Ps 130:2 Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
What is a supplications? I don’t know why, I am sure it is just me, but I get a creepy feeling when I think of supplication. Webster defines a supplication as asking or begging for something earnestly and humbly. The word in Hebrew for supplication is chanan which means to make a petition or a plea or to seek a favor.
Some of our modern translations use the word mercy, cry for help, ask of you, but most stay with the word supplication. I guess I am the only one who feels uncomfortable with this word. Still if we have determined that all this talk of asking God to hear us and to be attentive to us is really a cry for intimacy with God such that one can actually discern God’s voice then I feel supplication must mean more than just simply asking a favor. The very word supplication suggests, to me at least, an intimacy.
When I trace the Semitic root of this word chanan I find that it is used in extra Biblical literature to express the idea of loathsome or repulsive or disgusting. I put this out to my study team as to what loathsomeness or repulsiveness has to do with supplication. I got one response that suggested that supplication would carry the idea of crying out to God in the midst of that which is loathsome with you, your weaknesses and brokenness.
When we really enter the same wavelength with God or enter God’s heart and when that happens we realize we are not little gods, but we are weak and broken people who need a Savior. Many feel that they have no business going to a holy God with all that is loathsome and repulsive in them.
My grandfather told me a deep family secret. In fact I asked various members of my family about this but no one really knew this story. For some reason my grandfather felt it necessary to tell me this story and I am glad He did. He told me that my great great grandfather killed a man. Apparently he owned a little farm which was being confiscated by the treasury department or the revenuer. Back in the day the US Treasury Department was responsible for enforcing laws against illegal distilling of alcoholic liquor. Great grandpa was caught dead to rights and now the revenuer was allowed to confiscate his property. The revenuer went to the sheriff and told him to accompany him to my great grandpa’s farm to evict him from his land. The sheriff refused so threatening to have the sheriff’s badge the revenuer took his buggy up to great grandpa’s farm alone. As he approached great grandpa’s land, great grandpa met him with his shot gun. The revenuer said; “Walter this land is mine, I’m a commin to take it.” Great grandpa replied: “No you ain’t either, you a come and I’m a shootin’” The Revenuer said: “Well, I’m a commin’” and Great grandpa said; “Well, I’m a shootin’” So great grandpa shot him, shot him in the heart, shot him dead. Great grandpa told great grandma, “Well, I shot the revenuer, shot ‘em dead, guess I will go turn myself in to the sheriff.” So great grandpa went to town walked into the Sheriff’s office and said: “Well, I shot the revenuer, shot ‘em dead, he’s up on my land, you can get ‘em if you want ‘em.” The sheriff and deputy were playing cards with another man and invited great grandpa to sit down and join them. After a while the deputy nervously said; “Uh, what we gonna do bout Walter here, he shot the revenuer, shot ‘em dead.” The sheriff replied. “I didn’t like that guy.” The other man playing cards said: “He was gonna; take my land next.” The deputy said; “We throw in our hats?” The sheriff nodded and they continue to play cards. Throwing in your hearts was apparently a code word for making up some story and covering everything up. Great grandpa was never convicted and they told the government the revenuer died of a heart attack and buried him in the mountains. They never said it was a shot gun that attacked his heart. For whatever reason the government never investigated. Word was the agent was a rogue agent to begin with and the government was just happy to see the agent get what he deserved. Makes you wonder if some of these old cowboy stories you see on TV have some truth to them.
Nonetheless my grandfather looked at me and said: “Your great grandpa prayed to God every day of his life that God would forgive him for killing that man, but he went to his grave feeling God never forgave him. You know we may not be murderers but sin is sin and we all have our loathsomeness about us. I think that is why I feel the word supplication sounds creepy to me because supplication carries, at least for me, a sense of purity and piousness. It is praying to God sparkling clean and I rarely approach God with a clean heart. But you know what, perhaps my study team has the right idea. We go to God, as that old hymn says: “Just as I am without one plea.” For you see the rest of the hymn goes: “But that they blood was shed for me, O’ Lamb of God I come.” We are just as guilty of sin as my great grandfather but his sin was so hideous that he felt he could not look toward God. Yet sin is sin and we too have no right to look at God and offer our supplications or chanan. But thank God there is a further use of the word chanan or supplication and that is loathsomeness. When we come to God with our loathsomeness, our brokenness and weakness, His blood was shed for that so even with all of that we are pure before God and we can come to Him in purity as he washes away all that loathsomeness.
Sometimes I want to offer a supplication to God and the enemy whispers in my ear: “Who do you think you are to offer a request or petition to God, after all the things you did, shame on you, don’t even try to think you can approach a holy pure God after all you’ve done.” I find at times I scratch my head and say to the enemy; “You know you’re right, I best just crawl under yon rock from whence I came.” But most of the time I get my senses together and I turn to the enemy and say: “Devil, you are liar, I am pure before God because everyone of those sins, every bit of my loathsomeness was nail to a cross 2,000 years ago.” The devil lied to my great grandfather all his life and grandpa let me know that I was never to believe the lies of the devil. That is the only thing he can do to us and he uses it to the fullest. I am pure before God because of the finished work of His Son on a cross and for that I can know that God is attentive to the voice of my supplications.
Oh by the way one more thing. Our modern translations put this in a cohortative form, like a request: “let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.” Hebrew has a cohortative form and I do not see it in this verse so as far as I am concerned it should read: “Your ears are attentive the voice of my supplications.”
Recent Comments