"I will pray all my life"

[Psalm 116:1-12]

By the grace of God and the loving care of all of you, I have spent the past two months well during my sabbatical.
For about five weeks, I went to Korea as part of the ministry concept for my personal Cyworld internet homepage, and I had many precious meetings that God guided and allowed.
Through these meetings, God not only let me see the tears flowing from their eyes but also let me glimpse the tears of their hearts.
In their hearts were pain, wounds, suffering, and distress.
And though they could not understand God’s will, they were enduring with vague faith in the midst of their pain and suffering.
They were tossed here and there by the world, living day by day looking to the Lord, their hope, even amid discouragement and despair.
Some were suffering from illnesses, some had wounds and pain from the past, some were dealing with current marital conflicts, discord, difficulties raising children, troubles at work, and I also saw young people anxious because of an uncertain future.
Is that all? Surely there are countless difficulties that all of us have that cannot be expressed in words.
Why did God allow me to meet these people?
I felt that perhaps God wanted to teach me His heart — the heart of the Father.
I shared this with a few people I met, but I think God wanted me to meet those who were weeping so that I could see what God the Father sees and hear what He hears.
By God’s grace, I carried out the ministry in Korea and then returned to the U.S.
While reading the Bible, I received a message of hope for those who weep in the second half of Luke 6:21.
The message of hope is: “Blessed are you who weep now.”
Why are those who weep blessed?
Because they shall laugh (verse 21).
Because God will comfort those who weep (verse 24), and God will give a great reward to those who weep (verse 23).

After spending about five weeks in Korea enjoying the grace God gave me, I returned to the U.S.
A little later, I went to stay about a week at my father-in-law’s house.
Since there wasn’t much I could do, I just stayed by my father-in-law, who was suffering from physical illness, offering praises to God, reading the Bible to him, and praying.
During this time, at the last Chuseok holiday, when I went to see the family doctor with my father- and mother-in-law, we confirmed that my father-in-law had lung cancer.
Also, a deacon Kim from our church is hospitalized after cancer surgery.
Another deacon Kim’s younger sister is also hospitalized after cancer surgery, and the mother of our assistant pastor also underwent cancer surgery.
Friends, when we think of those suffering from illnesses and pain like this, what should we do?
When we think of these loved ones, what should you and I do?

I found the answer in today’s Bible passage, Psalm 116:2: “I will pray all my life.”
The psalmist in Psalm 116, the text for today, is making this determination to God: “God, I will pray all my life.”
In a word, he committed himself to prayer.
Why did he decide, “I will pray all my life”?
Because God heard his prayer (verses 1 and 2).
Do you truly believe that God is a God who hears your prayers?
Do you truly believe that when you cry out to God in the midst of suffering, God listens to your pleas?

Recently, in Korea, God allowed me to meet a couple.
The husband is an elder in the church, and the wife is a deaconess; they both faithfully serve and minister in the church.
Through their son, I learned that the elder was suffering from a recurrence of cancer, and the deaconess was struggling after brain tumor surgery, so I went to visit them.
When I first visited, I saw tears flowing from the deaconess’s eyes.
So I prayed to God for her.
As I prayed, she kept saying “Amen, Amen.”
When I was leaving, I promised to visit again before returning to America, so I went back to their home the following Saturday.
That day, the couple was both there, and after some conversation, I encouraged them to praise the “Good God” together.
Then, when I stood up to pray, the elder grabbed my leg and asked me to sit and pray.
So the three of us sat in a circle, holding hands, and prayed to God together.
Even then, the deaconess said “Amen, Amen” with strength.

Friends, the psalmist in today’s text believed.
He believed that God was a God who answers his prayers.
Therefore, “when he faced trouble and sorrow” (v. 3), and “great distress” (v. 10), he cried out to God.
The trouble, sorrow, and great distress he faced were so severe that he was at the crossroads of life and death.
That is why he called it “the cords of death” and “the pains of Sheol” (v. 3).
In the midst of that, he cried out to God.
In other words, the psalmist cried out to God when he was at the crossroads of life and death.

