Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me! O Lord, be my helper!” (Psalm 30)
It was hard, as a young child, to talk to my Papaw, a Baptist minister in Arkansas, who spoke mostly in King James English. I don’t remember a conversation with him when he didn’t quote scripture. I asked him to pray that I would understand how to multiply compound fractions, and he quoted Philippians 4: 13. When trying to explain my new 5th grade obsession with a quartet of long-haired British lads who played guitars and sang rock-and-roll, he quoted Romans 12: 2. (I don’t think my Papaw thought that John, Paul, George and Ringo had much on Lawrence Welk at the time.)
Daddy’s voice caught in his throat when he told me that cancer had been discovered in the lymph nodes in Papaw’s neck. “They removed a lot of tissue under his jaw,” he explained, “and there were places on his lower lip… I just want you to know that he’s going to look… different when we see him next week.”
My grandfather did, in fact, look different. The surgery had been physically and emotionally mutilating. Once a ruddy, handsome and distinguished looking man, he now sat slumped in the recliner in his study, pale, disfigured, and grieving his former image that would no longer be reflected in the mirror.
While the grown-ups spoke in hushed tones in the living room, I slipped down the hall to Papaw’s study. He acknowledged me without turning his head, but lifted his hand and motioned for me to come near. His voice was strained, barely above a whisper. “When did you get in, and what’d you bring me?” he asked, unable to smile.
I had brought no gift but took his hand and spoke the words of the Psalmist that I’d learned in Vacation Bible School. “Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me. O Lord, be my helper,” I quoted proudly. “I’ve been praying for you, Papaw,” I told him.
“I need the Lord’s help, child,” he sighed. “Pray for me now, won’t you?”
The old saying goes, “every heart has known its hush,” but I have observed that every pew has known its pain. Each of us has experienced some kind of painful crisis at some time in our lives. It may have taken the form of cancer, depression, anxiety, failing mental acuity, or any number of adversities. The verses in this beautiful psalm remind us that God is with us, even in these hard times.
We can call on God to be our helper in whatever situation we find ourselves, and he is gracious to answer… with himself.