Hurry

Rhona Cathcart March 23, 2022 0 3

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Psalm 38: 9-10, 15-22 (NRSVA)

9 O Lord, all my longing is known to you;
    my sighing is not hidden from you.
10 My heart throbs, my strength fails me;
    as for the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.

 

15 But it is for you, O Lord, that I wait;
    it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
16 For I pray, ‘Only do not let them rejoice over me,
    those who boast against me when my foot slips.’

17 For I am ready to fall,
    and my pain is ever with me.
18 I confess my iniquity;
    I am sorry for my sin.
19 Those who are my foes without cause[a] are mighty,
    and many are those who hate me wrongfully.
20 Those who render me evil for good
    are my adversaries because I follow after good.

21 Do not forsake me, O Lord;
    O my God, do not be far from me;
22 make haste to help me,
    O Lord, my salvation.

 

Sometimes when I look at a Bible passage I am struck by the primary verbs used. We often think of verbs as ‘action words’ but they can carry a lot of emotional weight too. Think about the verbs in verses nine to ten of this psalm: longing, sighing, throbbing, failing. The raw intensity of feeling is evident in the stripped down verbs — no need for adjectives or qualifiers. The emotion continues to build in the next few verses culminating in a moment of suspension in verse 15: “I wait”, and then it’s as if the verbs start to cascade downwards as the psalmist prays, falls, confesses, ending figuratively on his knees with the simple plea for God to hurry. We don’t always need fancy words to express our longing to God. Sometimes just the verbs will do.

PRAYER:

O Lord, my God

I long

I sigh

I throb

I fail

I wait

I pray

I fall

I confess

Hurry, God.