Psalm 60:2

the expanding prayer

Hear, O God, my supplication: be attentive to my prayer, (Psalm 60:2 DR)

A defining characteristic of the poetry of the Psalms is the parallelism, by which an idea in the first part of a verse is expressed in different terms in the following part. This often serves to expand upon or further explicate the originating idea, although sometimes it can be used to juxtapose diverging or contrary things.

In this passage the Psalmist provides a paradigmatic example to begin the prayer, a verse which conveys the thought not only in the words themselves but through the poetic device. To modern ears this can seem like repetition or restatement, and there is some truth to that, but it is not merely repetition or restatement; the restatement itself helps to fortify and expand upon the opening idea.

The Psalmist begins by entreating the Lord to hear his supplication, and this is paralleled by the Lord being attentive to his prayer. To “hear” and to “be attentive” are of course similar and can be synonymous, but there is also a distinction that forms the essence of the parallelism and conveys a greater meaning that the denotation entails.

We “hear” things all the time, but—as even our expression has it—a lot of times things “go in one ear and out the other.” There is thus a distinction between a hearing that is passive and one that is active.

It is this distinction which gets explicated in the parallelism, for the Psalmist asks that the Lord not only “hear” him but also “be attentive” to his prayer, the implication being that the Psalmist recognizes that “hearing” and “being attentive” are not identical.

Of course, God is not like us and thus as easily distracted as we are. In fact, for God there is no distinction between “hearing” and “being attentive” as God knows all things. He thus does not have to be reminded to listen or to pay attention, and no amount of our effort can compel God to hear us as if we are owed a hearing because of the intensity of our pleas.

This is where the second set of parallelism picks up, with “supplication” and “prayer.” There is an interesting internal juxtaposition here between the first and second set, for whereas to “be attentive” is stronger than “hear,” “supplication” is stronger than “prayer,” as St. Bellarmine notes:

The Hebrew for “supplication” conveys the idea of its being not an ordinary one put up in silence, but an ardent, loudly expressed appeal to God; and, therefore, more likely to arrest his attention. A cold prayer, coming from the lips alone, will hardly penetrate the clouds, much less the heaven of heavens. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 60, 1.)

The first half thus conveys the intensity of the plea, whereas the second half explicates the direction—as it were—of the supplication. That is, the Psalmist is crying out in distress, but instead of just groaning and weeping in his tribulation he is forming it into a prayer, even though he may not have the words formulated as such. The idea seems to be that he wants the entirety of his being and emotions and mentality to be captured in this prayer which arises out of such deep distress. One is reminded of St. Paul’s words which may have sentiments such as this in the background:

Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity. For, we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings, And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what the Spirit desireth: because he asketh for the saints according to God. (Romans 8:26-27 DR)

The Psalmist’s words could give the impression on a surface reading that God is somehow moved by the quality or intensity of our prayers, as if we can compel Him to listen. However, as has been seen, the language is more about the sincerity of the Psalmist’s own motives and intentions and heart. God as eternal and impassible isn’t moved by our prayers like we can be to emotional pleas. Some see this as cold and detached, but it is truly a source of great hope. Emotional motivations and responses are notoriously fickle and inconstant, but God is mercifully not emotional; rather, He is faithful and true which should be a source of great consolation.

The efficacy of our prayers is thankfully not dependent on us emotionally manipulating God but rather on His will and our alignment with that will. That is why “the continual prayer of a just man availeth much” (James 5:16 DR). The just man, of course, is heard by God because in his will he is submitted to God’s will. The more we are constant in prayer, the more we will turn our hearts away from our own desires and wills and towards the things of God. Often our prayers seem unheard because we ask for things from a place of selfish motivation:

You ask, and receive not; because you ask amiss: that you may consume it on your concupiscences. (James 4:3 DR)

We saw in the previous passage that this Psalm was “unto the end,” which is Christ, and thus is the prayer of His holy Church, the mystical Body. To be a member of this Body is to submit one’s life and will to the Lord, to immolate one’s own will upon the altar (cf. Romans 12:1) and become a living sacrifice; this is the means by which we are renewed in mind and begin to discern God’s will (cf. Romans 12:2) which then allows us to pray in accordance with His will so that our deepest supplication becomes a prayer as in this Psalm.

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I kept it pretty on the nose for this animation. I found this nice image of hands in a prayer posture which I liked because it was shrouded in shadows, which I thought conveyed some of what the passage is getting at. It also helps when using blend modes, so that was a bonus!

I brought the image into After Effects and applied some Wiggle Hold to it to give it some movement and to somewhat convey the sense of “supplication.” I found some interesting textures and blended them into the image and then applied loopFlow to them for the movement, which I thought gave it some nice ambience.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: