Bible Discussion Thread

Prayers of David: Introduction

I haven't yet assimilated the massive scope of material related to David's prayers from Psalms; Chronicles and the book of Kings yet. I thought I would explore some major themes before delving into specific prayers. I previously got into descriptions of some of the types of Psalms. It is hard to dissect sometimes from what is prayer and what is other material. Here are some concepts

"Declarations". This is a topic I briefly may have mentioned some time ago in regard to truth and error. David would declare promises from God's covenants and then invoke Him to bring it to fruition. This theme was repeated by Daniel in the book bearing his name in regard to the return from exile after 70 years of captivity; by Moses in the desert and no doubt in other examples. Of course what it doesn't mean is making our own proclamations are trying to strongarm God to achieve our will even if we use scripture and twist it or violate the original meaning to do so. It doesn't "invoke" blessings either; perhaps if something is prayed with a pure heart that will result in God's favor leading to a blessing. God will not violate His own ordinances on sin; instead will bring a curse to those who claim covenant with Him and insist on retaining sins or praying in order to fulfill desires through sinful activity.

Promises. This is similar to a covenant declaration but usually based on an individual revelation from the Lord. It is too bad that Abraham didn't spend more time praying before trying to circumvent God's plan for offspring through Sarah. We can see this with God's assurances to Gideon as we discussed before which he needed further proof of before going to battle. Many times of course we can relate to David's prayers when it seemed he was about to be cornered for good and killed by Saul's army or Saul himself. God preserved David's life and answered these prayers; if for no other reason than to establish him as rightful king