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: As we continue praying the Psalms we come now to Psalm 40. Another Psalm of David. He writes, I waited patiently for the Lord to help me and he turned to me and he heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair out of the mud and out of the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.
He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord. Oh, the joys of those who trust the Lord, who have no confidence in the proud or in those who worship idols. Oh, Lord, my God, you have performed many wonders for us.
Your plans for us are too numerous to list. You have no equal. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them. And David is feeling good today. You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings.
Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand you don't require burnt offerings or sin offerings. Then I said, look, I have come. As it is written about me in the scriptures, I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart. In other words, David is clarifying for us that over and against sacrifices God desires in obedience from the heart. Verse 10, I have not kept the good news of your justice hidden in my heart.
I have talked about your faithfulness and saving power. Down in verse 13, Please Lord rescue me. Come quickly Lord and help me. May those who try to destroy me be humiliated and put to shame. May those who take delight in my trouble be turned back in disgrace.
Let them be horrified by their shame. Verse 16, but may all who search for you be filled with joy and gladness in you. May those who love your salvation repeatedly shout, the Lord is great. As for me, since I am poor and needy, let the Lord keep me in His thoughts. You are my helper and my savior.
Oh, my God. Do not delay. I love Psalm 40 in a way that it kind of holds together how all of life can be. Meaning we can have moments where we're like, man, I'm on an I'm on steady ground today. I have a new song in my heart to sing to God.
My heart desires to obey him. Right. But then also in verse 13, Lord come quickly. Like, sometimes as we go about our days, we we feel like that. God, I'm doing great.
You have delivered me. And then, you know, the next moment, God, help me. What's going on? What did, you know, save save me from these people. And I love that this is a prayer for us because it's it's an honest reflection about how a day might go, how a week might go, how we might be feeling at any given moment.
But I also love here there's there's a great way that David in verse 17, by way of just reflection, is able to, give to us a spiritual practice and it's simply this, stating who He is and who God is. Lord, I am poor and needy. You are my helper and my savior. You see there's a way for us I think at times where we're either feeling good or bad to, only say one of those things. God, I'm poor and needy.
Where are you? Or to only say, God, you are my help and my deliverer and to ignore kind of what we're working through. But David in this, I think spiritual practice through prayer is able to remember, I need to state who I am, and who God is. Today Lord, we are poor and needy, and you are our help. You are our deliverer.
You are our savior. Holding those 2 holding those 2 things together can propel us forward, both in our in our life with God and prayer and also in our life with God through the situations we navigate. And so Jesus, today we hear that invitation. 1st, that like David, we would have a new song to sing today as we remember all of your wonderful things. As David said, there's there's too many things to recount.
Your wonder is great. So God, would you just open our eyes to see you? But Lord, in so doing, would we also remember to state who we are today? That we are in need, and you are also the one who can meet that need. Help us to remember to state both truths.
Who we are and who you are. We confess that now in prayer, but we experience you as our help and as our deliverer today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.