Lord, Teach Me How to Pray - Psalm 63

pray. So keep that in mind as we study

the Lord's Prayer. Uh Tim Keller once

said that prayer is the key to

everything a Christian should do and be.

So it's only in prayer that you can see

who you truly are when you stand before

the presence of a holy God. It's only in

prayer that you can truly change

yourself. You reorganize your loves, so

to speak. It's only in prayer uh that

you can truly know God. It's how you

build your relationship with him. Um,

and it's only in prayer that you can

face the troubles of life. So, if prayer

is that important, uh, then we should

become experts in it. Correct?

>> I mean, if it's literally the most

important thing we could ever do, then

we should probably be experts at it. And

so, that's why we're doing this series

throughout the summer. Uh, series I'm

calling Lord, teach me to pray. Uh, this

series is obviously focused on the

Lord's Prayer. And uh the Lord's prayer

is basically Jesus answer to his

disciples question when they said Lord

teach us how to pray. Teach us how to

pray. And so he gives them this model to

teach them how to pray. So here's the

process for the series. And once again

I'd like to shout out Redeemer Church

for providing the scriptural references

uh for this. Um but what we're going to

do is start with a phrase from the

Lord's Prayer which is which is in

Matthew chapter 6. So, if you didn't

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

know the prayer that we just said

together, you can go to Matthew chapter

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

6 and read it in its context. But what

we're going to do is we're going to

expand upon the elements of the Lord's

Prayer by going to passages of scripture

that would be required reading to

understand more about that specific

section of the prayer. Because the truth

is, your prayer is only going to be as

deep as your theology. So, if you don't

understand what it means to hallow God's

name or what it means to that God is

father, if you don't understand the

theology behind those things, then the

words you say in the Lord's prayer

aren't going to have quite as much

meaning. And so, what we're going to try

to do is just look at the theology

behind why we say what we say and why we

do what we do. And this week, we're

going to ask the question, why did Jesus

tell us to include hallowed be thy name?

So we got the word hallowed which is

hagiasteo.

Okay, hagiasteo. That's the Greek word

for hallowed. And what it means uh

literally technically is to be set apart

as sacred. Uh Tim Keller says it means

to treat God as majestic or glorious and

beautiful. Uh John Calvin said to have

your entire heart captivated uh with

wonderment toward who God is. So

hallowing God's name is appreciating

God, praising God for who he is, not

what he gives. Because if you only like

him for what he gives you, then you're

like kind of like my dog. My my my dog

doesn't really care about me at all

until I get a sandwich and then all of a

sudden we're best friends, you know?

It's cuz it's like he might get

something from me. And that's that's not

what praise is. Praise is when we

acknowledge God for just who he is. we

just praise him for his his attributes.

So today we're going to ask the

question, what does it mean to hallow or

to praise God's name? Um so here's the

deal. When I have great food at a

restaurant, um I usually become an

unpaid spokesperson for uh said

restaurant. Um, now as you know, I've

been talking about Taco Bell for like 14

years. But I do want you to know um that

we broke up because their food got way

too expensive and they never gave me any

kickbacks. I guarantee over the years

I've sold at least a thousand lunches

for them on a Sunday um because of me

talking about Taco Bell and planting

that in your mind and you went there,

but they don't seem to care. So I don't

have a Taco Bell shirt or shoes or

nothing, right? So we're done. We're

done. I have a new love in my life. uh

just started on Mother's Day. Um and uh

it's actually a place that I had never

heard of. Um but my wife said, "I've

eaten here. It's fantastic." And so her

name is Aloha Hola. Is anybody nobody?

All right. Well, you're going you're

going to go there after you hear this.

