Our God Who Hears

Psalm 65

Many people have felt, at one time or another, that nobody listens to them and hears what they are saying, or understands what they are feeling.  Perhaps it is your spouse, your parents, your boss or co-worker.  Sometimes we might feel like God doesn’t even hear us, that our words just echo back to us from heaven.  Our psalm today gives God’s word of truth that this is not the case.  Let’s take a look at this truth, and others that we find in this psalm.

In just about every religion, some type of prayer or supplication is made to their deity.  The petitioner will come to their idol at a shrine and bow to pray for a need.  Often they will bring an offering, sometimes a type of food, maybe flowers, or something of value.  However their god or goddess doesn’t hear a word they say, as they are non-existent.  An idol made of wood or stone has no ears to hear a word said.  The unfortunate petitioner returns home with their prayers having fallen on deaf, non-existent ears.  This is not the case with the one true God, Yahweh.  As we read in verse 2, He hears our prayers.  When people throughout the world realize this, when they come to understand that Yahweh, alone, hears and responds to our prayers, they will turn and come to Him.

One prayer that the Lord always hears and responds to is when we come to Him in confession and repentance (vs. 3).  God will forgive all of our sins when we turn to Him.  Not only does He hear us when we ask for His forgiveness, but Yahweh provided for our atonement.  He provided the means by which our sins could be forgiven.  Our sins separated us from God, and a perfect sacrifice needed to be made to bring us back to Him.  God, Himself, made that sacrifice with the sinless Blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.  In no other religion can it ever be said that their pagan deities loved them so much, that they sacrificed themselves for their people.  Yahweh loves His children, and forgives sins.  Nobody is beyond His redemption.  Nobody has too many sins, or sins that are too heinous, that God won’t forgive.

Not only does the Blood of Jesus provide us with the forgiveness of sins, but it also makes the way so that we can freely approach God (vs. 4).  In the days of the Old Testament only the tribe of Levi, the Levites, could enter the sacred rooms of the temple and tabernacle.  Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, believers today have access to God’s presence at any time (Hebrews 4:14-16).

Another difference between the one, true God, Yahweh, and the false pagan deities is that, unlike the local heathen gods, Yahweh is not just the God of one locality.  The pagan gods were often just a god of a small, local area, perhaps a small valley, or one or two neighboring hills, a stream, or if powerful enough, a mountain.  Some were gods of one type of animal, or maybe a type of weather condition, but only that.  Yahweh is God of the whole world, of all of creation, of the whole universe (vs. 5-6).

Our God is not limited by locality, nor does He have power in only one area or problem.  Jesus has power over every area of life (vs. 7).  He stilled both the raging waves (Mark 4:39), and also the angry mobs (Luke 4:28-30).  Both can be equally fearful, but were silenced by His power.  We can come to the Lord anywhere we are, and with whatever problem we have.  We can be in Chicago, London, or Tokyo, it doesn’t matter.  He will hear our prayers.  God isn’t just the God of headaches, but not of cancer, or the God of problems at work, but not of problems within the family.  We can come to Him with any need we have.  We can pray in faith and expect God to do amazing things on our behalf.

Because we have such a great, powerful, and loving God, He is worthy of all of our praise.  As our psalm concludes, we see that the beauty of nature glorifies God, the Creator.  He brings the rain and harvest.  He is the God who forgives.  He provides for all we need.  From the east, where the morning starts and the sun rises, to the west where the day ends and the sun sets, God is to be praised and worshipped (vs. 8).  As we see when we look towards our Savior (vs. 11-13), the paths of the Lord are overflowing with abundance to those who walk in them.