Ps. 4-6
David fully trusted that God is good, and that He accepts a heart that is right before Him. It is important to note that a “right heart” isn’t about right behavior, but about humble, God-seeking attitudes. Because David trusts that God is good, he has confidence that God not only hears his prayers, but responds to them.
In Psalm 5:3 David says (and I love the way the NASB puts it), “In the morning O LORD, You will hear my voice; in the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.” The first part of the verse is a two-way statement – God will hear David’s voice because David will pray, and David’s prayers will not be in vain, because God will hear his voice. And the second part shows that David fully expects something to happen as a result of his prayers, and he eagerly watches for God’s response. I love that! What is the point of praying if you don’t believe that something will result from it? It might not be exactly what you expected or wanted, but it will be exactly what you need.
And again, at the end of Psalm 6, David says, “Depart from me, all you who do iniquity, for the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping. The LORD has heard my supplication, the LORD receives my prayer.” (vs 8-9) Three times David confirms that God not only hears but also receives his prayer, because he trusts that God is good and knows that his own heart is humbly seeking his good God.
John 7:1-27
Funny, how we so often get tripped up by what we think we know. Some of the people started getting the idea that Jesus might actually be The Christ. But in John 7:27 they trip themselves up, saying, “But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” They let what they thought they knew turn them away from what really was true. When Jesus previously went to His own home town, the people there did the same thing, saying, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” (Jn 6:42).
It seems a tricky balancing act to keep an open mind to our own potential misunderstanding while not opening our minds to the lies and misunderstandings of others, but I don’t think the answer is really all that complicated. We just need to make sure that we are seeking Truth from the source, for it is God Himself who guards our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. We are not to lean on our own understanding or on the understanding of others, but to rely on God, and He will make known what is right to us in spite of what we think we know.