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16 LORD [Y@hovah], in trouble [tsar] have they visited [paqad]
thee, they poured out [tsuwq] a prayer [lachash] when thy chastening [muwcar]
was upon them. KJV-Interlinear
16 O LORD, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered
prayer when your discipline was upon them. ESV
The phrase, poured out in prayer, refers to a whispering or a muttering, as in embarrassment or in grumbling. And so it is with people who ignore God, until they have their backs to the wall, and even then they call upon God as a last resort, or even in their bitterness.
While God calls us to call upon Him, this calling should be in both prosperity as well as in suffering.
Most people, when prosperous, tend to lose their interest in God. And only when things in life become too dicey, then do we call upon God, if not in desperation.
And oddly enough, when God pours out blessing, we are or become, more distant from Him, and when life pours out cursing, then we direct our attention toward Him, and thus become closer to God, because of our suffering.
And so we are reminded that prayer should come from us toward God, through Christ, and in the Spirit, as a normal part of our day to day life. And not just when we are in trouble.
Likewise, we are reminded that calling upon God is not only normal but the expected behavior, especially in times of trouble.
But, realize that these verses are contained in the middle of the prophetic discourse from Isaiah, and thus when we notice that in the end times, all prayer will have been forgotten, and especially when the end times grow terrible to the extreme, then people will still not look to God. This demonstrates the tremendous spiritual dysfunction that will exist in those fateful days.
