Psalm 61 (Part 1) Series

Psalm 61

The superscription of Psalm 61 reads, "For the music director; on a stringed instrument. A Psalm of David." Music is a gift from God. The Psalter is prayer set to music, prayer set to song. It is a book of prophecy, of Spirit-inspired truth speaking and foretelling. David declared "The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me, And His word was on my tongue" (2 Samuel 23:2 NASB). The apostle Peter said that David was a prophet who when singing about the events of his own life was unknowingly looking ahead to the life of Christ (Acts 2:30; 1 Pet 1:11). The writers of the New Testament quote the Psalms more than anything else. We remember what we sing, and so did they. God made us this way.

Psalm 61 is meant to be sung with an accompanying stringed instrument. Music is a gift from God. It is a Psalm of David. The phrase "of David" means it was written by, for, or about David. It pertains to David. As we read it, we should think of the life of David. David is in the background and the Messiah, the son of David, is in the foreground. The psalm also pertains to our own lives. We all face things similar to what David faced before us and Messiah faced for us.

We are not told what events in the life of David are in the background of the Psalm. We can apply the words of the psalm to our own situations and circumstances. In my Psalm notebook, which I use for devotion, I write what amounts to my own superscriptions. It might be a date scribbled in or a little sentence about when God ministered to me through a psalm.

For David, this may have been one of the times he was running. He spent much of his life running and hiding when he wasn't fighting, worshipping, or resting. Life is complicated. It always has been. It was complicated for David. It was complicated for our Lord. We should seek for it to be as simple as it can be, but there are some things we don't get to choose.

Psalm 61:1-2 (NASB)

Hear my cry, God; Give Your attention to my prayer. 2 From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Psalm 61 begins with an individual lament. There is no formal beginning to the prayer with fluffy words and platitudes. It simply begins with the singer crying out to God to hear his "cry." When we read a petition in Scripture for God to "hear" it is a plea for Him to answer favorably with a "Yes!"

The word for "cry" is a loud shout, a very excited plea for God's help. Prayer doesn't always look pretty. Sometimes it's desperate. And that's okay. The parallel phrase "Give Your attention to my prayer" tells us that David's "cry" is real prayer!

Abbot John Chapman, when laypeople, monks, nuns, and priests wrote to him seeking guidance in a life of prayer replied, "Pray as you can, and do not try to pray as you can’t."

David cries out from "the end of the earth." This is hyperbole.

It could be the far reaches of the land of Israel. David wants to be in the center where he worships God regularly, the place where the Tabernacle and Ark are. David spent time in caves, wilderness, and enemy territory when running and hiding from Saul as a young man and Absolom as an old man.

It could mean the edge of the netherworld, close to death, and the place of monsters and giants. It is far from where David wants to be, and it is from here that he cries out. Not only can you pray anyway, you can also pray anywhere. Jonah prayed from the depths, Daniel prayed from the lion's den, our Lord prayed from the cross, and Paul and Silas prayed in jail. Wherever you are today, you can cry out to Him! Whatever blank you have to fill in in the superscription of this Psalm will work. In the year of my health crisis, in the season of struggle at that transition of life, in the time when my finances were a mess, when I was looking for direction... You can pray anywhere!

David says his heart was faint, "In the fainting of my heart." He is on the edge of despair. He has done what he could. He is on the border of giving up about to step over and throw his hands up in defeat. Now he adds being overwhelmed to his alienation. He has come to the end of himself, but he prays.

I like what James writes of the prophet Elijah, "he was a man subject to like passions as we are, but he prayed..." When we come to the end of ourselves we are in a good place. It is often only when we hit rock bottom that we look up.