Moses and Aaron were among His priests,
And Samuel was among those who called on His name;
They called upon the LORD and He answered them.
— Psalm 99:6
Here we have a portrait of a prayer-answering God — a God who, across generations, has faithfully responded to the prayers of His saints.
Notice that Moses, Aaron, and Samuel were generations apart from one another. Despite the vast separation of time between these men, God remained the same in responding to their prayers.
Different Times, Different Circumstances
Notice also the kinds of situations these men were navigating. On one hand, we have Moses and Aaron leading the children of Israel through the wilderness after God had rescued them from captivity in Egypt. On the other hand, we have Samuel, who ministered to the children of Israel after they had already entered the promised land — after the times of Joshua, after the era of the judges. Samuel is rightly called the last judge of Israel. He stood at the transitional point between the period when Israel was governed by judges and the period when Israel was governed by kings.
Consider also the specific challenges each man faced. Moses had to deal with the children of Israel as they grumbled and complained against God in the face of various wilderness predicaments. Samuel had to contend with the children of Israel as they rejected the rule of God as their King and demanded a human king like every other nation around them.
Yet across all these different times, all these different circumstances, and all these vastly different situations, God remained entirely consistent in one thing — He answered when they called.
A God With a Track Record
Is it not true that many times when we come to God in prayer, we completely forget that He has been faithfully answering the prayers of His people for thousands upon thousands of years?
The psalmist returns to this theme repeatedly — I called upon the LORD and He answered me. In other places he writes, in my day of distress I called upon the LORD and He answered my prayer. This is a God with an undeniable track record of hearing and responding to those who call upon Him.
And yet it is a shame that we, as believers who trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ — who fulfilled the complete requirements of the law on our behalf — still so often come to God in prayer as though He were stingy, or as though He had not already established the record that He has.
Prayer Is a Command
Several things ought to always come to mind when we think about prayer. The first is that prayer is commanded throughout all of Scripture. In the prophets we read that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. The psalms repeatedly call us to cry out to God in our distress. The narratives of Ezra and Nehemiah show us men calling out to God for help in the face of overwhelming odds. The Gospels show us our Lord Jesus Himself withdrawing repeatedly to pray to His Father. And the apostles model the same pattern of crying out to God in times of need.
Jesus in Luke 18:1 instructs His disciples to always pray and not lose heart. Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, commands:
Pray without ceasing.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:17
And to the Philippians he writes:
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
— Philippians 4:6-7
Prayer is first and foremost a command.
Prayer Is a Promise
But prayer is also a promise. Scripture assures us that God is always listening and always hearing the prayers of His people. Jesus reassures His disciples that if they pray in His name, the Father will give them what they ask:
If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
— John 14:14
And in 1 John 5:14, the apostle John reassures his readers that because they have believed in the finished work of Jesus Christ, if they ask anything according to God’s will, they will receive it. James writes:
The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
— James 5:16
Prayer Is Supported by God Himself
And finally, prayer is not something we engage in alone — it is supported by God Himself. In Romans 8 we read of the Holy Spirit’s intercession in our prayers — that we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us, helping us to pray according to the will of God. And in both Romans 8 and Hebrews, we read of Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for His people even now.
Drawing Near to the God Who Hears
As the psalmist holds up Moses, Aaron, and Samuel as examples of people who called upon the Lord, let us follow in their steps. Let us not shy away from calling upon the Lord, for He is a God who hears — one who is closer than a brother, and one who is fully able to answer.
Let us make it our constant practice to come to God in prayer, trusting and depending fully upon Him. For not only is He the only one who can truly respond to our prayers, but in the very act of praying we draw near to God — and as James 4:8 reminds us, when we draw near to God, He draws near to us.
Amen.
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