How do you feel when someone you are talking to says, “it is so good to hear your voice”? Maybe you’ve been separated by choice or circumstance for quite a while or only a few days. Does it make you feel “special” when someone speaks the statement “So good to hear your voice”?
People who know you well can distinguish your voice from all other voices. Priscilla Shirer tells of her father and brother having similar sounding voices. She said that when people call on the phone, they thought they were speaking to Tony Evans only to discover after they had told their heart, they were talking to his son. Priscilla followed up the story with the fact that she never wondered who was on the other end of the line when she called. She knew them well and could distinguish one voice from another.
Ask yourself this question as we think through a passage of scripture.
-Does God hear my voice?
Psalm 55:17 says “Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and moan, and He will hear my voice.”
This Psalm is written by David at a time when some well-known to him people were opposing him. David was crying out to God for deliverance from those who were trying to destroy him.
We see from this one passage 4 things that will encourage us to pray.
TIMING
It is always the right time to pray. But sometimes when we don’t set aside time to pray, we don’t pray. David made a habit of praying evening, morning, and noon. The Jewish day began at evening, that is why the evening is shown first in this passage. A Jewish day went from nightfall to nightfall. Therefore, David was saying here at the beginning, middle, and end of my day; I will pray. If he had a cell phone, he would have set an alarm. If he had an appointment calendar, he would write in his routine prayer times. He made a point to invade his day with prayer.
COMPLAIN
This shouldn’t be too hard. Finding fault comes so natural to most of us. David described “what is wrong with this picture” before the Lord. He pondered the way things were and told the Lord how that didn’t line up with how God wanted things to be done. He meditated and thought through what his “gripe” was with God. David did not take out his anger on his enemy, the one doing him “wrong”. Instead, he expressed his dissatisfaction to God with the knowledge God could and would make all wrongs repaid.
MOAN
Great commotion was in David’s prayer. He was boisterous about his unsettledness with how things were going. David expressed his discouragement to God. Moaning is often loud and disquieting. Waves of despair described how David spoke to God. Prolonged sounds of suffering were part of David’s prayer. Repeated intensely troubled tones could be a description for how David communicated with God.
VOICE
Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. David’s voice came from his heart. He was speaking to God in an audible voice that God could hear. David said “He will hear me.” This is a two fold meaning. David believed God would hear him. Secondly, David spoke so God could hear him. It is believed David wrote Psalm 139:4 – “Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, Lord, You know it all.” Although David knew God would know before he even spoke, David chose to make his voice heard to God.
How did you answer? “Does God hear my voice?”
Would God say to you three times a day, “So good to hear your voice”? Would he hear you share your meditation on how God thinks things should be, how they are not lining up, and your disquietedness because of your circumstances. Would your mouth declare the overflow of your heart that needs God’s deliverance and help?
Hebrews 4:16 reminds us “let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.”
We can be bold in our prayers, regular in our utterances, and boisterous in our gripes. God wants to tell us “So good to hear your voice”. —- and —– then He will show forth his compassion and benevolence to help us at our time of need.
BE ENCOURAGED TO PRAY!
Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. But You, God, will bring them down to the pit of destruction; Men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.
Psalm 55:22-23
Written By: Anne Gurley
