God Listens And Acts

Read: Psalm 17:1,6-8,15

Our faith and our covenant are about a reciprocal relationship with God. God will be our God, and we will be His people. We obey His commands, and He blesses us with all good things. God is Rock, so He is totally reliable and committed to the relationship. But we are not. Thus, we need to be built on Rock, on Christ. How? We listen to Jesus’ words and act on them. We strive to be like God, to be holy as God is holy, and that ensures a great relationship and a truly fulfilled life for us.

Holiness is about righteousness. Now God is right and just. So the other aspect to look at is justice. Justice is giving to the other person what is His due. We give God the worship and obedience due to Him. But what is due to us from God? If we strive for holiness and if we obey God in everything, then we are fulfilling our part of the covenant. In turn, what must, by virtue of covenant, God do for us? How can God do justice to us?

This is where we look to the other side, the reverse if you will, of Jesus’ instructions on how to be built on Rock. Instead of we listening to and acting on Jesus’ words, God has to listen to and act on our words, especially our pleas. And so we can pray: “Hear, Lord, my plea for justice; pay heed to my cry; listen to my prayer from lips without guile.” (v.1). Notice aspects of this prayer.

• We pray without guile. We stand innocent before God, with no hidden agenda. We are holy and righteous.
• We plea for justice. The just God is the God who gives us what is our due, especially by virtue of our covenant. God has committed Himself to do us good and to make all things work for our good if we are living according to His purpose.[1]
• We boldly ask (tell?) God to hear us and to pay heed to us and to act on our need. We know that this is what God Himself wants to do and has committed to do. In other words, we are saying, mimicking what Jesus has instructed us: as we are founded on Rock, so listen to our words and act on them.

So we pray, we seek justice, we ask/tell God our need. And in justice, we expect an answer.[2] “I call upon you; answer me, O God. Turn your ear to me; hear my speech.”(v.6). This is not being demanding. This is not disrespect, as we indeed are mindful of our covenant. This is just seeking justice, and we know we are speaking to a just God.

Then there is the aspect of mercy. As we have seen repeatedly, mercy and justice go together. They are two sides of the same coin. So we also pray, “Show your wonderful mercy” (v.7a). While we look to justice, with us striving to keep our part of the covenant by growing in righteousness, we do fall short, we do fail, we do sin, we do do injustice to our covenant. And so we ask for mercy. We are praying dear Lord, we strive to be good and holy, but please make allowances for our shortcomings.

As if justice and mercy are not enough, we also call upon the love of God, the love with which He made a covenant with us in the first place. We know that love covers a multitude of sins.[3] We know that we are sinners whom God loves. He is a Father who does not reject even His wayward children and will do whatever is needed to keep us in His embrace. So we say, like a child who knows he is favored by his father, “Keep me as the apple of your eye” (v.8a).

So we look to the love of God and the justice of God. We know that by virtue of our covenant, as God Himself intends, we, as we strive for holiness and obey God’s commands, have earned our place in the presence and intimacy of God. “I am just­ let me see your face” (v.15a).

If we live out all these,[4] how secure will our life be! How peacefully can we sleep at night, despite the problems we might have. How secure we are that our lives are build on Rock, withstanding the winds and floods of adversity.[5] We have the confidence that God gives to His beloved even in sleep.[6] We can thus pray with confidence: “when I awake, let me be filled with your presence.” (v.15b).

***
[1] See Romans 8:28.
[2] Not that God does not answer prayers, as He always does. His answer is yes, no, or
not now.
[3] See 1 Peter 4:6. Peter says this in light of the call to love one another. How much
more when we are striving to love God Himself.
[4] With allowance for failure, as long as we continue to strive again and again.
[5] See Matthew 7:24-25.
[6] See Psalm 127:2.