Is the Lord Sleeping? — Richard Burson

And mashed potatoes and gravy and vegetables, and there are 15-inch boys that aren't able. And then they always sort of disconcert my wife by looking at this lovely roast beef and mashed potatoes and gravy and saying, oh boy, hash tomorrow.

It happens that a couple of them, their favorite food is hash. There's a little bit of hash. Just thinking back, I spoke to everyone while other people are speaking. You think of little things, and this is the hash that came to mind along the way as people said different things.

The Lord as Shield and Buckler

Someone was speaking of, to a certain extent, that the Lord is our shield and buckler. I wondered if everyone in the audience knows the difference between a shield, a piece of fighting equipment that covered the entire body.

A shield covered from head to toe and was for protection from spears and javelins. It was a very small, you can see them at the museum, those of you from Denver. There's a couple of very good ones in there.

Very small, about nine or 12 inches across. Not good in the case of a spear and dart. The Lord is spoken of as an hourly staff. Sure, he'll take care of you in a big calamity. He'll take care of the big problem.

But he's also in the same buckler. He's talking about the Lord Jesus being asleep in the back of the boat. It's interesting that nearly every translation except for King James, our King James said he would sleep on a pillow.

But it's the Justice article there, and only you can find all kinds of proof. Most of you would appreciate Mr. Darby. He said, any Christian says that. Any revived person says that. Any Christian on board.

And they were glad to have him. But Robinson didn't interfere with what they were doing. They wanted him on there, but they didn't want to talk to him. So they gave him comfort, all the comfort they had.

And every Christian on board that boat was given to the Lord Jesus, and he was assigned the kinder part, the very back end of the boat, where he'd be out of the way. On board, understand. On board, certainly.

But out of the way and comfortable. The very best for Jesus Christ. As long as he doesn't interfere with what you intend to do, as long as he's good and quiet, and then, of course, he'll awaken, and he'll engage in songs.

But he keeps talking to him, and he'll never go to sleep. And who was it, ladies and gentlemen? Who was it? Probably Mr. Tesla. I think he was talking about Dr. Faraday. He was talking about the time when John Cronin dropped the talisman that Dr. Faraday had been given.

The chemistry of a candle. A candle. You should. It's in my lectures, and they're not very long. And it can be had, usually very cheaply, in a useful store, in the Harvard classes. It's a volume on science.

Praying and Seeking God in the Morning

Lectures. Listen to my words, O Lord. Consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of Jesus. For unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning. For I direct my prayer. Thou art not a god that hath pleasure in wickedness.

Neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish. I'm spanned. It has to do with the overthrowing of acceptance, of being accepted. Of standing. To stand in the presence of the Lord, to be accepted of him.

Thou shalt persist. Thou shalt destroy them that speak lies, that speak leastings. The Lord's are before the bloody and deceitful man. But as for me, in to thy house, in the multitude of thy mercy, and in thy fear, will I worship toward thy holy temple.

See, O Lord, in thy righteousness, because of thy way straight before my face. There is no faithfulness in their mouth. There in this heart is very wickedness. Their throat is an open speckle. For their tongues, O God, lest it fall by their own tongue.

Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against thee. The essence of this, destroy thou them. Why? Did it have a personal judge? The same thing personal in it not.

For they have rebelled against thee. Let all those that put their trust in thee, rejoice. Let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them. Let them also that love thy name, be joyful in thee.

For thou, O Lord, wilt bless the righteous. With faith thou wilt accomplish him. As this pyramid, four requests, and four resolutions, and three statements of revolt. Let's look at his request. The first one is that his words would be listened to.

God Hears the Heart Behind Prayer

Give ear to my words. He requests that God pay attention to his prayers. God is not interested in our grammar, but he listens to what we say, holds us at what we say. But God listens to more than the words.

Other behaviors around us, hearing us pray, can only go by the words that we use, by what we say. Our attention is to the heartbeat behind the words. God listens to what is meant in your heart. That's why it doesn't matter when someone prays, whether they read strictly or not.

If the heart is with what is being said, which man prays that God would listen to his words? That was his first request. But he had a second running right close behind, and it was this. Now the word meditate means to think, or to cogitate, to plan, to move.

That's to meditate. People meditate nowadays. The art of meditation isn't lost because people are still thinking. The trouble is they're meditating on a subject. He sits on his throne in the middle of the field and his head was sort of bowed.