So, um so so we went there on Mother's

Day, uh because that's where my wife

wanted to go. And after I ate there, I

didn't just tell people that I ate

there. I became like a literal

missionary for this place. Like I would

go up to people and be like, "Have you

eaten the aloha hola?" And they're like,

"No." And I'm like, "Well, you need to

repent of your sins." And go go up there

immediately because I even show pictures

of the menu. I'll be like, "Look at this

Hawaiian barbecue, man. This is so

good." They even make, get this, they

make spam look good. They have a whole

menu of nothing but spam. And they make

spam look good. I didn't try it. I'm not

that brave. But they even made that look

good. And by the time I'm done talking,

usually uh people are already planning

their trip to Virginia Beach to check

this place out. Um but why do I do that?

Am I just messed up in the head? Well,

probably. But um I do that because when

I experience something I love, I want

other people that I love to experience

the same thing that I experienced. And

and so like nobody has to command a

grandmother to talk about her grandkids,

do they? Mm-m. Just comes natural

because you love them so much. Nobody

has to command a fisherman to show uh

pictures of all the sea trout that he

caught, Jeremy. Um, nobody has to to

command a Mets fan or now a Knicks fan

to tell you about how they won the

championship last night, Pat. Right.

Because the the thing is when you love

something, you want to talk about that

that thing. You want other people to

experience it. And so when there's love

in your heart for whatever it is, it

eventually works its way out of your

mouth. And that's what Jesus is teaching

us when he says, "Hallowed be thy name."

He's saying, "Praise the name of God."

Because when God becomes the greatest

joy in your life, then praise stops

feeling like something that you got to

schedule at 11:00 on a Sunday morning

and starts becoming more a part of your

natural life. It's something you delight

in. It's something that you want to tell

other people about. So enjoyment

naturally overflows into praise. And so

our our required reading for today to

really understand praise. I think uh one

of the greatest passages of scripture

about this comes out of Psalm chapter

Psalms 63 · chapter mention

63. So we're going to read that

together. Now Psalm chapter 63 starting

Psalms 63 · chapter mention

in verse one. This is King David

when he wrote these words. He says,

"God, you are my God. I eagerly seek

you. I thirst for you. My body faints

for you. In a land that is dry and

desolate and without water. So I gaze on

you in the sanctuary to see your

strength and your glory. My lips will

glorify you because your faithful love,

get this phrase, is better than life. So

I will bless you as long as I live. and

at your name I will lift up my hands.

You satisfy me with rich food. My mouth

will praise you with joyful lips when I

think of you as I I lie on my bed. I

meditate on you during the night watches

because you are my helper. I will

rejoice in the shadow of your wings. I

will follow close to you. Your right

hand holds me. But those who intend to

destroy my life will go into the depths

of the earth. They will be given over to

the power of the sword. They will become

a meal for the jackals, but the king

will rejoice. All who swear by him will

boast. For the mouths of liars will be

shut.

So, King David doesn't just say, "Hey,

God is great. God is good and we thank

him for our food." You know, it's a

that's a good prayer. I mean, for for

children, but like as we grow up with

God, our prayers should look a little

bit more like this. Maybe not as poetic.

We don't all have that gift, but our

prayers should be much more specific.

Our praise for God should be much more

specific. He he lists all the aspects

that he can think of of God's power and

his glory and his love. And King David,

he just goes on and on for 11 verses

about the goodness of God and what he's

done for him and what he will do for

him. He He doesn't just say, "You're

great." He says, "This is what I love

about God." Because love and praise are

basically the same thing. And love, as

we know, counts the ways. Love goes into

detail. So, I'm not saying my wife asks

me this question very often. But on

occasion, she has asked me, "Why do you

love me?" And you know what I don't say?

Because you're awesome.

[laughter]

married men. You know why we don't

answer that way, right? Because that's

not what she's looking for because that

is boring and that is boilerplate. That

is generic. That does not list any of

her characteristics. So, I like to go

into specifics about her. I'm like, I

love how you've trained our children to

advocate for themselves. I I love how

you don't get overly emotional and

stressful situations. I love your your

confidence. I I love your your inner

strength. I love how you love me, you

know, like I'm hard to love. So thank

you for that. Like you list out the

details of the person that you love. You

don't just share uh vague truth. You you

share exact truth. You you avoid that

generic trap because that's not what

they're looking for. And here's the

thing. When I praise her, I almost get

more out of it than she does because our

hearts connect in those moments. It's

it's making me think about how much I

truly do love her. things I've taken for

granted are now opportunities to think

through. And so my heart grows in love

for her and her heart grows in love for

me. And that's the same thing that

happens when you say specific things

about God. When your prayers become

about what God has done and what God

will do, it enlarges your heart and his.

