Psalm 61: Attend

Psalm 61 begins with a prayer, “Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer”. The church I grew up in often sang a song taken from the King James Version of this verse, “Hear my cry, O God; Attend unto my prayer”. That word “attend” has always been the key to this psalm for me. Many modern translations have chosen to simply use the word “listen”, but the tone and tenor of the rest of the psalm seems to call for more than that. If we just look at the language, the Hebrew word used is qashab. It’s biblical usage is “to hear, be attentive, heed, incline (of ears), attend (of ears), hearken, pay attention, listen.” But it’s primitive root means “to prick up the ears”. David was not simply asking to be heard, he was praying that his cries would capture God’s attention, that his words would not simply enter God’s ears but that they would move God’s heart. 

This was not a situation in which David wasn’t sure whether or not God was listening, where he believed the lie that the heavens had become brass, but he was sharing the honesty of his heart, the depth of his weariness, the pain of his current position. If anyone was sure God listened it was David. He was the one who told us that the LORD is our Shepherd and used that statement to encourage us not to want. It was David, who as a young man, argued that he was able to go out and fight the giant Goliath simply because the God who had been with him when he encountered a bear and a lion would surely be with him when he encountered this giant. It was David, who after having his sin forgiven discovered that God Himself is our hiding place. David knew God was listening, but his heart was so troubled that he asked God to not just hear him, but to attend to his cry.

Psalm 61 doesn’t tell us the circumstances that were going on in David’s life when he was writing, but David’s words give us some clues. In verse 2 he wrote, “from the end of the earth I call to you”. David must have been far from all that he was sure of, from all that he felt safe in, from all that he had hoped for. One possibility is that this was written when David had to flee from Jerusalem during Absalom’s rebellion. He had been temporarily exiled to the other side of the Jordan River, far from his home, his people or the Tabernacle of God’s presence. Clearly, he would not have really been at the “ends of the earth”, but I bet he felt like it. Haven’t we all felt that far off? Haven’t we all been afraid, at some point, that we were so far away from where we wanted to be that we might not make it back?

What if this distance isn’t just about space, what if it’s also about time? While it is highly unlikely, what if part of this psalm was birthed in David’s heart when he was exiled from Israel and hiding from King Saul? David had been anointed the king, he was a faithful soldier, a successful warrior, a favorite son and yet he found himself far from home, far from his family, far from where he wanted to be, far from what God had promised. Sometimes God’s promises seem so far away that we might as well be at the ends of the earth. Sometimes our circumstances are so starkly opposed to what we expected, what we planned and hoped for, what we were sure God was going to do that we wonder not only if it will happen but if we had ever heard from God in the first place.

I bet the desert of Midian felt like the ends of the earth to Moses. There he was, taking care of his father-in-law’s sheep when he had been raised in the palace of Egypt’s Pharaoh and had been convinced, he had been spared to be the deliverer of Israel. John the Baptist must have felt like he had come to the ends of the earth as he was imprisoned by Herod. He had been the voice crying out in the wilderness, he had led much of Judea into a baptism of repentance, he had met, baptized and then announced the coming of the Messiah. He sat in jail for doing what he had always done, preaching against sin and calling for repentance, but this time, the response was not the baptism of sinners, but the arrest of the preacher. In the nine months that Mary carried Jesus in her womb she must have often felt like she was living on the ends of the earth. Her entire life had changed. She was betrothed to Joseph, waiting for her husband to come and take her to their home, when suddenly and angel announced that she would become pregnant with a son that would be the “Son of the Highest”. She believed the promise Gabriel gave her, but she didn’t at all understand the process, asking, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” Her pregnancy must have been filled with questions, with times of great hope but also, at least moments, of even greater doubt. Even if we’ve never felt far from God, we’ve all felt far from ourselves, far from what God has promised, far from what we thought God was going to do. David’s prayer in his season can be ours as well, “attend unto my cry”.

What I find most comforting and challenging in this psalm is that David, in asking for God’s attention, didn’t simply ask to be rescued, to have his problems solved or to see God’s promises fulfilled, he asked, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I”. His understanding was that feeling far from God was not the same as God being far from him. He expressed his feelings but then prayed for direction, he didn’t demand that God come and make him feel close, he asked God to lead him to believe in His closeness. We often find ourselves desiring a feeling from God, we want to feel peace, feel joy, feel content, feel forgiven, feel love, but David was teaching us that none of those things are feelings, they are truths to be believed. When we put the two stanzas of Psalm 61 together, we see David overcome his feelings with the truth. He began by writing that his heart was faint and he felt as far away as the ends of the earth, but then in verse 5 he writes, “For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.” Our feelings are real, they are valid, and they often need to be spoken, but they also need to be spoken to.

In John 11, Jesus stood at Lazarus’ tomb and felt every feeling of mourning and grief. His friend was dead, and his other friends were heartbroken. He felt for them and He felt with them. He knew that He would, within minutes, raise their brother from the dead, but He didn’t dismiss their feelings, He didn’t squash their emotions, He didn’t even interrupt their story. He wept at a grave He was about to open. He “attended unto their cry” and then He led them to the rock that was higher than them. He met them in their feelings and then He led them into the truth they were not yet sure of. That’s God’s character, it’s not just what He does, it’s who He is. We all feel far off at times, that’s not being weak it’s being human. The key is not chasing away the feeling, it’s being led to the truth. No matter how far away you feel, God is near. No matter how long you’ve waited God is not slow. No matter how unfair your situation God is just. Cry out to God in your feelings, His ears are pricked up and His heart’s desire is to lead us, not just out of trouble, but to His heart.