Before we begin

A prayer of the afflicted when he is faint and before Yahweh pours out his complaint.  Psalm 102:1 (in the Hebrew text)

Prayer – What is prayer? There is no doubt that the Hebrew word tephilla means “prayer”, but what does “prayer” mean? What does it look like? Hebrew has more than a dozen words to describe prayer. That should give us pause. It implies that prayer in all of its variations was a central element of the Hebrew worldview. Amazingly, this word has no clear etymological roots. It seems that no one is quite able to say just how prayer is connected to other aspects of human existence. All we really know is that prayer mattered a great deal to those who were called to follow God.

The word used here does not appear in the first verse of the English Bible translations. But it does in the Hebrew Bible. It is the introduction to all that follows. It sets the stage. In this case, this is no ordinary prayer. It is a prayer of the afflicted.

What does the prayer of affliction look like in your life? Is it filled with tears and lament? Is it the sound of weeping? Of frustration? Of emotional collapse? Are your prayers of affliction accompanied by remorse, confusion, helplessness or despair? Mine are. I know the psalmist’s beginning very well. I have heard the echo of my pleas, tasted the sting of my tears, choked on the gasps of regret, the sighs of despair. Perhaps tephilla has a deeper etymology, an etymology that lies outside this broken body. Perhaps the real language of prayer can only be spoken by the Spirit.

I know that my prayer of affliction is often a wilted silence, surrounded by the missing presence of the God I serve. I am in greatest pain without Him.

Evaporating

That morning, the wispy fingers of
Forgotten night terrors –
A cold steam swirling on dark waters,
I stood at the shore’s edge
My soul drawn away from me
Riding the beast of emptiness
Its vaporous existence chained to my heart
With as much permanence as the
Wings of a butterfly kiss
Beating against a hurricane

I watched it float, ethereal, silently
Whispering my name in its pain,
Evaporating

And trudge-turning to daylight’s scorching truth
I left myself
Behind

“Perhaps today God will hear the moaning on the water,
And grant me grace,” I thought.

“The night comes soon enough”, was the reply.

Topical Index:  tephilla, prayer, Psalm 102:1