七月二日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/07/0702.mp3″]
经文: 耶和华阿，我要求告祢。我的磐石阿，不要向我缄默。倘若祢向我闭口，我就如将死的人一样。（诗篇二十八：1）
呼求是忧伤的自然表现，也是忧伤时适当之言语，特别在所有的其它表示方法皆不生效时。但是呼求必须直接向主而发，因为向人求告只是浪费时间。当我们知道主随时准备聆听，并且祂有能力帮助我们时，我们就明白应将所有的困难立即向救恩的上帝陈述。在审判之日向山岩呼求是无用的，可是我们的磐石随时听我们的呼求。“不要向我闭口”。那些只有祈祷行动的人，即使祈祷未蒙垂听也可能感到心安，但是真正的恳求者不能，祂必要得到从天而来的确实答覆，否则不能安息。祂渴望能即时得到答覆，即使上帝静默片刻也会令祂害怕。上帝的声音有时甚可怕，会震撼旷野，偍是上帝的静默也同样令人生畏。上帝似乎闭耳不听时，我们更需恳切呼求。当我们的声音因迫切和忧伤变得尖锐时，祂不会让我们久待，拒绝垂听。祂若对我们的祈求永久沉默，我们将陷入何等可怕的景况啊！“倘若祢向我闭口，我就如将死的人一样。”倘若不能享受应允祈祷的上帝，我们将比在坟墓中的死人更为可怜，很快就会下沉至地狱中，如同那些失丧的人一样。我们必须要得到祈祷的回应，因为我们面临的是紧急事件。主必然会向我们受搅的头脑说出平安的话，因为祂不会让他所爱的儿女灭亡。
Evening, July 2
Scripture: “Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.”(Psalm 28:1)
A cry is the natural expression of sorrow, and a suitable utterance when all other modes of appeal fail us; but the cry must be alone directed to the Lord, for to cry to man is to waste our entreaties upon the air. When we consider the readiness of the Lord to hear, and his ability to aid, we shall see good reason for directing all our appeals at once to the God of our salvation. It will be in vain to call to the rocks in the day of judgment, but our Rock attends to our cries.
“Be not silent to me.” Mere formalists may be content without answers to their prayers, but genuine suppliants cannot; they are not satisfied with the results of prayer itself in calming the mind and subduing the will－they must go further, and obtain actual replies from heaven, or they cannot rest; and those replies they long to receive at once, they dread even a little of God’s silence. God’s voice is often so terrible that it shakes the wilderness; but his silence is equally full of awe to an eager suppliant. When God seems to close his ear, we must not therefore close our mouths, but rather cry with more earnestness; for when our note grows shrill with eagerness and grief, he will not long deny us a hearing. What a dreadful case should we be in if the Lord should become for ever silent to our prayers? “Lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.” Deprived of the God who answers prayer, we should be in a more pitiable plight than the dead in the grave, and should soon sink to the same level as the lost in hell. We must have answers to prayer: ours is an urgent case of dire necessity; surely the Lord will speak peace to our agitated minds, for he never can find it in his heart to permit his own elect to perish.