  The providence – God answered better than he asked.  We should leave in the attitude of prayer, more eager to pray  and more keen to see prayer answered. 

In a rural farming community the community was hit by drought.  The local church called a town prayer meeting.  Everyone gathered to pray for rain in the local hall.  The pastor walked into the town hall and made his way to the podium.  He stood before everyone gathered.  He noticed a little girl who had brought her umbrella ready for use when the time came.  He told everyone “we all came here tonight to pray for rain but the little girl came expecting God to answer.”  I wonder have we prayed but never expected God to answer?  Do we have our umbrella poised and ready to use because we expect God to answer?