If you and I were at the crossroads of life and death, what do you think our prayers seeking God would be like?
What do you think we would fervently pray to God?
The psalmist prayed to God like this: “I prayed to the Lord, and said, ‘O Lord, save my soul!’” (v. 4).
He cried out to God, “Save my soul!” (v. 4).
When he did so, God heard his prayer and not only saved him (v. 6) but also gave peace to his soul (v. 7).

This is the point.
Even if we are at the crossroads of life and death, Christians who trust and pray to God enjoy the assurance of salvation and the peace of soul that God gives.
Therefore, they can sing hymn number 470 to God’s praise:
(Verse 1) “Whether my path in life is smooth, like a calm river, or whether great storms come, my soul is always at peace.”
(Chorus) “My soul is at peace, my soul, my soul is at peace.”

Furthermore, God cared for the psalmist (v. 7) and bestowed abundant grace on him (v. 12).
Having experienced this abundant grace, the psalmist says: “How shall I repay the Lord for all His goodness to me?” (v. 12).
Do you and I realize and understand all the grace God has given us?
Do we realize that God answers our prayers and gives us “more than all we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20)?

If we, even a little, realize this abundant grace, what should we do?
We should decide and act like the psalmist, saying, “I will pray all my life.”
Those who have tasted the sweetness of prayer, like the psalmist, cannot help but commit themselves to prayer, deciding “I will pray all my life.”

I believe that the trials, sufferings, and sorrows that cause us to pray in our lives are necessary.
To be more specific, as verse 6 of today’s passage says, we must become somewhat “fools” in the midst of trials, sufferings, and sorrows.
Here, “fools” means “the open ones,” those who open their hearts, entrust themselves to God, and do not rely on their own wisdom (Park Yoon Sun).
We need training to open our hearts and entrust everything to God, even through the painful circumstances given to us.
The reason I think this way is that human nature tends not to rely on God or entrust everything to Him well through prayer.
Our nature is to rely on our own wisdom during trials, sufferings, and sorrows and keep seeking help from people.
However, those who open their hearts and trust God during trials, sufferings, and sorrows realize that “all men are liars” (verse 11), and therefore they rely only on the gracious, merciful, truthful, and righteous God, and they plead to Him (verse 5).
Also, we need to humble ourselves because of trials, sufferings, and sorrows (verse 6).
Through trials, sufferings, and sorrows, not only do we open the door of our hearts and entrust everything to God, but we also must become humble before Him.
The psalmist says, “When I humbled myself, He saved me” (verse 6).
Yes, through adversity, difficulties, sufferings, and sorrows in our lives, we must humble ourselves before God.
In other words, through these hard, painful, and sorrowful environments, we must humble ourselves and fall humbly before God and plead to Him.

What grace did God grant the psalmist when he did this?
Look at verse 8: “You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.”
He experienced the grace of salvation.
In other words, when the psalmist humbly fell and pleaded before God through trials and sufferings, God delivered him from death, tears, and stumbling.
Wouldn’t you want to experience this grace of salvation?

Last Wednesday, during Chuseok, after meeting with the family doctor together with my father-in-law and mother-in-law, we returned to my father-in-law’s home. There, while he was lying in his hospital bed, we praised God together.
I sang hymn number 470, “The Path of My Life,” which my father-in-law likes, and also hymn number 469, “From the Deep Within My Soul,” among others, praising God for peace.
This is because God gave peace to my father-in-law’s heart.

Friends, now is the time to pray.
Seeing our beloved members suffering from illness around us, we must unite our hearts and pray to God.
Just as the psalmist cried out to God, “Save my soul,” in the midst of great difficulty, trials, and sorrow, we too must plead to God, “Save our souls.”
When we do so, God will listen to our prayers (verse 2).
And God will answer our prayers and grant us the grace of salvation.
When we experience the abundant grace of that salvation, you and I will be able to confess, “The Lord has heard my voice and my supplications; therefore I love Him” (verse 1).

With a thankful heart to God who listens even to the weak prayers of the insufficient,

Pastor James Kim
(Sharing after receiving God’s message on the first Sunday following a sabbatical month and dedicating myself to prayer)