“Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint.” (Psalm 61:1–2)
The Scriptures in general, and the Psalms in particular, have a great deal to teach us concerning prayer. This text highlights at least two of those lessons. First, it teaches us that prayer, no matter what the occasion, ought to be conducted with a fervent and zealous spirit: “Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer.” David doesn’t shuffle his feet when he comes before his God; he doesn’t mumble or approach in a half-hearted manner. Rather, he cries, as the word signifies. He calls with desperation and zeal. He calls with the kind of tenacity that arises when one has placed all their hope and confidence upon a singular object, when all the eggs have been piled, so to speak, into one solitary wicker basket. The leap has been made, in other words, and there is no remaining recourse.
But secondly, these verses show us that neither weakness of soul nor feelings of apparent distance are valid deterrents to calling upon God: “From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint.” Just think how many prayers have been muted by these two excuses alone, how many cries left unuttered for such mistaken and faulty reasons! Frequently our own prayers cease before they begin because of one or both of them. We wrongly feel that we are too weak, too far, or too out of sorts for the act of prayer to be of any use. Yet David bows to none of these thoughts. If anything, he sees them as further reasons to persevere in prayer. And thus faith surges forward like water breaking through a dam, slow and trickling at first, then growing till it amasses the strength of a raging torrent. What begins weak and feeble soars to unexpected heights: “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I…Let me dwell in your tent forever!” (vv. 2–4).
To put it simply, David does not recognize distance or weakness as valid reasons to forgo prayer, and neither should we. Our God is in the heavens; these are no obstacle to Him.
Thank-you for this! My prayers lately are definitely coming from a place of humility and weakness - and I trust that God will answer and show His might and glorify His worth.