It draws you together in a supernatural

way. So, I would encourage you this week

when you pray, get specific. Write some

stuff down. Think about the ways that uh

you truly love God for who he is.

Praise though has to like come out at

some point. You know, it's great to to

praise God in your private prayer life.

It's great to to praise him in your

heart and your mind. But as as David

says here in verse three, he says, "My

lips will glorify you because your

faithful love is better than life." Then

he says, "I will bless you as long as

you as I live. At your name, I will lift

up my hands." And he goes on and on to

talk about this public praise that he is

giving to God. See, King David, he sings

and he speaks and he lifts up his hands

and he he praises God publicly. Like, so

it's cool to do that in your heart, but

it's even more powerful uh to to praise

them out loud because your praise needs

to go somewhere. Like we looked at last

week, the the praise in your heart

should overflow to the people around

you. If the people around you are are

being propelled from God because of the

way that you talk about him or don't

talk about him, then um then you're

doing it wrong. Right? The praise from

your heart should overflow and be

infectious to the people that's around

you. CS Lewis wrote a commentary on the

Psalms and it's a very good commentary.

I highly recommend it. And on Psalm 63,

he said uh very honestly that he was

actually put off at first that God was

asking people to praise him so much. He

he he felt like that was grandiose and

he felt like that was arrogant. And his

quote was,"I just didn't understand how

praise works." But as he reconciled

these things, he was like, "You know,

when I hear a great song, I want to go

up to people and shake them and be like,

listen to this song. It's incredible."

Like he wants to share his AirPod with

someone so they can hear this new song

that he he just discovered. And he

became to realize that other people

wanted to join him in praise. And he

says these words, I think we delight to

praise what we enjoy because the praise

is not not merely expresses but

completes the enjoyment. The praise not

merely expresses but completes the

enjoyment. It is the appointed

consummation in commanding us to glorify

him. He says God is inviting us to

actually enjoy him. So the key phrase

there is the expression of praise

actually completes your joy of God. Or

as Tim Keller says, you can't get at joy

until you get out joy. Your enjoyment of

God is made complete in your public

praise. So a good example of this is

let's say the Camden High School

baseball team. Maybe it's a tie game

against Kuratuck in the bottom of the

the ninth inning and they hit a a

walk-off home run. Did the Bruins fans

just uh sit there on their hands? No. If

Camden High School hits a walk-off home

run against Pquimmans or against Kuruck

to to win the game, what do we all do?

Lord, we got the worst fan. Let me try

this. The The Lady Bruins hit a

walk-off.

All right. Yeah, I see what's up now.

Sorry, Hunter.

It's the expression of joy. It's the

public praise that completes the joy.

Now, in your heart when they hit the

home run, you might be like, "This is

amazing." But it's not complete until

you stand up and cheer with all your

brothers and your sisters and all your

friends and your family, right? It's the

expression that completes the joy. So,

what do we do here? We sing and we

testify and we we pray out loud.

So for people that have trouble maybe

singing in public or or standing up here

and testifying about God's goodness or

maybe even just praying out loud, I

would challenge you to think about that.

