PSALM 35:13-14 – But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest. I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning.
THEME OF THE DAY: WHEN WORDS WON’T COME. The verses for today’s nugget come from a Psalm penned by David. It is a very moving Psalm with a lot of emotional highs and lows. David feels attacks from his enemies. They are both physical attempts and a ton of verbal abuse directed his way. In the midst of those agonizing times, we also find the warfare of prayer from David. In fact, the whole Psalm is prayer, intense prayer, yet, mixed in his prayer are exclamations of praise . . .
“Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD, exulting in his salvation. All my bones shall say, “O LORD, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him?”” (Psalm 35:9-10).
“I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you.” (Psalm 35:18).
“Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, “Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant!” Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long” (Psalm 35:27-28).
We also find David’s struggle in prayer. There are times in the spiritual war that he didn’t have words, and we also don’t find words to pray. Our hearts are heavy. Our spirits are bowed down. Notice David’s prayer posture in today’s scripture. . .
“But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest” (Psalm 25:13).
His head bowed on his chest. Try it. Bend your chin down to your chest. Now try to pray with words. It’s a little difficult and certainly isn’t the ideal way to converse. If anything, prayer in this posture is more of the language of the heart and mind than audible words. And come to think about it, perhaps some of our best prayers are without words. John Bunyan said these wise words… “When you pray, rather let your heart be without words than your words without heart.” God is far more interested in the language of our hearts than to hear us fill the air with mindless and heartless words.
Prayer without words. It will happen in those dark times of life. It will happen when circumstances are drowning us. It will happen when the burdens in life feel like anchors dragging us down to the depths of discouragement, even depression. It will happen when the Lord seems so far away and the pain of sensing abandonment, though not real, feels very real. And when words won’t come, remember this promise from our Lord . . .
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).
PRAYER: Father, I praise You for being my Father and hearing my prayers that are often without words.
REFLECTION: Sometimes wordless prayers are the best prayers for they are the language of the heart.