The Cry of a Heart // Psalm 5
Psalm 5,
“Listen, God! Please, pay attention! Can you make sense of these ramblings, my groans and cries?
King-God, I need your help. Every morning you’ll hear me at it again. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend.
You don’t socialize with Wicked, or invite Evil over as your houseguest. Hot-Air-Boaster collapses in front of you; you shake your head over Mischief-Maker. God destroys Lie-Speaker; Blood-Thirsty and Truth-Bender disgust you.
And here I am, your invited guest—it’s incredible! I enter your house; here I am, prostrate in your inner sanctum, waiting for directions to get me safely through enemy lines.
Every word they speak is a land mine; their lungs breathe out poison gas. Their throats are gaping graves, their tongues slick as mudslides. Pile on the guilt, God! Let their so-called wisdom wreck them. Kick them out! They’ve had their chance.
But you’ll welcome us with open arms when we run for cover to you. Let the party last all night! Stand guard over our celebration. You are famous, God, for welcoming God-seekers, for decking us out in delight.”
Have you ever felt speechless in your prayer? When you've come to God so overwhelmed with thoughts and emotions you couldn't articulate any of it. Or perhaps you had prayed the prayer so often that you couldn't seem to piece the words together one more time.
In this Psalm, David is in that place. He is in such distress that he calls out to God and asks Him to make sense of all the inner chaos. He's praying God can interpret his ramblings because it's all he can muster in the moment.
Sometimes, and maybe today, you find yourself in a distressing situation. Perhaps your world just caved and you still haven't made sense of it. The words aren't coming in easy as you grasp to understand the situation. Or maybe you've been praying for a breakthrough for months--maybe years--and you're just tired of praying the same thing without results.
If this is you, take up David's practice in verses 2 and 3.
"Every morning you’ll hear me at it again. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend."
David, even though he couldn't necessarily articulate his prayers, knew he couldn't give up on praying. He knew that he would have to go to God each day with his cries. I'm reminded of the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8.
There was a widow who went to an unjust judge over and over again. He wouldn't give her any attention at first but her persistence began to wear him down. Eventually, the judge gave her justice because of her persistence and Jesus makes the comment that if an unjust judge would respond to the widow, how much more would our Heavenly Father respond to us. Jesus says not to give up coming to God with our requests because He will respond at the right time and in the right way.
Don't give up, but keep coming to Him. Even if all you can muster are the groans and cries.
My favorite verse is the one where David describes that every morning he lays it all out before God and looks for fire to descend. David's making an offering of prayer and he's waiting for God to respond. His words are so eloquent in their description and I long to see my own offering consumed by the fire.
Today you are being encouraged to keep going. Don't give up and don't stop crying out. Keep coming to God and wait for His fire to descend,
One of my favorite worship albums of all time is one put out by the ladies of the Red Rocks Church worship team. It's 4 songs developed out of their favorite psalms and it's some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard! Click on the album to purchase it in itunes.
Click the image above to download the free scripture print for this series! It's a great way to memorize an encouraging verse while staying in tuned with the series.
