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 These are some of the things he says:*

            Why don’t you listen to me?

            I talk to you day by day but you won’t listen.

            How long does it take you to do something?

            Does this seem fair to you?

            Listen to me!

            Don’t always be so hard on me.

            How long will you forget about me – forever?

            You’ve hurt me deeply.

These are the some of the things David says to God in the Psalms. Of course there are other things David says in the Psalms, things like:**

            The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want….

            My soul waits in Silence for God alone; my salvation is from Him.

            My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You…

            My soul is like a weaned child on his mother’s lap

            I will give thanks to You with all my heart.

            These things David says to God are honest and bare. David praises and complains, makes promises and threats, cries out in elation and despair. The thing David doesn’t do is stop talking.  David never gives God the cold shoulder. This is the lesson we need to take from the things David says to God.

            I don’t believe anything in human literature compares with the psalms of David. They represent the pinnacle of poetic expression. No other writer has been so brutally honest about his feelings, his flaws, his vulnerabilities. No one has marshaled such direct, powerful, beautiful language to express these honest emotions.  Nothing in our own hymnbook compares.  Perhaps it was when, as a shepherd boy, he spent long hours with only his harp and his God as companions that he grew so willing and articulate.  Willing and articulate he became, and we continue to be blessed.

            We are blessed because he shows us God listens to whatever we have to say.  We need not worry about being less skilled in self-expression as David – the Holy Spirit makes sure we communicate clearly – even when there are no words for our feelings (Romans 8.26). Whatever we have to say to God we must say – because by communicating we hold on. What we can-not do is clam-up.  To stop communicating is to kill a relationship. We know this. We have to keep communicating.  If David tells us anything in his Psalms, he tells us – “Talk to Him!”

            Indeed. Talk to Him – say what it is you have to say – but say it! Talk to Him.

            Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5.17)

*Psalms 4,5,6,7,13,22,35 and 39

**Psalms 23,62,63,69,131, and 138