In these opening verses I see two types of prayer spoken to. The formal, perhaps memorized prayers and the “off the cuff” spontaneous prayers in a time of crisis.

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Prayers

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Here is the transcript used to record this podcast.

Psalm 5

5:1-3 …Prayers

1 Listen to my words, Lord,
    consider my lament.

2 Hear my cry for help,
    my King and my God,
    for to you I pray.

In this Psalm, David starts out by talking about prayer – in particular, the lament. A lament is a type of prayer where the supplicant “expresses sorrow, pain, or confusion”

from the article“Biblical Lament: What It Is and How to Do It” Ryan Higginbottom, June 13 2022; https://openthebible.org/article/biblical-lament-what-it-is-and-how-to-do-it/

David mentions two types of prayers in this lament. I see this in verse 1 and in verse 2. He mentions “words” in verse 1 AND a “cry” for help in verse 2. The circumstances (whatever they are) are so dire as to lead David to not concern himself with just the formalized prayers of his faith- there is nothing wrong with that – but to also “go with his gut” and simply cry out.

I am a big fan of repeating Scripture back to God in my prayers – to the point that sometimes my prayers might seem to be formulaic and uninspired to anyone listening. I love to incorporate the words from the Kyrie (from the Roman Mass) daily and with regularity – “Lord have Mercy, Christ have Mercy”. There is a peace and familiarity to praying via memorized favorite scriptures and prayers… 

For instance the Lord’s Prayer:

“…Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today our daily bread.12 And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,[a] but deliver us from the evil one.[b]’

for yours is the Kingdom, and the honor, and the glory forever. Amen.”

I even lean into the Apostles Creed from time to time. 

I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.

It is such a powerful confession. You will hear me read this at the beginning of every podcast.

If you listen to me pray at family get-togethers you will inevitably hear me quote the last line of this Psalm:

  “you surround them (or me; us)  with your favor as with a shield.”

However, there have been times in my life when the need is immediate and urgent, and there is no time for rifling through those memorized prayers or confessions to find the one that best fits the need of that moment. There is no time for formalized memorized prayer. When an event presents itself that is immediate and potentially catastrophic, the only appropriate response is the “cry of the heart”. 

As an example, let me take you back to a particular event  – the onslaught of Hurricane Hugo in 1989 (I think). I had my family gathered in the center of our house, huddled  together while this VERY frightening storm tore through Charleston. We made it through the front of the storm, we made it through the wall and the eye of the storm. Then the backside of the storm hit. Towards the end of Hugo, there was a sudden silence, followed by the roar of what sounded like a freight train. A tornado had dropped out of the back of the storm and was bearing down on our home. We could feel the air being sucked out of the house, and the sound of ripping paper (our roof being torn away) filled our ears. At that moment, my then 9 year old son cried “Daddy make it stop!” Never in my life have I felt so out of control and helpless. I said the first thing that came to mind “Lord, Your word says by grace are we saved through faith… now would be good!” This was not a formulaic prayer – this was the cry from a terrified heart. The tornado lifted, traveled over the top of our house, and came down on the other side to continue its journey of destruction.

I believe that is an example of what David says when he says “hear my cry for help” in verse 2. This is a different type of prayer from verse 1 where David asks God to hear his words and his lament. I sense an urgency and immediacy in “hear my cry for help”.

It needs to be mentioned that it shouldn’t be the case of which type of prayer is more important i.e. formalized, formulaic memorized prayers such as David’s lament and the “off-the-cuff” prayers like mine with that tornado. I believe David is making use of both types of prayer in these first two verses.

So I incorporate both into my prayer life. I find great value and peace in memorizing things like the Apostles Creed, The Lord’s Prayer, the lyrics from the Ordinary of the Mass (and me being a Protestant… gasp!). There is a sweet discipline in repeating wise words, and wise prayers from saints of old. There is also a sweet discipline in just having a more informal discussion with the Lord as you drive to work in the morning. And there is GREAT value in just letting your heart dictate the prayer in times of crisis.

Now… sometimes the crisis isn’t an immediate one with nearly instantaneous outcomes like that hurricane and that tornado. Sometimes the crisis is of seemingly unending nature. In that case, a more tenacious approach to prayer is called for. I find this in verse 3.

3 In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice;
    in the morning I lay my requests before you
    and wait expectantly.

The sense I get here is that of a morning appointment with the Lord – a regularly occurring event to address a specific situation in which the supplicant brings his request before God and waits expectantly for a response. This “waiting expectantly” is not a passive thing. It is not the supplicant sitting on his or her hands doing nothing until God gets back to them. The word “expectantly” hints at the activity of being alert, of casting your eyes to and fro, looking for God to deliver His solution. “Waiting expectantly” is an active exercise.

This verse characterizes my activity during the time following my having to file for bankruptcy back in 2002. There was no immediate deliverance, but rather a two-year period in which God revealed my sin to me and also revealed His plan for me to navigate through fixing the issue of my being fiscally foolish. Every day I would wake up, confess my sin of being stupid with money to Him, read the Word (which I had not done in years), and then launch myself into the day, searching for a job, fully expecting God to deliver. Over the span of those two years, God allowed me to feel the pain and shame of not being able to be a good provider for my family. During that time He miraculously provided for us, and by the end of that two year period He revealed what my path was going to be moving forward – to be a music teacher to the Body of Christ. This was something I would have NEVER embraced had I stayed in the Satellite Communications industry.

Verse 3 very neatly defines my life in those two years.

Isn’t it amazing how much you can get from just three verses?

Stand by – David is going to switch gears from talking about the “David and God connection” to  the “wicked and God connection.” But that is for another day, and another podcast.

Blessings!

Paige