Psalm 61:1

Psalm 61:1

A National Prayer for God’s help

 The background to this Psalm and the following Psalms 62-64, are warfare and deliverance. The dangers are everywhere, and life is threatened, David feels morbidly afraid and helpless as he pens his cries the the Lord. There are references to “the king” which suggests that these songs were written at a time of personal as well as national calamity. David is almost obsessed by that threat of his enemies, and I suspect that if you are a king then any threat to your safety and well-being reflects a grave risk to all those whom you serve. Psalm 61 is a plea for the Lord God to protect the king, to increase the days of his life and to restore the kingdom. Some have speculated that these words were written when David was fleeing for his life, from his son Absalom who deviously grabbed the reigns of power for a short time. 

 

v1        “Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer.” This is a heart-rending plea is it not? It’s one that we have heard before and will, no doubt, hear again. There is a suggestion that the one who prays feels unheard, that he is screaming for attention at a wall of silence. Against this backdrop of desperation can we also detect an air of petulance, as if this were a demand to the Lord, “Listen to me”? 

Whatever David was feeling, he was able to pen these words and sing them out to His Lord, he was not afraid to command attention. Surely there is a lesson here for us? How timid our prayers are at times? I grew up attending Prayer Meetings where words were carefully rehearsed and politely uttered, style was more important than substance and there was no chance that anything might be uttered that could offend the Lord. It was boring to most of us and I suspect that the Lord may have been bored as well! Sometimes, we have to shout it out, not because God is deaf or unfeeling but because He knows that we need to give vent to our frustrations and because He knows what is in our hearts. Let’s have honest prayer please! I speak to myself.

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