whatever God intends to do, whatever His purpose is, whatever He has promised or

spoken, that, unaltered and supreme, might be the burden of his prayer.

Prayer, in this spirit, is like going into the presence of the Lord and having an

opportunity of presenting our desires, wishes and plans, and finding that our highest

flight of ambition is exactly what God has prepared, that our deepest need is that which

God has already prepared to meet, that our dearest plan, our most loved scheme, is, after

all, exactly what God Himself has planned and intends to carry out. Here is prayer in the

highest sense, absolute and unconditional alliance of the thought, plan and desire of the

believer with that of his Lord.

Such prayer asks for little, thanks for much, and knows no faltering.

In Psa. 72: David expresses himself much in the same way as he did in

I Chron. 17: The Psalm has to do with the same theme--this time seen as the glorious

kingdom of David's great Son. Under that blessed rule, peace, righteousness, deliverance

and blessing spread over the face of the earth, and at the conclusion David says, "Let the

whole earth be filled with His glory, Amen and Amen. The prayers of David the son of

Jesse are ended".

It would be sad to think that David never again drew near to God in prayer, and this is

not the meaning of "ended" in verse 20, but rather that David's prayers here reach their

goal. This, he had said, in his last words, was all his desire:--

Here all David's desires were met, here all David's prayers were exhausted--"Lord,

do as Thou hast said."

This, then we can say, that instead of prayer being a means whereby we can turn God

from His purpose, or whereby we can obtain uncovenanted gifts, it is rather that highest

of all expressions of oneness with the will of God, the very fullness of which deprives of

speech. All that we need to do is to come into the presence of God, and with heartfelt

sincerity tell the Lord that we have no wish that lies outside of His will. We find no

scheme or plan half as attractive as the purpose of the ages, and see no calling half as

wonderful and desirable as our own calling. If we could choose, or will, or bring to pass,

we could not choose, or will, or bring to pass anything so good, so true, so altogether

blessed as the good and perfect and acceptable will of God. This is truly high ground,

and the writer does not intend that his readers shall assume that this is his constant and

unchanging state of heart. Nevertheless, nothing less than this can fill out the measure of

true prayer, and should our present attainments appear puny and weak and selfish as

compared with this standard of the Word, we may be assured that the prayer for more

grace to pray like this will be abundantly answered.