He knew what that man was thinking about. He was thinking about God and eternity. When a man sits in the middle of his field now with his head bowed, he knows what he's thinking about. It's not God. It's not him.

People are still thinking. They're still running. They're still moving. They're forsaken, thinking it's God. But this man's thoughts were so well-ordered that he was willing that God consider what he's been thinking.

As a man who thinks his heart fully, he was willing to subject his thoughts, his deepest plans, his reasoning, his cogitation. He was willing that God consider his innermost thoughts. Now, a real prayer that accomplishes with God is that prayer that words with thoughts.

From what you pray, if that's exactly what you've been meditating on, God answers that prayer. God hears that man or woman. From your cogitation, the things you've been moving upon, the things you've been spending time thinking upon, the things you've been planning about, they put into words that way.

Asking God to Understand the Cry of the Heart

And we can pray honestly. When he calls prayer as food, saying here, verse 2, how can he ask unto the voice of my tribe. We don't use the word heart like they used to. Oh, occasionally, especially you hear English people using it in the sense of here.

As you're not going to go, I was so used to hearing a lecturer talk and I lost part of what he was saying upon the audience because he was talking about the languages that he used to hear. And we don't use that term nowadays.

He was using it in the current English Understand, he was saying. Understand. But he meant, understand my tribe. It isn't enough that God is here, but understand my tribe. I was in a home in St. John, not very long ago, to eat a meal.

And they had a young, a very young child. They had several children. But one was in a crib. And during the meal, this child let out a growl. I always want to respond to children. I looked over and the mother said, Oh, she's all right.

And I said, Well, she said that, that's just the way she was. I said, no pain, no ache, no tension. She said, no. No, not now. But before the meal was over, she cried. It sounded to me like the same words, exactly, it was just a yell.

And the mother got up immediately and gave me my hand. This lady read the cry of her child and I couldn't. She yelled the first time and the mother said, there's nothing wrong. Just a few minutes later, the same kind of yell to my mother came in.

It is meant to the mother, that child needs attention right now. Because she understood the cry. That's what the science is talking about. The word that he gives is the crying of a baby. And he asked that God understand, not words, someone has said, here's our liquid prayer.

God understands. There are times when we can pray by words. There are times when we can meditate, we can speak, and God considers our meditation. And there are times when words fail and our mind is so cluttered and confused that we can't simply meditate and we cry.

Thank God, He understands through using the cry. This man, when we ask for understanding, immediately points out his relationship. Understand my cry. The reason why God understands his cry. The cry of this man is from the mouth of one who acknowledges the Lordship of God, my King, my God, personally.

Seeking Guidance While Others Are Watching

And intimacy is there. Hence we can call upon God that he might be led in righteousness. And here he's asking for guidance. It's this way. Lead me because of my observers, our person here, says because of my enemies we're to be led.

And Mr. Garvey has it that way, because of my foes, because of people who are watching. People are watching to see that we stumble. People are watching to see that His name is great. People are watching to learn that God is listening to our needs.

The Holy Hand Revolution, first three minutes, and prayer always leads to that. People who sit on their hands are not people who pray. Folks who can never find anything to do for God are terrorists, people always.

People who are asking you, nothing irritates me, I'm an irritable old man anyway, and nothing irritates me so badly as people who ask me, do you know some missionary who needs money that we can send money to?

I just don't know any place to put the money. That's a good indication that you don't pray to Almighty God. That's a good indication. You pray to the Lord and you'll know where to put your money and you won't be triggered.

An indication that you're not on your knees before God. That's not that joke. That's a horrible joke. It doesn't show any exercise at all in putting the faith of God, except from the tip of the tongue out.

Ordering Prayer Before the Day Begins

He says, my voice comes out here in the morning. In the morning he's going to pray, and he says, in the morning will I direct my prayer to thee and you'll look up. The word for direct there is to order the life for it to happen that way.

To order. To put in order my prayer. Of course we can pray at haphazard and not literally. To put in order to do this prayer when we are in and healthy. To pray with the intention beforehand such as you would have before any august person.

A person no greater than the President of the United States who, because of his office is a great person, is returning to the presence of this near man with power versus art. He wouldn't go before him and then say, now let's see this morning, and then start talking without having any aim or idea or order.

No, he would plan beforehand, now what do I intend to say? Specifically, what are the things I want to lay before the President? And just start writing and he would get it somewhat in his mind. He probably wouldn't memorize it.

