Can you ask God for anything? (15:8)
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD; but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
God loves to hear some people pray, yet He listens to some, while others He ignores. Why?
God only gives and never gets, since He Himself needs nothing. So if God delights in hearing our prayers and giving us things, how do we ensure that He listens to us?
How can we ask God for things, in a way that we’re most likely to get them?
There’s an enormous contrast between the first and second clauses of this proverb. In the first section, something is being sacrificed to God, while in the second, something is being asked of Him. The message of the first part is doubly important, since it’s repeated in Proverbs 21:27. Look there to learn more about money and sacrifice. Here we can focus on the second part: “the prayer of the upright is His delight.”
Prayer can be our expression of adoration, thanksgiving, confession, supplication, or intercession for others. In what sense is the word prayer used in this text?
Translation Clarification
This Hebrew word for “prayer” here, תפלה (tepil•lāh, pronounced “te-fil-lah”), is used seventy times in the Bible, almost always referring to particular requests spoken to God. It appears first in 2 Samuel 7:27 when King David (the father of Solomon) acknowledges that he found the courage to ask something of God (a prayer of supplication) only because of God’s own promises to him. In other words, David was able to ask favours of God, only because he remembered God’s promises of blessings for him. Consider the following alternate translations:
- The LORD is disgusted by gifts from the wicked, but it makes him happy when his people pray. (Contemporary English Version)
- The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight. (Christian Standard Bible)
- The LORD detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but he delights in the prayer of the upright. (New Living Bible)
The last few words in the text show (consistently) how God loves to hear prayers from His people.
The Almighty Likes to Give
Prayer acknowledges our dependence on God. It celebrates that He is the Source of everything, even our very being, right here and now. We can ask Him for anything, since He already supplies everything. But who on Earth could stand all this continual pleading? Mere mortals, always competing for finite resources, are annoyed and angered by constant begging. God is different.
This proverb says that God enjoys the prayer of the upright, delights in their prayer. So what distinguishes their prayer, so that God hears and answers them? Who are the upright? The Hebrew root word for “upright” here (y-sh-r) literally means “to go straight,” directly on the way. In a moral context, it means to be free from deception and obedient to the law.
Why does God enjoy giving good things to the upright? Some suggestions:
- He is confident that they’ll use their gifts well;
- Being upright Himself, He enjoys conversing with the upright;
- They need to become always more dependent on Him, to grow His kingdom in his will;
- Delighting in life, He delights in others’ delight.
What Makes Our Prayers Ineffective?
Praying to the wrong God.
The Creator God is the only true God. As the Creator of everything, He has supreme knowledge and authority over everything (Isaiah 45:5-7).
Prayers directed to other gods—who, if they exist at all, are not gods, but lesser creatures of limited influence—such prayers are effective only with the acceptance of the true God. However ardent and prolonged, prayer directed at false gods is at best a pitiful waste of time and effort, and at worst an insult to the Creator. Read an excellent account of zealous, but misguided, prayers in 1 Kings 18:20-29.
Praying with a false heart, “the sacrifice of the wicked,” can include:
- Deliberate rejection of God’s word (Zechariah 7:11-13).
- Refusal to heed God’s counsel (Proverbs 1:24-28).
- Ignoring God’s words and worshiping others as God (Jeremiah 11:10-11).
- Religious hypocrisy (Isaiah 1:12-15).
- Justifying personal evils (Psalm 66:18).
- Mistreating other people (Micah 3:1-4).
- Insincere submission to God (Proverbs 15:29).
- Memorize the text in your favourite Bible translation and think about it often.
- Make your prayers more effective by being straight in your dealings. Study Psalm 18:19-24 to discover why God heard the prayers of His servant David, while ignoring the prayers of David’s enemies (Psalm 18:41).
- Pray often. Don’t ever let yourself think that your prayers, your genuine prayers, are boring or insignificant to God.
