There are five psalms which all have virtually the same opening request: ‘Hear my prayer’. Psalms 4:1, 17:1, 54:2, 102:1, 143:1. Four of these five psalms are credited to David (Psalms 4,17,54 and 143) and one (Psalm 102) is “a prayer of an afflicted man.” It is interesting to scan through the five psalms to see what prompted the cry ‘hear my prayer’. Psalm 4 is born in the distress of a righteous soul struggling to cope with a world full of delusion and godlessness. Psalm 17 is occasioned by the verbal and physical assaults of enemies. Psalm 54 is linked to a precise moment when David in hiding is betrayed by the Ziphites and hunted by assassins. Psalm 102 arises from deep affliction, lament and depression. And Psalm 143 is not precisely placed but speaks of a dominant, rampant enemy and a battle the Psalmist seems to be losing. What makes each of these psalms precious is the sense that they come from real life situations that we can identify with. They provide us with the vocabulary to frame our prayers in our own moments of crisis and distress. And they express that hope that God will indeed be listening and will hear and respond. These five psalms – all linked by that phrase ‘Hear my prayer’ – are indeed precious. But I especially like to link them to two further references. Twice in the Book of Psalms we read the phrase: ‘He has heard my prayer.’ “The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer” (Psalm 6:9) and “God has surely listened and has heard my prayer” (Psalm 66:19).
Whatever burdens us, whatever worries us, whatever oppresses us, whatever crushes us, whatever pains us just now, Lord ‘hear our prayer’ and carry us to that place where we each can say, ‘He has heard my prayer.’