Three-A-Day
Evening and morning and noon, I will pray and cry aloud and He shall hear my voice. Psalm 55:17
Cry Aloud – I am not an emotional person. It’s just the way I’m wired. My struggles occur inside my head. By the time I reach tears and crying aloud, things have got to be pretty bad. Maybe you’re like me. Maybe not. Maybe you’re like David, crying loudly before the Lord three times a day. Maybe your emotions flow to the surface much easier. Prayer has room for it all. What matters is not the volume but the intensity. That’s the idea behind this difficult word, hamah. Found thirty-four times in the Bible, it expresses the strongest of feelings resulting in emotional outbursts. In these kinds of prayer, life overwhelms us and all we seem to have the strength to do is utter an agonizing sound.
Don’t worry. God is an excellent translator. He understands every human cry, even if it is nothing but raw emotion.
We have all felt the swelling agony of prayer like this. Life is designed to bring us to our knees in ways that we can’t imagine. These are lessons in dependence and trust. That doesn’t make them easier, but it does make them important. But notice something about David’s deep emotion in prayer. It wasn’t the exception to the rule. It was medicine for the soul taken three times a day. This might not seem to matter to you, but it should. David’s willingness to cry out before the Lord at regular intervals during the day helps us understand some critical factors in prayer.
First, it tells me that I need to let go of some of my restraints. Bottled up emotion is like keeping the medicine on the shelf. Unless I open the bottle, nothing good will come. Second, David’s action tells me that once-a-day is not enough. Life churns up enough stuff for me to need help at least every six hours. That’s about the length of time I can hold my spiritual breath. Forget this nonsense about being filled for the week on Sunday morning. Spiritual life has a six hour span. Third, David shows me that even the King is overwhelmed and weak. If the King needs God in regular, daily doses, how much more do I? And finally, this verse helps me see that my Greek orientation to a life that neatly packages rational, emotional, physical and spiritual is doomed to compartmental disintegration. I am me – all of me in one bundle, trying to obediently find my way through life’s twists and turns. I don’t do so well without a lot of daily help. I need a spiritual regimen. I need a God for my emotional cleansing at least three times a day. I need to give myself permission to cry out loud often. The Doctor is in – for the next six hours.
