Through the psalmist the Lord invites us, saying, “Pour out your hearts before him” (Ps. 62:8). When he walked this earth our Lord showed that he invites us to pray, saying three times in his teaching on prayer, “When you pray,” and then he said, “Pray then like this” (Matt. 6:5, 6, 7, 9). Clearly, God desires and delights in our prayers

To experience God in our midst we must be people of prayer. To be people of prayer we need to know what prayer is. From the example of David in Psalm 109, we can see that prayer is the total offering of oneself to God for everything that is needed. Because of this people of prayer affirm several core convictions.

God invites us to pray.

Through the psalmist the Lord invites us, saying, “Pour out your hearts before him” (Ps. 62:8). When he walked this earth our Lord showed that he invites us to pray, saying three times in his teaching on prayer, “When you pray,” and then he said, “Pray then like this” (Matt. 6:5, 6, 7, 9). Clearly, God desires and delights in our prayers.

God is able and available to hear our prayers.

David knew the pain of abandonment. Yet he can say of the Lord, “He stands at the right hand of the needy one” (Ps. 109:31). The right hand of God is the place of power and honor; it is the place where our Lord Jesus currently stands. But here we are told that God stands next to us, at our right hand, ready to advocate for us! Even before we ask or think, God has the power to do above and beyond all that we will ask or think in a superabundant way (Eph. 3:20–21). How? The same power that raised Christ is the same power at work in us to raise us from sin to salvation (1:20–21). In the words of Thomas Manton, “Faith sets prayer a-work, and prayer sets the almighty power of God a-work.”¹ “It is much for the glory of God’s goodness, and the encouragement of ours, that He is a God hearing prayer.”² 

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