Psalm 54

1 ! Defend me with your might.
2 Listen to my prayer, O God. Pay attention to my plea.
3 For strangers are attacking me; violent people are trying to kill me. They care nothing for God.

Interlude

4 But God is my helper. The Lord keeps me alive!
5 May the evil plans of my enemies be turned against them. Do as you promised and put an end to them.
6 I will sacrifice a voluntary offering to you; I will praise your name, O Lord,
for it is good.
7 For you have rescued me from my troubles and helped me to triumph over my enemies.

David knew he was in trouble. King Saul, in his jealousy of David, was trying to have him killed. David was in hiding but a band of men had just reported his location back to Saul. Saul knew where he was and David's options were running out. So, David cries out "come with great power, O God, and rescue me!"

Do you know what happened...out of the blue? The Philistines invaded Judah and King Saul had to turn his attention away from David. I'd call that "great power!" Some might call it a coincidence.

I wonder how many of us might have uttered that prayer...and then never made the connection between our prayer and the invasion. Unfortunately, many of us. God could provide an amazing answer and we would be oblivious to it. David saw the connection and was quick to give God credit. He says "you have rescued me from my troubles and helped me to triumph over my enemies."

I think we should pay more attention. There are no coincidences with God. When I say "pay attention" I'm really thinking believers need to keep their eyes on the entire world stage. Did any of us see the invasion of Iraq as an answer to a personal prayer? Probably not. I'm not implying anything about the righteousness of that war. I'm simply thinking that if we don't see the nexus between God and human activity we surely miss a lot of God's answers.

That often leaves us wondering if God is listening.

I have a thought. When we read the paper tomorrow...we should make a note of some of the big events and ask ourselves this question: "I wonder which of my prayers this might be an answer to?"

Who knows?

Live boldly out there today...