Pastor Fredo Ramos: For whatever reason, I have always struggled to pray. And so as this new year begins and as many of you think about new routines that you wanna give yourself to, especially for those of you who follow Jesus, I wanna invite you to learn to pray the Psalms with us. It's a practice I picked up years ago that really saved, my ability to learn to pray, to speak to God honestly about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. And so every single day on sandalschurch.tv on YouTube, we're gonna be releasing, praying the Psalms, a psalm a day. We started in January 1st and every day you're gonna get a new psalm, but the opportunity to read the psalm with us, to reflect on a phrase, and then to respond to God in prayer, how to pray through the psalms.
This has been a gift to me in my own journey with Jesus. I pray that it's a gift to you, and so would you join us. Grace and peace.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: We're currently praying the Psalms, and today we're in Psalm chapter 5. Hear these words from David starting at verse 1. Listen to my words, Lord. Consider my lament. Hear my cry for help, my king and my God, for to you I pray.
In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning, I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly. For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness. With you, evil people are not welcome. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence.
In other words, we need humility. You hate all who do wrong. Verse 7, but I, by your great love, can come into your house. In reverence, I bow down towards your holy temple. Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness.
Down in verse 11, he says, but let all who take refuge in you be glad. Let them sing for joy. Spread your protection over them that those who love your name may rejoice in you. Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous and you surround them with your favor as with a shield. David introduces us, for our reflection there in verse 1 to this word lament.
That is to kind of pour out of our souls words even sometimes feelings and thoughts that are hard to put words to that is just a cry, a confession of sorts, a desire just to give to God all the anguish that we sense in us. And he says that. God, hear my words. What a what a what a gift to know that when we pray, the the words just don't hit the ceiling and fall back down. But God is the God who hears our prayers and invites us to pour out before him, to lament in front of him.
David says this is the thing he does in the morning. He laments early in the morning. He's talking about having a rough start. He's lamenting in the morning. He says he lays his request before him.
And then what I want to really zero in on is just the idea of I wait expectantly for you. There should be in all of us a desire to wait expectantly for God. To wait knowing that he hears prayers. We wait expectantly knowing that he welcomes all kinds of prayers, even laments. And then to wait expectantly knowing that he will deliver us.
He will in fact be our shield. He will in fact, spread his protection around us. And he will in fact open the door of favor to us in our lives. The question is, will we wait for him? And do we have the kinds of practices in our lives that allow us to slow down and wait?
And so as we pray this psalm, Jesus, we hear you inviting us to pour everything out before you, but to do so with hopeful expectation, knowing that you are the god who hears our prayers, knowing that you are the god who laments too, and so you are familiar with the things that burden us today. And so we open our hands, we open our hearts to you, and we ask, god, that you would hear us in the things that burden us and that you, by your holy spirit, would teach us to go slow and to wait expectantly because you are a god who will show up. And so will you show up in our lives today? We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Grace and peace. Feel free to continue along as we hit Psalms chapter 6.