Care ‘Beyond Words’

"Hear my cry, O God

Listen to my prayer..."

Psalm 61:1 ESV

Throughout May we were exploring Psalm 61. It has been described as ‘The Psalm of the Exile’. It is set, like several others we have looked at, at a time when David is fleeing from people who are after his life. He is far way from everyone and everything that he loves. He cries out to his God from ‘the end of the earth’, and remembering how God has been with him in the past gives him faith that his cries will be listened to.

There is something about a cry, (or a shout, scream, wail- whatever comes out of your mouth!) that communicates very deeply a need or emotion, which words cannot express adequately. Sounds such as sobs of grief, or whoops of excitement come from somewhere deep inside our psyche. They explode out of us before our brains have had time to even utter a coherent word, let alone a meaningful sentence.

These are the cries that David knew our loving Heavenly Father hears. Just as a doting mother hears her child’s distinct cries and tends to them, so our God hears us. Jesus reminds us in Matthew’s Gospel that our God is aware of our needs before we are, such is the intimacy of his connection with us. No cry from within us is a surprise to Him, and although troubles come, we are secure in His care. Every ‘Aaargghh!’ of exasperation, every ‘Owwww!’ of pain, every ‘Phew!’ of relief our soul expresses, are heard by our Rock.

If you listened to deep inside yourself today, what shouts or expressions would you hear that are ‘beyond words’? God promises to hear our cries, however they sound. “Oh God, Aaarrgggh!!” is a highly effective prayer said by many over the centuries, and has opened up many a conversation between created and Creator.