As usual, here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:
5Because You, Adonai, [are] good and forgiving and abounding [in] love to all ones calling on You. 6Hear, LORD, my prayer and be attentive in the voice of my request for favor. 7In the day of my distress I will call to You, because You will answer me.
Some miscellaneous notes: In verse 5, as in verses 3 and 4, David refers to the Lord as Adonai. This is the name that actually gets translated in the OT as “Lord” as opposed to the name Yahveh (YHVH, Jehovah) which gets translated “LORD.” Adonai means literally “master.” I’ve always loved this name Adonai, Master. One old commentator once noted (since he still lived in the days of slavery) that one could see a group of servants and they were all well dressed, healthy, and cheerful, then see another group that was shabbily dressed, sickly, and bedraggled. What was the difference? Their master. The Lord is my Master – and I’m one of those well-cared for, loved servants. “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not lack.”
Interesting too, in verse 5, the word for forgiving is a word only used of God. That makes me think of Isa 55:7-8, “Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will freely pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord.” Only God forgives like He forgives. True believers long to forgive like He does but it is ever an effort of faith. God forgives because He is forgiving. Unlike us, it is His nature.
… Which leads me to probably my major thought rising from these verses, which is to marvel at Who God is. I remember noticing many years ago that prayer is a very doctrinal business, a very theological business. What I mean is, I realized that practically every doctrine we study, every point of theology all coalesces in the business of prayer. Prayer is all about Who God is. Spurgeon said, “Prayer itself derives from the nature of God.” David says, joining verses 4 and 5, “… I lift up my soul to You, because You Lord are good and forgiving and abounding in love to all who call upon You.” We could pause here and spend weeks studying the goodness of God, then the forgiveness of God, then His love, then the very fact that He allows people to call on Him. Such a study could only make us better pray-ers. Spurgeon was right, “Prayer itself derives from the nature of God.”
We can pray because of Who God is. To know Him better can only be to pray to Him more.
One commentator suggested that people must not be pray-ers who can study theology and turn it up dry and uninteresting. The very act of prayer makes theology live. Our prayers will be “good” prayers only to the extent we understand our theology, or should I say to the extent we truly know God. To know Him better can only make us to pray more.
The Psalm before us is case in point. David is coming to God in a time of distress. He himself is confident he can lift up his soul to the Lord, because He is “good and forgiving and abounding in love”. In the ancient world, many of the people’s gods were not good. Many of the ancient gods were fickle and vindictive and even sometimes sinister. But we need have no such worry. Our God is good. Every fiber of His being is good. He is all goodness. And we can go to Him in prayer with confidence because of that absolutely faithful goodness. It is sad to hear believers talk about God as if He were fickle or capricious. Such thoughts only reveal that person’s immaturity. But thankfully they can grow out of such thoughts because the God to Whom they pray is good. The more they know Him the more they themselves will find Him good. Because He is.
But, as Spurgeon also said, “It were not enough for God to be good in general, did He not also extend to sinners His forgiving mercy …” He is good and forgiving. Once again, David can go to God in his distress confidently because our God is forgiving. Perceived guilt is one of the great hindrances to prayer during times of distress. I have heard people weeping in deep distress say things like, “I don’t know if God will hear me because of …” Once again, it is a matter of knowing God. Perhaps I have unconfessed sin in my life. Perhaps I really do. But how hard is confession? I only need to own my sin and ask His forgiveness. And He is forgiving. But what if the problem is not any particular sin but simply my sinfulness? I can still go to Him confidently because He is forgiving. The entire plan of redemption and the Cross are driven by the forgiveness of God. God longs to have relationships with His creation. He is forgiving. So He Himself made a way that a fallen creation could be forgiven. Then He Himself says, “… since we have a great High Priest, Jesus, … let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:14-16). Prayer is possible for us misfits because our God is forgiving!
And He abounds in love to all who call on Him. Abounds. He abounds in love to all who call on Him. I dare say we cannot ponder enough the love of God. The more one truly knows God the more and more we stand amazed at this incomprehensible love. Oh the depth and the height and the length and the breadth of the love of Christ, which passes knowledge! I love Zeph 3:17: “The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” The more we believe this, how can it not draw us more constantly into prayer?
As Spurgeon said, “Prayer itself derives from the nature of God.” … and what a nature that is! To know Him more is only to wonder more, to love Him more, and to find more and more that He fills all of our minds all of the time.
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