Think about your ability to do those

things because the praise in your heart

is only about 50% complete until you are

able to express it in a public way. Now,

that doesn't mean you got to walk up on

stage to do it, but maybe around your

family, around the dinner table, you

take the lead and you pray and you thank

God for his goodness. I promise you

this, as nervous as you are going into

that prayer, you'll feel a hundred times

better coming out because your praise

has been made complete. So, I I love how

coaches and actors and and players and

and performers all over the world just

seems like nowadays they're more and

more likely to stand in front of a

microphone after a game or after a

performance and say, "First of all, I

want to thank God. I want to thank

Jesus." That's public praise. And and

the reason they do that is because they

understand the joy that comes with it.

most of the time. It's fun to praise God

in public with people um that that agree

with you. So when praise comes out, it

it starts changing your life. It's the

other side effect of being public with

your praise. It it starts to reorder the

things that you love. So he says in

verse three, King David says, "My lips

will glorify you because your faithful

love is better than life." So praise is

the act of comparing God to everything

else in your life and declaring that

your relationship with God is better

than everything else. It's the greatest

treasure that you have. So So praise is

actually an act of comparison. And think

of it this way. When King David wrote

Psalm 63, it says right there in the

top, and that's why I wanted you to open

your Bible. It says right at the top of

that psalm what who wrote it and when he

wrote it. And so when he wrote Psalm 63,

he was running for his life in a barren

wilderness. He is facing neardeath

experiences. And so his his life has

flashed before his eyes. And and he took

inventory that the crisis created an

opportunity for him to take inventory of

everything that he had in his life. Now

when I was 16, I had a savior that I was

looking forward to. And that savior was

a little tiny plastic card about this

big and it was called my driver's

license. And I figured when I got that

thing that it would solve every one of

life's problems for me. When I got those

keys I would finally have total freedom.

No more riding the school bus. No more

buming rides to the mall with my

parents. No more curfew limitations. I

even figured girls might actually want

to talk to me for the first time like

that. I just I put so much stock in that

that piece of paper or that piece of

plastic and my my entire focus of my

life around 15 16 years old was just

getting that license which was harder I

think back then because I had to

parallel park on a mountain. Um so it

was a little bit more difficult and so I

had to put a lot of focus into this and

then I I got the license. Praise God.

First try. First try. All right. Thank

you. [applause]

I'm an only child. I need affirmations.

Sorry. Um, but but I got the license and

it was absolutely

glorious for like two weeks and then I

realized that you have to put gas in a

car and at that time gas was like 90

cents. Yeah, I'm that old. Um, yeah, it

was great. 90 cents a gallon, right? But

but it was still expensive for me

working at Burger King. I wasn't making

a whole lot of money. Then I had car

insurance to think about. And then my

broke friends were always asking for

rides and they never paid me gas money,

but being a good friend, I would shuffle

them to their job or I'd shuffle them to

their girlfriend's house or whatever.

Like I was the one taking them to the

arcade, you know, and and so that began

to be a bit of a stress. And then I

found this out, too. My curfew tightened

when I was before my driver's license. I

could stay out till 11:00. Now I have to

be in at 9ine because I'm not allowed to

drive after 9:00 for the first year of

my license. Things got worse and then

the ultimate terrible thing happened. Uh

I I wrecked my first car. You could be

sad for that. I wrecked it. It was my

fault. I was being an idiot. Um I had

this really nice red Ford probe that was

really pretty. Um and then I wrecked

that car. And so the only thing I could

afford at that point was a white 1985

Camry, which was basically a motorized

cardboard box that looked like a

refrigerator. And I'll tell you what it

did really well was repelled women. Uh

u date deterrent for sure.

The Savior that I worshiped for so long

was not as rewarding as I hoped it would

be. But friends, we do the exact same

thing as adults. We convince ourselves

that if I can just get that promotion,

if I can just get that pay raise, if I

can just get that that house in that

neighborhood, if I can just get that

relationship, if I can just get that

level of security, then I'll finally be

complete because those things are my

savior. And then we chase those lesser

gods expecting them to save us. And

sometimes for a moment they feel good,

but then we find out that they are going

to let us down because they're actually

not worthy of our praise. See, King

David was stripped of everything that he

had as he was wandering in the

wilderness. He was facing actual death

and his perspective cleared up. He

realized that the things that he was

chasing were temporary. They were just

temporary illusions of control. And so

true praise happens when you you look at

the best things that life has to offer.

And believe me, King David had access

before this to the best things that life

had to offer. But when he compared it to

his relationship with God, he realized

that only God could truly satisfy his

soul.