- Don’t think of God as a genie out of a bottle, a servant to grant you any wish. Recognize that God is infinitely wiser, kinder, and more powerful than you are. Make requests of Him that satisfy both your highest dreams and His perfect ways. To increase God’s attention to your prayers, increase your attention to His word. Study Isaiah 1:10-15, 66:1-2, Proverbs 28:9, Zechariah 7:13, Psalms 18:27,41 and Proverbs 1:22-33.
Which of these steps, if any, does Jesus want you to take now? Ask Him.
God loves to hear some people pray, yet He listens to some, while others He ignores. Why?
God only gives and never gets, since He Himself needs nothing. So if God delights in hearing our prayers and giving us things, how do we ensure that He listens to us?
How can we ask God for things, in a way that we’re most likely to get them?
There’s an enormous contrast between the first and second clauses of this proverb. In the first section, something is being sacrificed to God, while in the second, something is being asked of Him. The message of the first part is doubly important, since it’s repeated in Proverbs 21:27. Look there to learn more about money and sacrifice. Here we can focus on the second part: “the prayer of the upright is His delight.”
Prayer can be our expression of adoration, thanksgiving, confession, supplication, or intercession for others. In what sense is the word prayer used in this text?
Translation Clarification
This Hebrew word for “prayer” here, תפלה (tepil•lāh, pronounced “te-fil-lah”), is used seventy times in the Bible, almost always referring to particular requests spoken to God. It appears first in 2 Samuel 7:27 when King David (the father of Solomon) acknowledges that he found the courage to ask something of God (a prayer of supplication) only because of God’s own promises to him. In other words, David was able to ask favours of God, only because he remembered God’s promises of blessings for him. Consider the following alternate translations:
- The LORD is disgusted by gifts from the wicked, but it makes him happy when his people pray. (Contemporary English Version)
- The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight. (Christian Standard Bible)
- The LORD detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but he delights in the prayer of the upright. (New Living Bible)
The last few words in the text show (consistently) how God loves to hear prayers from His people.
The Almighty Likes to Give
Prayer acknowledges our dependence on God. It celebrates that He is the Source of everything, even our very being, right here and now. We can ask Him for anything, since He already supplies everything. But who on Earth could stand all this continual pleading? Mere mortals, always competing for finite resources, are annoyed and angered by constant begging. God is different.
This proverb says that God enjoys the prayer of the upright, delights in their prayer. So what distinguishes their prayer, so that God hears and answers them? Who are the upright? The Hebrew root word for “upright” here (y-sh-r) literally means “to go straight,” directly on the way. In a moral context, it means to be free from deception and obedient to the law.
Why does God enjoy giving good things to the upright? Some suggestions:
- He is confident that they’ll use their gifts well;
- Being upright Himself, He enjoys conversing with the upright;
- They need to become always more dependent on Him, to grow His kingdom in his will;
- Delighting in life, He delights in others’ delight.
What Makes Our Prayers Ineffective?
Praying to the wrong God.
The Creator God is the only true God. As the Creator of everything, He has supreme knowledge and authority over everything (Isaiah 45:5-7).
Prayers directed to other gods—who, if they exist at all, are not gods, but lesser creatures of limited influence—such prayers are effective only with the acceptance of the true God. However ardent and prolonged, prayer directed at false gods is at best a pitiful waste of time and effort, and at worst an insult to the Creator. Read an excellent account of zealous, but misguided, prayers in 1 Kings 18:20-29.
Praying with a false heart, “the sacrifice of the wicked,” can include:
- Deliberate rejection of God’s word (Zechariah 7:11-13).
- Refusal to heed God’s counsel (Proverbs 1:24-28).
- Ignoring God’s words and worshiping others as God (Jeremiah 11:10-11).
- Religious hypocrisy (Isaiah 1:12-15).
- Justifying personal evils (Psalm 66:18).
- Mistreating other people (Micah 3:1-4).
- Insincere submission to God (Proverbs 15:29).