What do you speak when there are no words to speak? What do you pray when you are unsure of what you should even be praying for?
Those are the two questions I’ve been wrestling with since last night. The words aren’t there, and so I close my eyes to pray. Yet once again, the words aren’t there.
I’ve been thinking a lot this morning about what God is asking of me. What is God asking me to do? What is God asking me to say? Again, I have no words.
Yet that is the beauty of our faith and our tradition. When we have no words, someone else does. When we can’t figure out what to say, chances are it has already been said. And so I’ve been praying the Psalms. I’ve been searching the scriptures.
I still don’t have my own words, but I’ve found some, that for today, speak for me.
“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.”—Psalm 137:1-6, NIV
“With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”—Micah 6:6-8, NIV