“I will pray all my life.”

[Psalm 116]

Today, as I was driving to church with my youngest daughter, Yaeun, to attend the Wednesday prayer meeting, shortly after getting into the car, Yaeun suddenly said, “I want to grow up, Daddy.”
So I asked her why she wanted to grow up quickly, and this five-year-old girl replied, “Because I want to have a pretty baby.” Haha.
Then I told Yaeun that when she grows up, she should marry a Christian man who loves Jesus and have a baby, and I encouraged her to start praying to God for such a man.
After that, I told Yaeun that her daddy also prayed, and God brought her mom into my life so we could get married.
I also told her that I prayed for four children, and God answered mom and dad’s prayers.
Yaeun said nothing at first, so I asked if she was listening to me, and she said she had just prayed.
I asked her what she prayed for, and she said she prayed for a boyfriend.
I asked if she prayed for a boyfriend who loves Jesus, and she said she forgot to say “who loves Jesus” when she prayed. Haha.
Besides that, through various conversations with Yaeun, I tried to teach her how to pray to God.
In other words, I tried to teach her the necessity of prayer.
Also, I wanted to teach her that God answers our prayers.

While carefully observing Propositions 8 and 4 in the recent U.S. presidential election and here in California where I live, I felt a stronger need to pray for this country and this nation.
Although Proposition 8, which supports traditional marriage (and opposes same-sex marriage), passed, lawyers and civil rights groups are already filing lawsuits here and there, and it seems the problems will continue to get serious, so I cannot help but pray even more for my family.
Also, the church is not living up to its calling and gives non-believers the impression of being anti-homosexual, judgmental, and hypocritical, so I believe our church needs to repent of this as well.
Because the church is not showing the true image of Christians in this world and rather is causing people to question what Christianity is not, I think this is also something we must repent of.
Furthermore, I feel that while we pray for all people, we must especially pray for the leaders of this country and this nation (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
Nevertheless, when I look inward, I must confess that I still don’t deeply feel the urgent need for prayer as I should.

On one internet site, I read about the 16th-century reformer Calvin’s view that the necessity of prayer is based on God’s Word, the Bible, and although there are countless reasons for prayer, they can be broadly summarized into six:

1. So that the desire and zeal to always seek, love, and serve God will burn like fire in our hearts.

2. So that shameful desires or wishes that we cannot tell God will not invade our hearts.

3. So that when God grants various graces, we can receive them with sincere gratitude.

4. So that we may obtain what we ask for and, with the assurance that God has answered our prayers, meditate more diligently on His mercy.

5. So that we may receive with even greater joy what we acknowledge we obtained through prayer.

6. Finally, according to our weakness, so that by habit and experience we may confirm His providence.

Thinking about these six reasons, the fourth one especially struck my heart.
I agree that we need to pray so that, through the answers to our prayers from God, we may meditate more deeply on God’s mercy.
While praying, God gives me the assurance that He has already answered my prayers, and through that, grants me grace to go deeper into His love and grace.
Therefore, God is making it so that I cannot help but pray.

Today, looking at Psalm 116:2, the psalmist resolves, "I will pray all my life."
Why did he decide, "I will pray all my life"?
The reason is that God heard his prayer.
Look at Psalm 116:1-2 in today’s passage:
"The LORD has heard my voice and my supplications" (v. 1),
"Because He inclined His ear to me, therefore I will pray all my life" (v. 2).

God listens to our prayers; when we cry out in suffering, He listens to our pleas.
God answered the psalmist’s prayer when he faced "great distress" (v. 10) and "trouble and sorrow" (v. 3).
In other words, when the psalmist cried out, "Deliver my soul, O LORD, from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling" (vv. 3-4), God heard his prayer and saved him (v. 6).
God not only saved him but also gave peace to his soul (v. 7).
Furthermore, God cared for him (v. 7) and bestowed abundant grace upon him (v. 12).
So the psalmist said,
"How shall I repay the LORD for all His goodness to me?" (v. 12).

Do you and I truly realize and understand all the grace that God gives us?
Are we living enjoying all the grace that God can give us, "more than all we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20)?
If so, we must decide and act like the psalmist and say, "I will pray all my life."
Why must we make this decision?
Because through answered prayer we come to know God as God.
That is, like the psalmist, through answered prayer we learn that God is gracious, righteous, and compassionate (v. 5), so we must resolve to pray all our lives to God.

