Aug 10, 2022
Author: Pastor Gordon Cook
August 10, 2022
Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You
have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and
infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still
the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your
fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is
man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for
him?
Psalm 8:1-4
Now I’m sure when you read through any of the Psalms you pick up a
word that’s used quite frequently. It’s the word great. Great is the
Lord and greatly to be praised. When we think of God’s greatness we also
think of God works. Great are his works, and certainly the work of
creation testifies to God’s greatness. His great power, his great wisdom
and his goodness. The story of salvation even more so-His great love,
his mercy, his power even his wrath and his righteousness and justice
goes on display. That explains why the Psalmist says what he says here
in Psalm 8, ‘Why are you mindful of us’? He realizes just how great this
God is. And again you have Psalms that begin with that very word ‘Great
is the Lord and greatly to be praised’. Psalm 145, Psalm 104 ‘Great is
the Lord, you are great, you are clothed with majesty and splendor’. We
should always think of this too, I know I don’t, but just the fact that
we can pray and expect answers to prayer testifies of God’s greatness
doesn’t it? The fact that we can pray and God will answer our prayers,
that testifies to the greatness of God. Remember what Paul said, ‘He can
do far above what we could ever ask or think’.
But
here’s the question why would God, this God hear you? Why would this God
hear me? That’s the question, why would a sovereign, majestic God
listen to us? Not just listen to us but even more answer our prayers. We
can’t get the attention can we of the great ones of the earth? That’s
how they are described in I think Isaiah chapter 40. The great ones, the
great king, the great politicians or the great athletes or the great
Hollywood stars. They wouldn’t give us the time of day. But God does,
God hears us and he listens to even the list of our prayers. God again,
remember who he is, he numbers the stars in the heaven. He looks upon
the inhabitants of the earth and they like grasshoppers. The nations of
the earth are like a drop in the bucket, but he hears us. And you wanna
know the answer? Because of his son. We pray in the name of Jesus and
that makes all the difference in the world. He doesn’t hear every
prayer, he hears our prayers because we are his children, because we
come in the name of his son.
Listen to what someone has
said, this is really well said. This is from Tim Challies’ blog: “The
most important part of every prayer is the last three or four words-for
Christ sake”. He says this, “Do not rattle off those words as though
they were merely the finishing stroke of the prayer, they are the most
important part of the prayer. When in earnestness you go to God and say,
‘for Christ sake’ it rolls in as it were upon God’s mind. All the
memories of Bethlehem and Golgotha. When you say before God ‘for Christ
sake’ you hold before God’s mind every groan, every tear, every blood
draw of his only begotten son. If there’s anything in all the universe
that will move God to act in royal benefaction, it is to say ‘for
Christ’s sake’. No prayer ever gets to heaven but for Christ sake. No
soul is ever comforted, but for Christ’s sake. The world was never
redeemed but for Christ’s sake. Our name, how illustrious it may be
among men, before God stands only for inconsistency and sin. But there
is a name, a potent name, a blessed name, a glorious name, an
everlasting name that we may put on our lips as a sacrament, upon our
forehead as a crown. That is the name of Jesus.” That’s the name that we
can use if we’re a Christian, the name of Jesus. Even Jesus himself
said that, did he not? He said whatever you ask in my name, in my name,
anything in my name I will do.
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