It's not going to a recitation. And so he would pray to God and say, I will direct my prayers. I will order them. The same word is used in the Gospels concerning following the Word on the altar and an altar is found.

And then he said he would look up. Mr. Donaghy has some good personal in the sense of expression. I will look up. He would pray to the Lord in the morning before the day began, before he had problems, before he knew how his problems were, before he found out, he would pray.

He would pray more surely before he knew how all the problems were going to be that day. He starts out that way that he wants good fears and my prayers and you know the Lord does. He doesn't inspire us.

Learning to Take Another Person's Burden Seriously

One time I was in Kansas City and there was a lady who received her from human parents who had come to us and she had been there frequently with her one particular problem and it always takes her a long time to tell you this problem.

It's the same problem every time. It takes about two hours for her to reveal it to her satisfaction. I sat down to listen to what she said and then I knew my wife and this lady was standing angry over me and saying pray more.

The problem didn't mean as much to me as it did to her and I was tired and I had heard it all before but after I went to sleep I learned she penalized me because she started to tease me at the end and she started to come back at the beginning again and I went to go to sleep on that school teacher again.

Finding Refuge in God's Mercy

And then in verse 7 he said he would come in the multitude of God's mercy but as for me you never decide for anyone but yourself. Try though you may but as for me I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy.

This is great. And in fear while I worshiped thee and thou art righteous thou art and will. And here you find shelter from a weary, dreary desert land in the shadow of a gray, gray rock. And this word, trust here, means to run into a place of refuge, to find a place of hiding.

Just. Does everyone feel trust? Has it come to him? Has it found him a place of hiding? It would mean fear. Is it running into a safe, uh, place of safety? I think of course, uh, Audrey's hands. Audrey's hands.

The settlers around Hades would run into these towers into this place of safety, uh, when they heard the imagery was coming. And many lives were spared. There are pictures on the wall of people who had narrow streets who just got in the door before the imagery flashed through the rays.

There are pictures of prepers, and there are images of prepers there on the inside of that fort. You get in there and it's like, you're coming inside for your fate. And this figure, that is used here, of running into a refuge is worth trying a theological palaver as to the meaning of belief.

You're running into a place of safety. You're in peril. You're running into a place of safety. Protected because of your running, you're protected by the wall. You're getting inside. It's the same, it's the same word, belief.

God was sending this to them. It means to cover, to protect from an enemy. The same thought is carried out. And then you see what follows up. First there's trust. And then there's rejoicing. Let all those that put their trust in me rejoice.

Trust, Rejoicing, and the Grace That Surrounds the Righteous

Let them ever shout for joy because God is sending this to them. Let them also that love thy name, the name of God, always think of his heritage. Now, it's not just the letters, G-O-D, that people appreciate.

Those send no particular thrill into people. But it's when you know the person of God, through what he has done, that you begin to appreciate his heritage and the appreciation of his heritage and the knowledge of his person Let him speak his name.

And when you get to a place after you have learned to trust him, that you love his name, you value his name, not the name of the Lord Jesus, for those who know him. And not to love the name of Christ and not to value the name of Christ is indicative of only one thing, that you've never believed in the Lord Jesus.

Because this is the order that you have here. And if you're ordering spiritual things first, trust, believe. Then, loving him. And then you see something else. Trust first. For thou, Lord, wilt bless good people.

And that's indifferent. If you can get yourself over it, you don't know what kind of robber you would be if God didn't have a hold of your life. We may not do very much. We may not do very much that's good.

But we have a narrative. The result of loving the name of God is always productive. This is what is different in Christianity than any religion. It goes under the name of Christianity. Because we always tell people, you get to be a good person.

You just stick to goodness and you will love God. We always go at it backwards. But the order at least here, and it is a divine order, is trust first. Run to him, assure that. And then if you love him, your life will be different.

You'll live for him. The greatest harm you can do in this world is to live simply for yourself. And then he enlarged on that and said that it was the greatest sin. I'm just paraphrasing. Then for the man to commit, if he lives consistently for himself, he shall cease life.

The man should die. God did not become a life-end survivor. His favor or grace will encompass him as with a shield. He's surrounded. And here's the word shield. Covered from head to toe, the shielding, encompassing his surroundings, or in any direction, in all directions, surrounded by the grace of God.

In all directions. With great favor will thou conquer him.