Asking More from our Generous God

Psalm 116

The Lord hath dealt bountifully with us, for he hath given us his Son, and in him he hath given us all things: he hath sent us his Spirit, and by him he conveys to us all spiritual blessings...let us come back to him who has treated us with such exceeding kindness.

Charles Spurgeon

Psalm 116 begins, “I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.” He starts with a declaration of love to the Lord in response to the Lord’s answer to his cries for help. The psalmist had been surrounded by the snares of death, distressed and anguished, brought low and greatly afflicted, but the Lord had saved him. Because he had experienced the Lord’s deliverance on his behalf, he said, “therefore I will call on him as long as I live” (Psalm 116:2). His answered prayer worked in his heart to commit to keep coming back to his God. He even saw it as his gift to the Lord. “What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (116:12-13). We, like the psalmist, must learn that “God wants to give us good gifts” (Paul Miller), and not only give us good gifts, but He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think. So why are we, myself included, asking so little of our generous Father? God is honored, when in response to prayers already answered, we come to Him again and ask for more. “A relationship with our God, not only enables us to pray but presses us toward it. God opens his hands, reveals unimagined treats, and tells us to ask for them. For our part, delighted by our God, overwhelmed by his love, governed by his commands, and thankful for his condescension toward us, we overflow in prayer” (Megan Hill). If we remember that prayer is trusting God and depending on Him, then we overflow in prayer knowing He is honored as we look to Him to supply all we need.

Perhaps, in regard to asking God for more, we see Him through the lens of our own character. In my humanness and frailty, when I have served and met needs, I run out of energy and resources. I can get irritated when I’m tired but my children keep asking for more. I need rest and recuperation in order to keep serving. I have limited material resources, so there are some needs and desires I am unable to meet. In my selfishness, I reach a point when I don’t want to meet any more needs. God is unlike me in all these ways and many more. Whatever limits I have that keep me from meeting others’ needs, God is unrestrained by them. He never runs out of resources or power. When we ask for more, He has more to give, and what He gives is always best. His giving never diminishes in quality or amount. Our God needs no recuperation or rest. He has an endless supply to meet every need of all His saints for all eternity. He is not selfish. He always does what is best for His children. “But as we learn to pray well, we’ll discover that this is my Father’s world. Because my Father controls everything, I can ask, and he will listen and act. Since I am his child, change is possible – and hope is born” (Paul Miller). This is His world. He owns and governs it all, and we have been privileged to be made His children. In Christ, we have abundant hope that we can never come too often to seek God’s help for us.

We serve a God who tells us to ask, and ask again, and ask for more, and, in fact, to ask persistently and continuously. He doesn’t tire of our asking. He loves to hear us, in dependence upon Him, ask Him again and again to meet our needs, desires, and longings. He does not withhold what is good. He does not give what is bad. He gives and gives and gives and then gives some more. And when we have received His good gifts, He wants us to come back for yet even more.

Are you hesitant to come to Him in prayer? Slow to come? Doubting that coming to Him in prayer will matter? Tired of coming? Making no time to come? Choosing lesser things than to come to your Father? These questions are not asked in condemnation, but rather, to encourage you to probe your heart. What keeps you from coming to our God who gives and gives and gives again?

Let’s pray through Psalm 116 that we would be people who come persistently, continuously, expectantly to our generous God.

Call on Him as long as I live

116:1-4 I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

Lord, I pray:

▫️In sincerity I say that I love You. All my life You have been faithful to hear my voice and my pleas for mercy. I remember and thank You for answering my calls for help concerning _________. I come to You again, Father. Incline Your ear to me and answer me speedily concerning _________. As long as I live, I want to trust You, depend on You, and cry to You to meet my needs.

▫️Bind my heart to Yours through Your answers to my cries. Give me eyes to see Your work in and for me. Even when You give answers that are not what I hoped, help me to see Your goodness and wisdom in them for my life.

▫️Thank You that You incline your ear to me and regard even my whispered prayers and prayers no one else hears or knows. Throughout my life, I will call on Your faithful, trustworthy name.

▫️When I am distressed and in anguish, let the knowledge that You hear and act for me, give me comfort, hope, and joy. In my times of anguish, give me the words and courage to cry, “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” Deliver me today from ________. May my distress drive me to You. I have no other refuge but You alone.

He preserves the simple

116:5-9 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

Lord, I pray:

▫️I come to You with every need and desire knowing You are gracious—You give me more than I deserve; You are righteous—I can rely on the justness of Your character knowing You will do what is right in my situation; You are merciful—You do not give me what I ought to have. Knowing these truths, I commit to coming to You persistently and expectantly.

▫️You preserve the simple. “Those who have no worldly craft and subtlety and guile” but simply trust in You and do right, You promises to uphold. Help me to be such a one as will depend on Your care over me with unwavering trust. I come to You now again with the situation which has brought me low. Please save me from _______ as You have so wonderfully saved me in times past.

▫️Help me today, Lord, to not just listen to the thoughts running through my mind, but to speak gospel truth to myself (Martin Lloyd-Jones). I want to remind myself, “Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.” Help me to readily recall Your work on my behalf and Your Word to strengthen my heart. Give me Your calm assurance that all will be well with my soul, even in this.

▫️I rejoice as I contemplate how You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling so many times throughout my life. Help me to walk in a manner worthy of You. Help me to “walk before the Lord,” to live in Your sight, considering Your presence and acting under the influence of Your all-observing eye. Produce the life of faith, hope, holy fear, and true holiness by a real sense of living and walking before You (Spurgeon).

He has given many benefits

116:10-14 I believed, even when I spoke: “I am greatly afflicted”; I said in my alarm, “All mankind are liars.” What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

Lord, I pray:

▫️When I am greatly afflicted, give me a firm resolve to continue to believe in You and in Your goodness. I want to come through this affliction stronger in faith and having learned to trust You more deeply. Produce in me Your intended results from this affliction: perseverance, character, hope, steadfastness, and joy.

▫️In gratitude for all You have already done in answer to my prayers, I will return again and again to Your throne of grace. You have proven Yourself faithful. I will trust in no other.

▫️Help me to yield myself to Your Spirit that my walk, my speech, my conduct will glorify You when I am alone and when I am in the presence of others. Help me to render to You the praise You are due.

Praise the Lord

116:15-19 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!

Lord, I pray:

▫️Lord, I know I am so dear to You that even my death is precious to You. You govern all my days and every breath. I want to honor You with my whole life, until You bring me home to Yourself. You know all my days. My death will not come too early. I will cry out to You as long as I live. You will sustain me even in the severest trial and bring light to even the darkest place—the valley of the shadow of death.

▫️Thank You that You have loosed my bonds of sin and death. I have been set free that I might be Your slave bearing fruits of righteousness for holiness.

▫️I will bring to You “the thanksgiving of my heart. My inmost soul shall adore thee in gratitude…I will bow before thee reverently, lift up my heart in love to thee, think upon thy character, and adore thee” (Spurgeon).

▫️I owe all to You. All I am and all I have is by Your grace only. Even the desire to live for You has been given to me. All is graciously given to me by Your kind hand. Fill my heart and lips with rejoicing, praise, and thanksgiving all day long for all the spiritual blessings that are mine in Christ and all that You have freely given to me. Cause me to come back again and again to You who continues to show toward me the exceeding riches of Your grace in Your kindness to me in Christ.

May the Lord do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, for His glory and our good. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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