“I say to the Lord, you are my God. Give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, oh Lord!”
– Psalm 140:6
There’s an exclamation point at the end of Psalm 140:6. Let me read that again. “I say the Lord, you are my God. Give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, oh Lord!” Oh, I look at all these prayer requests that people have sent in during this pandemic and we’re going to begin shifting back just to kind of normal Pray the Word episodes, obviously praying through all that’s going on around us in the world, based on God’s word, but not necessarily specific requests that individuals are sending in. But as I’ve read all these different prayer requests over these last few months, I have seen so many pleas for mercy during these days and as I read all these, I want to draw attention to two today, one from Victoria and one from.
Psalm 140:6 Leads Us to Pray for Unbelivers
Father, we come to you on behalf of those who have not trusted in Christ for salvation. We plead for you to reconcile sinners for we know You alone can melt hearts of stone.
To both of them are pleading for mercy, not necessarily in their lives, but in the lives of people around them, who they love, who don’t know Christ and they feel the urgency of sharing the gospel with them, especially during these days, which really we should feel all the time because none of us is guaranteed tomorrow and no person around us is guaranteed tomorrow.
But Victoria writes just multiple times please pray for Patrick’s salvation and then Kwong writes, “For the past six to seven years, I’ve been praying for my family’s salvation. I’ve been praying that Jesus will soften their hearts at least on a weekly basis for all these years and recently have been increasing this specific prayer at least once every day. I’ve talked to them about Jesus a few times during the years. But it just seems like those words fall on deaf ears. I’m not sure what else to do and I’m asking for prayer for boldness to continue talking to them about Jesus and also for them to be saved according to God’s will.”
Psalm 140:6 Leads Us to Pray for Mercy
Oh yes, yes, yes. Kwong, yes. Victoria, praying for Patrick, praying for Kwong’s family and I don’t want to lead us to pray for them specifically, as well as all kinds of people in our lives who don’t have a relationship with Jesus, who don’t know salvation in Jesus and before I pray, I just want to encourage you in light of Psalm 140:6, give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, oh Lord.
God hears our pleas for mercy in our own lives and God hears our pleas for mercy in others’ lives. Heather and I were talking just last night about someone we have been praying for for years, who has just seemed hard toward, uninterested in the gospel and right now is starting to show fruit and I could go into all the details of how that’s playing out.
But it is awesome. We were just saying last night, we’ve prayed for years for this and so I say that as an encouragement to Victoria and an encouragement to Kwong and an encouragement to everyone who’s listening right now is people, individuals, family members, friends, who you’ve been praying for for a long time.
This Verse Leads Us to Pray for Others
Let’s press in right now. God, we plead for Your mercy. Right now, we are praying for Your mercy in people’s lives around us. God, we pray together right now for Patrick’s salvation. Please show Your mercy to him and save him from his sins, from himself. God, please draw Patrick to Yourself. Please give Victoria boldness, grace, wisdom, to know how best to share the gospel. Please bring other people into Patrick’s path to draw him to Christ.
God, we pray for that right now. Hear our pleas for mercy for Patrick and for Kwong’s family. God, we pray for the members of Kwong’s family. They’ve heard the gospel. God, would You bring water to these gospel seeds that have been sown in their heart? May it bear fruit. God, may they come to faith in Jesus. God, we pray for that. We plead for that with Kwong and, God, I praise you for how Kwong is just asking for prayer for boldness to continue talking to them about Jesus and perseverance and that, God, please give Kwong boldness we pray.
This Verse Leads Us to Pray for Grace
Give him grace as he’s praying continually for his family members. God, we pray that you would give him grace, power from Your Holy Spirit to share the gospel with them, to say the same words. But may they fall on different ears. May they fall not on deaf ears, but on open ears that are wanting to hear and soft hearts that are wanting to listen and humble themselves before You. God, please show Your mercy in Kwong’s family and then, God, we pray this for all kinds of other people.
I just think about the person I just mentioned right now, who we’ve been praying for for years and You’re beginning to bring fruit. Oh glory be to Your name for that. God, please continue to do that in that person’s life. Please do that in all kinds of people’s lives, who are coming to our minds right now. God we plead together for mercy for people who don’t know your salvation.
Psalm 140:7 says, “Oh Lord my Lord, the strength of my salvation, we praise You as our salvation,” and we pray right now together that this salvation would remain known among more people in our spheres of influence, friends, family members, who we know, including Patrick, including Kwong’s family. God, we plead together for your mercy. Use even these days of pandemic, God, to soften hearts so that people might see their need for You and grace and mercy from You and find it in Jesus. We pray this together in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
