Psalm 61

Psalm 61, Psalm 33:20-22, Matthew 6:9-13, John 16:13

Have you ever started sharing a story in a crowded room and then half way through the story, awkwardly realized that no one is listening? Maybe they all assumed that you were talking to someone else or that they didn’t have to listen because someone else was or they just got distracted, but when you stop sharing mid storytelling no one even notices your incomplete sentence. I don’t know about you, but this is one of the most awkward/embarrassing things for me, even though no one even notices. Sometimes I think that my relationship with God is like that. I find myself questioning, “God do you hear me? Are you even listening?” I compare myself to others and assume that God cares for them more if he is answering their prayers. But God is always listening! He may not answer right away or answer in the way that we want, but we can trust that He is all powerful and listens to each and every one of our cries to Him if we are in Christ Jesus.

When David is asking God to hear his prayer in Psalm 61, he is asking for God to attend to his prayer, not listen. David does not think that he must ask God to listen to his prayers, but he desperately desires for God to answer his prayer. We know that David trusts that God is listening, because in verse 5 he makes it known that he trusts that God can and will attend to his prayer based on God’s past faithfulness to keep His promises. 

David humbles himself and regards God as higher than himself. David trusts and believes that God can and will hear his prayer because He is an all powerful God. Even though David is king at this point, he prays “lead me to the rock that is higher than I…” referring to God as his rock (vs. 2). 

With desperation and trust, David is asking God to answer his prayer, yet at the same time knowing that God’s will is higher than his own. He finishes his prayer by proclaiming that he will continue to sing praises to God and abide in Him daily. David praises God and abides in Him, both because he is so thankful for all God has done for him and also because despite any outcome, he knows that God is worthy of his praise. Charles Spurgeon quotes, “God daily performs his promises, let us daily perform our vows. He keeps His covenant, let us not forget ours.”

The key word here is daily. God does not desire for us to cry out to him only when things are going great or only when we desperately want to see Him move, but daily. He desires for us to daily abide in His word, as he daily dwells in us and keeps His promises. May we daily speak to God in confidence that He listens and desperately ask Him to answer according to His will.