Hear my cry, O Lord. Pay attention to my prayer. Psalm 130:2 (NLT)

I wonder at the brute honesty of this portion of the song. The climb from the ‘depths of despair’ is commenced and the first thing we hear from the traveler is the cry, ‘listen to me.’

I try to keep fit as best I can. Currently I am ‘working out’ by myself. Sometimes, during a particularly strenuous part of an exercise, I will vocalize the difficulty with a groan or, if I am in significant pain, a cry. I am glad nobody is around to hear. The psalmist counts on the opposite. He depends on the Sovereign of the Universe to not only ‘be around’ but to ‘pay attention.’ The idea of God ‘hearing’ and ‘paying attention’ is too big for me to comprehend. What right do I have to demand God’s focus?

Lord, if you kept a record of our [Robert’s] sins, who [could Robert], O Lord, could survive? Psalm 130:3 (NLT)

The lack of my ‘right to be heard’ is furthered by the confession of inability to survive in the face of the record of sins. For my part, the answer to the question is simple: I cannot survive based upon my own merit. There is no just way to cancel out the enormity of my sin debt, even if every good I could own were placed on the balance sheet.

There is a highway of hope in the word ‘if.’ The song does not say ‘since you keep a record…’ or even ‘when you keep a record…’ It is simply ‘if…then.’ The ability of the singer to cry out, ‘listen to me’ is a nod to the understanding that God chooses not to keep the record of sin without remedy.

Today I chose one powerful but simple way to study God’s Word. I “personalized it” by inserting personal pronouns or my own name where appropriate. Another way I applied this portion of the song was to “pray it” by taking ownership of the content of the text. Both methods are explained well in Rick Warren’s 40 Days in the Word  resource.

What did God show you today in your time with Him? What portion of His word will you commit to memory this week?