An Excellent Prayer in Trying Times

I read 2 Chronicles 20 and Matthew Henry's commentary on the chapter for my devotion this morning. I've been reading one chapter of the Bible, beginning with the 1st chapter of the 1st book in the Bible (Genesis), and Matthew Henry's corresponding commentary (from Numbers onwards) almost daily since 2008. This was a discipline and aspiration that I had set for myself ever since visiting my friend in Shanghai in Mar 2008 and being impressed by her deep knowledge and application of Scripture.

Back to 2 Chron 20. I was struck this morning by the verses which I had underlined in previous readings - v12 "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you." and v15 "For the battle is not yours, but God's." The context was King Jehoshaphat's prayer to God when faced with an invasion by a vast army of Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites.

How often have I been in trying times and do not know what to do. Even as an 18-year-old Christian (huh, 18 years old? 18 years as Christian lah!), there are times when I do not know how to pray, what to pray for; there are just no words that I could utter even in my heart or with my mind. Tears sometimes take the place of words that are not there. I take heart in the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans :

"26 ... the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."

I've shared with my former boss about the dilemma that I sometimes have in praying - pray for this no good, pray for that also no good. Her advice to me? Pray for God's will be done.

Looking at King Jehoshaphat's prayer in 2 Chron 20, we also have a model that we can emulate. Matthew Henry calls Jehoshaphat's prayer "an excellent prayer". In this prayer, Matthew Henry sees Jehoshaphat:

1) Acknowledging the sovereign dominion of God, giving to God the glory of it and taking to himself the comfort of it.

v6 "O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. "

2) Laying hold on their covenant-relation to God and interest in him. Whom should we seek to, whom should we trust to, for relief, but to the God we have chosen and served?

v7 "O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?"

3) Showing the title they had to the good land they were now in possession of. We are tenants, you are our landlord - will you not hold your own? Those that use what they have for God may comfortably hope that he will secure it to them.

v7 "O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?"

4) Making mention of the sanctuary, the temple they had built for God's name, not as if that merited anything at God's hand, but it was such a token of God's favourable presence with them.

v8-9 "They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, 'If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.' "

5) Pleading the ingratitude and injustice of his enemies. We may comfortably appeal to God against those that render us evil for good. The justice of God is the refuge of those that are wronged.

v10-11 "But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. "

6) Professing his entire dependence upon God for deliverance.

v12 "O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. "

The battle, then, is the Lord's.