Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 on biblegateway.com
Verse 1I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications.
Verse 2Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
Verse 12What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?
Verse 13I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord,
Verse 14I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.
Verse 15Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.
Verse 16O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds.
Verse 17I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord.
Verse 18I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people,
Verse 19in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
Devotion
Today the Holy Week journey is about the sense of hearing: our hearing, to be sure, but the psalmist is primarily concerned with God's ability to hear us. I don't know what the "inclined ear" of God looks like, but I know what it feels like. It is the feeling of hope—hope that our petitions are not uttered in vain. Whether we lift our prayers aloud in a public space or in the unsettled silence of our hearts, God's eager ears are an embodied metaphor for the abiding promise of the Divine, who receives our calls and cries.
If ever there was a week we needed to cling to the hope that God hears our prayers, this is it. When the powers within and around us seek to swallow up the message of the good news of Jesus, we require the keen hearing of the inclined ear of a God who holds fast to us in merciful love.
Prayer
Hear us, O God, for your mercy is great. As momentum builds toward our inevitable betrayal of your Son, receive our hopeful prayers with forgiving ears. Amen.