Answer Your Problems with Prayer

How do you answer the door? That probably depends. If you hear a banging on the door at midnight, you would probably answer the door with a clenched fist. If you answer the door at 9:45 on Thanksgiving morning, you would probably answer with open arms. You are expecting family and friends. So, how do you answer when problems are at the door?

Psalm 142 is from God and penned through King David who was between a rock and a hard place. Quite literally, he was in a cave. A couple of times David was cornered in a cave by King Saul who was seeking to kill him. We learn from David to answer your problems with prayer.

Psalm 142 is both an instructive poem and a record of a prayer. Someone has said “They learn in suffering and they teach in song.” That is exactly what you find in Psalm 142. So, answer your problems in prayer. You can answer it with anger. You can answer it with panic. David was tempted with both of these answers when Saul cornered him in the cave. You can answer your problems with confusion, or you can answer your problems with prayer.

Consider what prayer is. Verses 1-2 say, “I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.” So, David cried out. It was a call for help both earnest and audible and one because of the other. “Lord, Lord, help!” David said as he poured out his complaint. You are going to pour your complaint to someone. So, to whom are you pouring out your complaint? Are you pouring it out to someone who can change your situation or merely complaining to someone who is as weak as you are? Consider what prayer is. David’s was an earnest request.

Consider when this prayer was made. Verse 3 says, “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path.” He was stuck in the cave. He was overwhelmed. The idea is shrouded in darkness. Have you ever been in darkness so thick you could feel it? That is where David was. “When I was in such a case,” David says, “Thou knewest.” David had a murky future, but a clear conscience. God knows what I am and where that leads. I can’t always know what tomorrow holds, but I can come to God with a clean conscience. I can say, “God, you know my path and where I have walked. You know me. So, you know my future and you know my conscience.”

Consider why this prayer was made. Verse 4 says, “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.” No one cared. He was isolated, but some people can be isolated either in a cave or in a crowd.

David and his men were surrounded by David’s enemies in this cave. Ultimately, desolation is a condition, not a terrain. There are times in your life where you are in a dark place and no one can take that for you. Only you can, and you need God. David’s men cared, but they were confused. They basically said in I Samuel 24:4-7, “This is the day the Lord told you about where you would have victory over your enemy. David, kill Saul.” David did not do that.

Sometimes the easiest decisions to make are the hardest to live with. David could have killed Saul, but what would have happened after David killed Saul. We say David was a godly man and didn’t take revenge. That is true, but I would also add that sometimes we think we have a clear answer and actually we are about to make things worse. If David had killed Saul when he was in the cave, what would have happened in the next minutes? Saul’s soldiers would have sent a search party and David was bottled up in the cave. Do you think they would have said, “Oh, David, you have a bloody sword and there is a dead King Saul, so I guess you are the next king”? No, David was surrounded and it would have been disastrous.

Notice that David prayed. His men were talking to him, but he was talking to God. So, consider to whom this prayer is addressed. Verse 5 says, “I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.” That means right here, right now. It was not merely a cave that protected David. It was God. This wasn’t pie in the sky, but God’s help right there and then. No one is stronger than God.

In I Samuel 24:15 David says to Saul, “The LORD therefore be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of thine hand.” He is saying, “I’m not going to do you wrong, Saul. God is the one in whom I am relying.” In verse 19 Saul says, “For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? wherefore the LORD reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day.” Saul was right in saying that. David said, “God, I praise your name. You have heard.” He looked back at his life and saw God.

When God does the work, God gets the credit. Cranky people don’t see God in their story. Do you? Are you including Him now when you are in a tight spot, have decisions to make, and deal with difficult people? Answer your problems with prayer and God will answer you with power.