I’m studying the Psalms this year and I’ve come to the thirty-eighth inspired poem of the book. It’s another one of David’s “repenting” psalms, where he expresses grief over his sin and asks God to forgive him. In the midst of it, the poet makes this statement:
Lord, all my desire is before Thee; and my groaning is not hid from Thee.
(Psalm 38:9)
David knows the Lord has seen the physical toll his grief has brought him. He has sinned and it is eating him up inside. He has cried aloud, begging for mercy, and he knows the Lord has heard his cries. That said, he wasn’t putting on a show. He wasn’t faking it, because he knows the Lord can read his heart and mind like an open book. Instead, he is praying a prayer of repentance, and what that involves is telling God: “You see my pain; you know it is sincere.”
To that, someone may ask: “If God knows it, why tell Him?” It speaks to a larger question people sometimes have about God, which is: If God knows everything, what does it matter that we pray to Him? He already knows what we need; why do we have to tell Him?
That question fails to appreciate the power of prayer in the first place. God knows all that we need, yet we are still commanded to tell Him. Why? For multiple reasons, including the axiom “You have not because you ask not” (James 4). There’s also the sense of connection that prayer brings, as well as a therapeutic aid that comes with talking out your problems to the listening ear of the Lord.
There are many reasons to talk to the Being who can read your thoughts and who already knows everything. Don’t worry about what the Almighty knows; appreciate that He—despite knowing—still wants to listen to you tell Him all about it.
~Matthew