>> God in this moment became his greatest

love. And so his prayer and his psalm

that he wrote here moves from just

information about God to experience with

God. Look at verse five.

He says, "You

satisfy me as with rich food. My mouth

will praise you with joyful lips."

Now, now David doesn't say, "I have

memorized all of the data of the

pentetuk and I have concluded that you

are good." No, he says, "You have

satisfied me in the same way that a

gourmet meal would." He doesn't just

know about God. He has tasted God and he

has found that he is good. See, praise

is the mechanism that turns intellectual

worship into personal experience. It

moves you from I know of your love to I

have tasted of your love. I have

experienced your love.

Aloha. Aloha.

You can sit at the table. You can open

the menu. They even got a cool little

iPad. You can order them and you can see

all these HD pictures of all the

offerings that they have. You can read

about the Hawaiian barbecue that I

mentioned earlier. You can read about

the praise Jesus the chicken katsu.

Highly recommend kalua pork. Didn't even

know what it was. It's excellent. You

can understand the descriptions. You can

understand the ingredients. You can see

the prices. You can study the menu. You

can memorize the menu. You can get a job

there waiting tables talking to people

about the food. But to be actually

satisfied, you got to get off the menu.

You have to order the food and you have

to taste it for yourself.

Look, God never wanted to be the menu

that you memorized.

He never just wanted to be the menu that

you memorized.

God wants a personal relationship with

you. He wants you to taste him and find

that he is good.

So what true worship does is it moves

you past this idea of what can God do

for me as if we just read the menu and

find out how useful he can be to

experiencing who he is. So his goodness

has an opportunity to actually overwhelm

us. See, when you linger in your praise,

when you stop reading the descriptions

of your heavenly father and you start to

set under him and and and see how good

of a father he truly is, when you

understand what it means to be forgiven

and saved, that's when praise becomes

something that is not just what you do,

but it's who you are. Praise enhances

the gospel. So, I want to uh Lyn, if you

wouldn't mind,

I want to focus in again on on where

David is because this is so profound and

I'm so glad that this psalm recorded

where David was when he wrote it. He

wasn't sitting on his throne in his

kingdom. He He wasn't celebrating a

military victory. He was running for his

life. And guess who was after him?

Abselum.

his own son.

His own son was the one that was trying

to kill him. His own son led the

rebellion that ran him out of his

temple, out of his castle, out of his

palace, and into the wilderness.

His family was broken. His kingdom was

falling apart.

And if there was ever a man who had a

reason to believe that God was done with

him, it would have been King David.

Because David also knew that the mess

that he was facing right there in that

moment was caused by his poor sinful

choices.

Friends, God can forgive sin. Yes. But

sin also has consequences.

And so he's facing the consequences of

his sin. Yet get this. In the middle of

the wilderness, in the middle of facing

his consequences, in the middle of his

fear, David discovered something that is

so profound to me, which is the fact

that your steadfast love, God's

steadfast love is better than life.

He doesn't just highlight God's power.

He doesn't just highlight God's gifts.

He doesn't just highlight God's

protection because he's reconciled the

fact that his son may kill him and that

he's lost his kingdom. So those things

weren't even on his mind. But he says,

"The greatest thing that I have is not

even my own life. The greatest thing

that I have access to is the love of

God. The undeserved covenantal never let

go love."

And it just reminds me of the prodigal

son. He rehearsed the speech that he

would give to his father when he came

back after making his own sinful

choices. He would tell his father, "Hey,

I I've sinned. I'm not worthy to be your

son. Would you just make me one of your

servants?" He expected a lecture from

his father, but instead he got a hug. He

expected to be greeted with folded arms

and a scowl, but instead he got a hug.

He expected rejection, but he received

grace. And friends, that's the gospel.

And that is why God is worthy of all of

our praise. That is why God's name

should be hallowed. That's why we should

celebrate him. That's why we should

praise him. Because he sent Jesus to the

cross to save us while we were yet

sinners.

