Desperate Praying

“O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you! Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” (Psalm 141:1-2)

This is an example of desperate praying, and it starts where it should always start – begging God to intervene.

R.A. Torrey, who was a Southern California pastor and evangelist from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s in his book on prayer wrote, “We should never utter one syllable of prayer, either in public or in private, until we are definitely conscious that we have come into the presence of God and are actually praying to Him.”

The psalmist knew he was actually praying to God. He knew exactly Who he was addressing. He knew that he was talking to a God that would hear and react. The psalmist knew there was not a moment to lose.

In fact, he wants his prayer to be so special and unique and heard that he compares it to “incense” before God and received just like the “evening sacrifice.” Let me unpack the meaning of these 2 items to help you see David’s desperation:

• “Incense.” This was a special mixture of spices (Exodus 30:37), a common symbol of prayer. One of the primary tasks of a priest as he would get up in the morning to burn incense to give a pleasing aroma before the Lord (Exodus 30:7-8). And it is a form of sacrifice not accepted by God if the individual is living in sin; God would consider that an abomination (Isaiah 1:13). It’s as if the psalmist is putting himself in the role of the holy mediator – the priest – and asking to be a pleasant aroma with his words. That’s desperation.

• “The evening sacrifice.” This usually took place in the afternoon around 3:00pm. Prayers would be uttered as a lamb was put upon the altar along with bread and wine. The morning sacrifice worked the same way. Like the “incense” offering, it was a daily presentation to God of one whose life was consecrated to Him.

Both communicate a level of desperation. Because David mentioned one for the morning and evening, it is an all-encompassing, never-ceasing, always and forever desperation.

Desperate praying is a lost art. There is a lot of praying going on in the world but not enough pleading and begging and seeking to persuade God. You know why that is? There is an evil misconception many have bought into about prayer and it is this: prayer is boring.

Let me give you some reasons why some people think prayer can be boring.

• God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. God’s transcendence means He is not like us. His thoughts are not our own and His ways are not our own (Isaiah 55:8-9). And since we aren’t like Him, we don’t know what to pray for and when we pray without godly thoughts, our prayers just get lost.

• We do not know the Bible. If you don’t know His ways, it is because you don’t know His Word. So, any ignorance of His ways is our fault and not His. If you don’t know the Word, you won’t know His heart, desires, etc. Thus, how will you know what to pray for, if your prayers will even be granted, etc.?

• We don’t feel we need God’s help. We are too independent and think solutions and wisdom resonate from inside us. Only when things go wrong will be turn to God but when things are going right, we tend to think of our self-sufficiency.

Life is desperate and real and scary. And so should our prayers be.

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The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power, 75.