Verses from David's Prayers

David knew how to pray. From being hunted constantly by enemies, falling into sin, and reaching the heights of joy, David's life provided just about every experience for prayer. And he took the opportunities to cry out to God. Perhaps some of the most well-known words of David come from the Psalms, and they are words Christians still read today. But this week in my devotions I read through 1 Chronicles and this book also includes a few of David's prayers as well.

Perhaps these verses can help direct us in how we should pray, as well.

Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 

(1 Chron.17:16)

Awe over what God has done and the knowledge that he (David) is nothing in comparison to God's greatness.

There is none like you, O Lord, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. (1 Chron.17:20)

Recognition of God's supremacy and sovereignty.

And you made your people Israel to be your people forever, and you, O Lord, became their God. 

(1 Chron.17:22)

Recounting the history of God's greatness and faithfulness to a wayward nation.

And now, O Lord, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house be established forever, and do as you have spoken, and your name will be established and magnified forever, saying, 'The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel's God,' and the house of your servant David will be established before you.

(1 Chron.17:23-24)

Pleading that God would fulfill His promises like He said he would, in order that His name would be glorified and that the house of David would remain established in the Lord.

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours in the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.

(1 Chron.29:11)

Acknowledging God's control and power over all the earth using words similar to what Jude later uses. "To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen." (Jude 1:25) And also Jesus uses similar words in the Lord's Prayer. "And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent." (Colossians 1:18)

But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. (1 Chron.29:14)

Realizing, in humility, that what he and his nation gave back to God only belonged to God in the first place. 

I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. (1 Chron.29:17)

God searches the heart and knows it completely, and David later goes into more detail in Psalm 139 about this. Nothing can be hidden from God, and our actions, motives, and thoughts that result from the Holy Spirit's working in us are pleasing to God.

Then David said to all the assembly, "Bless the Lord your God." And all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their fathers, and bowed their heads and paid homage to the Lord and to the king.

(1 Chron.29:20)

The people demonstrated the Lordship of Christ by worshiping Him as the God of their forefathers, and loyalty and obedience to David as their earthly king.

Say also: "Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather and deliver us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. 

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting!"

(1 Chronicles 16:35-36)