Charles Spurgeon on Prayer - Day 12

PRAYER IN A CAVE

A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.

Title of Psalm 142

David did pray when he was in the cave. If he had prayed half as much when he was in the palace as he did when he was in the cave, it would have been better for him. If he had been looking up to heaven, if his heart had been in communion with God, he might never have looked from the roof to the house and committed that great crime that so deeply stained his whole character. Our God is not a God of the hills only, but of the valleys also; He is God of both sea and land. He heard Jonah when earth with her bars seemed to be about him forever. Wherever you work, you can pray. Wherever you lie, you can pray. There is no place to which you can be banished where God is not near, and there is no time of day or night when His throne is inaccessible. The caves have heard the best prayers. Some of God’s people shine brightest in the dark. Many an heir of heaven never prays so well as when driven by necessity to pray. Some sing aloud upon a bed of sickness who are seldom heard from when they are well. Some ring God’s high praises in the fire of affliction who did not praise Him before the trial came.

David was to be king over all Israel. What was the way to Jerusalem’s throne? It was directed through the cave of Adullam. He must go there as an outcast, for that was the way by which he would be made king. Whenever God is about to bring you to a higher platform of spiritual life, you always first get thrown down. He makes you hungry before He feeds you; He strips you before He clothes you; He makes nothing of you before He makes something of you. Jacob only became “the prince of God” after God touched his thigh and put it out of joint. Do not wonder, then, if you go by the way of the cave. Here it is that He will teach you to pray.

Father, whatever comes my way today, whether it’s a cave or a throne, may Your high praises remain on my lips. Amen.