We were in our own wilderness because of

our own choices. Just like David, we

were in our own wilderness because of

our own choices. Just like the prodigal

son. Yet when we came to God expecting a

lecture, we received love.

David deserved to be abandoned,

but he received God's love.

On the other hand, Jesus deserved God's

love, yet he received abandonment.

Jesus was receiving what we deserved so

that we could receive what he deserved.

Jesus was forsaken so that we could be

welcomed home. Jesus was cast out so

that we could brought in. But friends,

Jesus also conquered the grave. And he

conquered sin and death so that we could

reign in God's estate and God's kingdom

as co-airs with Christ for all of

eternity if we simply turn our hearts

over to him.

And when that truth moves from something

you learned in vacation Bible school

that just kind of got stuck in your head

to your heart, when you see your

sinfulness in light of your savior and

you see what Jesus did for you in spite

of who you are, that's the gospel. And

that turns this intellectual knowledge

of the gospel into a a a type of gospel

that you want to live. That's when God

stops being merely useful, someone you

just pray and ask things of and becomes

beautiful. He He's no longer the one

that you just run to when you need

something. He's the one that you love

because he first loved you. When Jesus

becomes beautiful, then our praise

becomes natural. So [snorts] this week,

don't just ask God for things. And by

the way, it's okay to do that. We'll

talk about that. That's perfectly fine.

But don't just ask God for things. Don't

just rush into your list of requests.

Let's take a few moments and simply

praise God for who he is. Let's thank

him for his grace. Let's thank him for

his love. Let's thank him for the cross.

And what you'll discover in that praise

is the same thing that David discovered

in the wilderness, which is when all is

stripped away and you see life for what

it really is. It's the steadfast love of

God that truly is better than life.

Father, it's my prayer today that you

would meet us where we're at.

Some of us, Lord, we we truly understand

what it means to praise. We're not

locked into into genres. We're not

locked into the the havetos and the

traditions and all the things that that

we thought were necessary at one point

to maybe be able to properly praise you,

Lord. But we we are of a point where we

can praise regardless of where we are.

We can praise at church. We can praise

at work. We can praise at school. We can

praise walking down the street. We can

praise you because it's not about those

things. It's about who you actually are

and what you've done for us.

It's about the gospel.

So Lord, I I thank you for for those of

us that maybe are enjoying that that

relationship of praise with you. but

also know that there's some people

watching online and some people in this

room that probably Lord they don't

really understand what it's like to

truly praise to have their their joy

made complete in their public praise of

you or in their private praise of you.

And so my my hope Lord is that you just

that you'd unlock something in their

heart to help them move this knowledge

of who God is all the way down to their

heart to be able to see the the the

things that you want them to experience

with you.

that they would see you as a not someone

that just hands out blessing, but

someone that that that wants to to walk

through life with them, that wants to

have a personal forever relationship

with them. And so for the Christians in

this room, I pray that today would be a

day where their praise is unlocked and

they can truly say, "God, you you are

better than life. Your love is better

than life."

Lord, I also know there might be another

group of people that don't even

understand what it's like to have a

relationship with you because they've

never accepted your free gift of

salvation for. So for them today, Lord,

I just pray that they would have the

courage to pray something like this and

you can just repeat after me or say it

in your head. God can hear you. Just

say, "God, I know I'm a sinner

and I needed a savior.

And because of your great love for me,

you sent Jesus to the cross.

I believe he died.

I believe he was buried.

But oh, praise God. I believe that he

rose from the dead.

And in doing so, he took back the keys

to eternal life. He stomped the head of

the enemy.

So I believe Jesus is who he says he is.

And I give my life completely to him.

Forgive me and save me. And friends, if

you said that prayer this morning, I

want you to understand that

if you meant that in your head, in your

heart, that God has moved into your life

and he has sealed your salvation with

his Holy Spirit. And I just want to be

the first one to welcome you into the

family of God. And I just pray that your

praise grows every single day that

you're on this earth as you experience

life with him [music] and find out that

his love is better than