Psalm 21

1 O LORD, the king rejoices in your strength.
How great is his joy in the victories you give!

2 You have granted him the desire of his heart
and have not withheld the request of his lips.
Selah

3 You welcomed him with rich blessings
and placed a crown of pure gold on his head.

4 He asked you for life, and you gave it to him—
length of days, for ever and ever.

5 Through the victories you gave, his glory is great;
you have bestowed on him splendor and majesty.

6 Surely you have granted him eternal blessings
and made him glad with the joy of your presence.

7 For the king trusts in the LORD;
through the unfailing love of the Most High
he will not be shaken.

8 Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies;
your right hand will seize your foes.

9 At the time of your appearing
you will make them like a fiery furnace.
In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up,
and his fire will consume them.

10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth,
their posterity from mankind.

11 Though they plot evil against you
and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed;

12 for you will make them turn their backs
when you aim at them with drawn bow.

13 Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength;
we will sing and praise your might.

In verse 2, the psalmist, David talked about how God blessed him and granted him the desires of his heart. He really received a lot from the Lord, as we can see from the subsequent verses.

The question is: does that mean that God always answer our prayers immediately?
I really don't think so. There are at least 2 reasons.

Firstly, many of us pray for things to satisfy our self-centred desires. When we ask God of something, we did not ask with the right motives. James 4:3 says it all: "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

Secondly, God wants to mold our characters as we pray. He wants us to learn to press on and persevere in prayers for the things deep in our hearts. As seen in Romans 5:3-4, sufferings produces perseverance, perseverance produces character and character hope.

I remember there was a time whereby I pray fervently and ask God to help me keep a particular relationship going. However, it seems that the more I pray, things just became worse. In the end, the relationship was gone. As I reflect on this, I realised that I prayed for the relationship because of my own selfish motives. Hence, God didn't answer my prayers.

To sum it up, we need to desire things that the Lord Himself desires. Let our desires coincide with His will.


Things to ponder
1. What are some things that you really desire and have been praying for it for some time?
2. Stop and ask the Holy Spirit why your prayers are not answered? Is it because of wrong motives? Or because God wants you to grow in perseverance.
3. Pray a prayer and ask God to give you a heart that coincides with His will.

Click here for Pastor YC's reflection on Psalm 21