Therefore, the troubles, sufferings, and sorrows that make us pray are necessary for us.
In other words, in the midst of trouble, suffering, and sorrow, we must be somewhat “fools” (v. 6).
Here, “fools” means “the open ones”—those who open their hearts, entrust themselves to God, and do not rely on their own wisdom (according to Park Yoon Sun).
Those who rely on their own wisdom during trouble will surely seek help from people.
But those who open their hearts and trust God, knowing that "all men are liars," will rely only on the gracious, compassionate, truthful, and righteous God and plead to Him (v. 11).
Because of trouble, suffering, and sorrow, we must humble ourselves (v. 6).
The psalmist says, “When I was brought low, He saved me” (v. 6).
Indeed, through adversity, difficulty, suffering, and sorrow in our lives, we must humble ourselves before God.
In other words, through those difficult, painful, and sorrowful circumstances, we must lower ourselves, humbly bow down before God, and plead to Him.
What grace did God grant to the psalmist when he did so?
Look at verse 8:
“You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.”

Having experienced the grace of salvation through answered prayer from God, how did the psalmist respond?
In other words, how and with what should we repay God’s grace who saves us by answering our prayers? (v. 12)

First, we must love God. And we must confess that love like the Psalmist did.

Look at Psalm 116:1: “I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my pleas.”
We must sincerely confess to God, who hears the sound of our pleading prayers and grants us the grace of salvation, saying, “God, I love You.”
The Psalmist confesses, “Lord, I love You because You have heard my voice and my pleas” (verse 1).
The order is that the confession of love comes first.
We have already meditated on a similar confession in Psalm 18:1: “I love you, O Lord, my strength.”
We must be able to confess to the God who has answered our prayers and saved us, “Lord, I love You.”

Second, we must always strive to live wholly before God.

Look at Psalm 116:9: “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.”
The Psalmist vowed to live before the Lord all his life because God answered his prayer.
Since God rescued him from the place of death, he intended to dedicate the second life God gave him and live completely before God (Park Yoon Sun).
The Bible says that only those who keep God’s commandments are those who love God (John 14:21).
If we truly confess, “I love You, God,” then we must keep His commandments.
Therefore, we must live a whole and complete life before the Lord.

Third, we must give thanks and offer praise and worship to God.

Look at Psalm 116:13 and 17: “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (v. 13), “I will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord” (v. 17).
The appropriate response to the grace of salvation God gives us is to give thanks and offer praise and worship.
Those who receive God’s grace but lack a fervent heart of gratitude will not receive more grace in the future (Park Yoon Sun).
To receive more grace, we must praise and worship God with a thankful heart.
Especially when we think of the grace of salvation (eternal life) God has given us in Jesus Christ, we have reason to give thanks in everything.
Therefore, we should respond to God’s grace of salvation by giving thanks and offering Him praise and worship.

Lastly, fourth, we must fulfill the vows we have made to God.

Look at Psalm 116:14 and 18-19: “I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people” (v. 14), “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, Jerusalem. Hallelujah!” (vv. 18-19).
The Psalmist decided to fulfill his vow as he remembered how God had saved him from the place of death (v. 15) (Park Yoon Sun).
Look at verse 15: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”
This means God treats the death of His saints very seriously and does not permit their death without a special precious purpose (Park Yoon Sun).
Indeed, our God regards the matters of life and death for you and me very seriously.
Therefore, even when we stand at the crossroads of life and death, we must rely on God who governs life and death and earnestly long for and look to His salvation.
When God hears our vow prayers and rescues us from affliction and pain, we must repay the vows we made to Him.

Our God is the God who hears the voice of our pleading prayers.
When we are in pain, affliction, and sorrow, if we humbly humble ourselves and offer prayers for salvation to God, He listens to those prayers and rescues us.
Moreover, He gives us peace and richly blesses us with grace.
Therefore, we love God even more.
We express that love by living fully before God.
Also, we give praise and worship to God and repay the vows we made to Him.
I pray that you and I may be people who pray to God all our lives.

Singing “The Time I Pray” (Hymn 482),

Shared by Pastor James Kim
(after Wednesday prayer meeting)