I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken (Psalm 16:8).
Outside of the Bible, many of us have books that occupy a special place in our memory and spiritual formation. We tend to keep them nearby; the pages are marked up; they tend to fall open to a certain page we have revisited numerous times. One of those books for me is Alexander Whyte’s collection of sermons titled Lord, Teach Us to Pray.
Referencing the passage from Psalm 16 above, Whyte offers an exhortation which is relevant for all seasons of life and all requests we bring to God in prayer: “In short, be sure to get a true sight and a true hold of God, in some way or other, before you begin either prayer or praise... Set the Lord always before you.”
Whyte was encouraging his listeners and readers something reformed pastors such as John Calvin have encouraged their people to do throughout history: to open up our imagination. Too often, our prayers can essentially be “praying into space,” Whyte says. To be sure, it’s a good thing to take all our needs and requests to God, because he cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). It’s even better, Whyte says, to “get a true sight” of God before us when we pray.
This is because it shapes the way we pray and shapes our hearts as we pray.
It is one thing to pray and ask God to provide for your personal needs or the needs of your church. It is another to set the Lord before you first, the Lord who “owns the cattle on a thousand hills” (Ps. 50:10).
It is one thing to ask God for provision and wonder if and how we will answer. It is quite another to set the Lord before you first, the Lord who has united you to Christ “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7).
It is one thing to daily plead for the salvation of a child or grandchild who has strayed far from the Lord. It is another to set the Lord before you first, the Lord who leaves the ninety-nine to bring back the one and rejoices at their repentance (Luke 15:3-7).
Maybe you are burdened for the needs of a fellow brother or sister in Christ and feel weighed down by the magnitude of the need and your relative inability to meet it. Get the Lord before you, the Lord who calls himself the great shepherd of the sheep (John 10:11; Heb. 13:20).
Maybe you feel daunted by the call to share Christ with people where you live, work, and play. Get the Lord before you, the Lord who gave the Great Commission along with a promise to be with you and to empower you by his Spirit for that calling (Matt. 28:20, Acts 1:8).
Maybe you are experiencing the emotional turmoil of a relationship in conflict and cannot possibly imagine how it could be repaired. Get the Lord before you, the Lord who breaks down dividing walls of hostility in his flesh (Eph. 2:14).
Set the Lord always before you.
It could be that you are undergoing intense treatment for an aggressive disease or the prospect of death is set before your mind every day. Get the Lord before you who says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).
In your battle with sin, get the Lord before you who has triumphed over the spiritual forces of evil in the cross (Col. 2:15, Eph. 6:12).
In your grief, get the Lord before you who “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Ps. 147:3).
When the Lord Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught us to begin, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” The name of the Lord in scripture is shorthand for his character. When we set the Lord before us, we are hallowing his name by remembering his character and humbly relying on it with every need we bring.
Next time you take a need to the Lord, pause before beginning your requests, open up your imagination, and get the Lord before you, then, pour out all your requests to our Lord who is “infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.”
