Bible Studies

---

I love the LORD because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Psalm 116:1


The reason for our love to God is not found in ourselves and all true believers must confess this same truth or be guilty of robbing God of His glory. What a terrible sin that would be because all things were created for purpose and he is worthy of all glory and honor. Revelation 4:11

David confessed his love for the LORD BECAUSE he (the LORD) hath heard. What did the LORD hear from David's precious lips? The LORD heard David's voice AND supplications.

The word for supplication in the Hebrew is tachanun and means David's prayer was grounded in an appeal to God's unmerited compassion and favor. The same Hebrew word is found in Psalm 28:6 "Blessed be the LORD for he hath heard the voice of my supplications."

If you examine the Bible carefully you will find that God doesn't hear or answer the prayer of just anybody.

For example the Bible says "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the LORD will not hear me." Psalm 66:18


The text in Psalm 116:1 doesn't say the LORD heard David's voice because he was so intelligent or handsome or courageous. That would make the cause of God's love dependent on the creature and we know this contradicts other scriptures like 1 John 4:19 where we read, "We love him, because he first loved us."

If any professing believer truly loves the LORD he must know that the cause for that love is found in God. It must be sovereign love because there's no other kind since God is sovereign and all his attributes are therefore sovereign and proceed from himself.

Why do you suppose the LORD heard David out of all the many kings and peoples of the earth?

One reason, no doubt, is that David was a man after God's own heart and was greatly loved. This heart for God was wrought in David by the Holy Spirit as it is in all those who love God.
Without God giving us a new heart filled with his Holy Spirit we can not please him and therefore can not love him. This is what the apostle Paul taught in Romans 8:8,9

David was also a man who was poor in spirit.

What a privilege that of all the voices vying for attention these days the true child of God can know that God hears that voice that is of a poor spirit. Psalm 34:6

To have a broken and contrite heart because of sin is to be poor in spirit and this God will not despise.

This ought to put a check on ourselves and cause self-examination so that we commune with our hearts and ask "Am I really poor in spirit or do I have a proud spirit?"

Am I self-sufficient and in need of nothing? Do I depend on myself on not on God? You may be guilty of pride and not poverty of spirit and be sure that God will not hear your prayers.

God will not hear the voice of the proud. The Bible says God's face is against such

Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:3
The LORD is ever ready to hear the prayers of those who are poor, that is, poor in spirit. Psalm 34:6

To be poor in spirit is to be (‘Ptochos‘)which means you are in a state where you realize you have nothing of yourself. You have nothing and you are reduced to begging and like a beggar you are totally broke. (Luke 6:20 uses only ‘poor’ in his version of sermon!)

While monetary poverty can also be inferred from these verses, what Jesus really meant was spiritual poverty.
.
King David in is a great example of a man poor in spirit in spite of his being a rich man. He had a humble/broken and contrite heart which God will not despise. Psalm 51:


The Jew offered daily a lamb both in the morning and in the evening but we are to continually offer thanksgiving unto God. This is called a sacrifice in the Bible.

Charles Spurgeon is insightful on this point:

"When the heart mourns for sins God is better pleased than when the bullock bleeds beneath the axe. ‘A broken heart’ is an expression implying deep sorrow, embittering the very life; it carries in it the idea of all but killing anguish in that region which is so vital as to be the very source of life.
A heart crushed is, to God, a fragrant heart. Men condemn those who are contemptible in their own eyes, but the Lord seeth not as man seeth. He despises what man esteems, and values that which they despise. Never yet has God spurned a lowly, weeping penitent"



The self-contained, self-sufficient spirit which worldly people long for is the opposite of poverty of spirit.

To enter the kingdom of heaven you must have this most important character. These characteristics are the result of God's sovereign grace alone and are not possible apart from regeneration or being born again by the power of the Holy Spirit
and the continued work of God’s Spirit in sanctification. “We must not for a moment suppose that the mere fact of being poor, and hungry, and sorrowful, and hated by man, will entitle anyone to lay claim to an interest in Christ’s salvation.


Another thing we can know about David is that he was a righteous or just man.

Does God hear the prayer of an unrighteous man?
No, for we read "The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous. Proverbs 15:24

The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

So we see that David had to be a righteous man or the LORD would not hear him. Are you beginning to see that some of the reasons God will not hear or answer just anybody's prayer.

The LORD hears those who fear the LORD.

Some people are living very sinful lives thinking they are saved. These same people are praying and have been praying for many years wondering why things are not better or different in their lives. The problem may be they have a stony heart that disobeys God's word because it doesn't really believe God's word.
This is the sin of unbelief which shuts people out of heaven. Oh, how many mistake they are right with God by drawing nigh to him with their lips but their heart is far from him.


Now you can examine yourself carefully. Are you righteous? How are you righteous, if you think you are? In other words by what basis do you make this judgment? If you are truly righteous in God's sight then you can expect God, like King David, to hear and answer your prayer.

If you are continually breaking the law of God then you can know you are yet deceived and haven't obtained that righteousness which is necessary for entrance into heaven.


"He will fullfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them."
Psalm 145:19







Carlton Pruitt ministers the gospel to the Los Angeles area. Formerly a Hollywood actor (SAG member)and junk removal expert he now spends most of his time studying the scriptures, writing articles, hymns and poems and doing street preaching. See his videos on www.YouTube.com. Type in LAStreetPreacher in the search bar. CONTACT at [email protected]

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE