March 10: Lord, Hear My Voice
♫ Music:
Day 9 - Thursday, March 10
Title: LORD, HEAR MY VOICE
Scripture: Psalm 130
Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord;
Lord, hear my voice!
Let Your ears be attentive
To the voice of my supplications.
If You, Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with You,
That You may be feared.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in His word I do hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
More than those who watch for the morning—
Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the Lord;
For with the Lord there is mercy,
And with Him is abundant redemption.
And He shall redeem Israel
From all his iniquities.
Poetry:
Prayer
by Christian Wiman
For all
the pain
passed down
the genes
or latent
in the very grain
of being;
for the lordless
mornings,
the smear
of spirit
words intuit
and inter;
for all
the nightfall
neverness
inking
into me
even now,
my prayer
is that a mind
blurred
by anxiety
or despair
might find
here
a trace
of peace.
LORD, HEAR MY VOICE PS 130
“Out of the depths, I have cried to You, O Lord!”
We pray often. Prayer is a way of life for those who aim to follow Jesus faithfully. We see many passages of Scripture about the privilege and delight of prayer. The picture this Psalm projects, and the scenes from The Exodus Series by artist Safet Zec, however, reveal a different orientation about prayer altogether.
Pause as you look at the painting. Pause over each face. Imagine these as real people––your friends, your children, your parents, yourself. Notice the depths out of which each of these people cries. Divine Image Bearers, how they cry. What sorrow! What pain! What depths!
“Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.”
This sentence is too clean for The Exodus Series. It is too clean for our seasons in the depths. We cry out in lament––we cry in our paralyzing grief. “Hear me! Hear my groans! Hear my cry in the midst of the depths. Let your ears hear. Unless you turn your ear to me, I remain in the depths.”
“In His word I do hope.”
“O Israel, hope in the Lord.”
Take note that the word “hope” in this psalm is a verb. Hope is more than something we have. It is something we do. Hope is not merely a warm optimism. It is a posture we take. It is a posture of confident expectation. We hope in the Lord. We hope in His word. Hope is future directed. When I hope in Him, I entrust my future to Him. Hope is pointed towards the future, but Hope shapes my present. To hope in God is to count on Him for our future. To hope in His word is to count on His promises for my future.
To hope in God is an act of faith. This act of faith, sometimes courageous faith, transforms my present. When I count on God for my future, I can navigate my present with confidence. I may begin as I cry out of the depths, but God hears, showers me with mercy, forgives, redeems, and holds my future securely in His hand. Because He holds my future in His hands, I can release my future and dwell in the mercy of His present.
Look again at the faces in The Exodus Series. Look at each one. These are portraits of the beginning, but not the end. These are the faces of those who cry out. When we cry out, we cling to His forgiveness and mercy. We wait for God to meet us, waiting like the watchman waits for morning. When we wait in hope, we taste his present redemption. We cry out of the depths. He lifts us.
“O Israel, hope in the Lord” People of God, hope in Him!
Prayer
Lord, I cry out to you from the depths of my life. Hurt, confusion, and sorrow may fill me. The damage from my own sin or the sin of others may mark me. But I can stand because there is forgiveness with You. There is abundant redemption. My future is securely in Your hands. Thus, may I hope.
Amen and Amen!
Dr. Greg E. Ganssle
Professor of Philosophy
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
Collection of paintings from four series of work including:
Exodus
Hands on the Face
Tears
Embraces
Safet Zec
Oil on canvas
Variable sizes
In July 2021, on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, the city of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in cooperation with the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Center, and Safet Zec Atelier, presented an exhibition of the art series entitled Exodus by the renowned Bosnian artist Safet Zec. The exhibition also consisted of three additional series of works by Zec including: Hands on the Face, Tears, and Embraces. Painter Safet Zec has been working on the works of these series for the last twenty years. He was inspired by reverence for human tragedies, including the genocide of Srebrenica, where over 8,000 Muslin boys and men were killed during the Bosnian War; the tragic love saga of Sarajevo’s Romeo and Juliet, Bosko and Admira; the theme of departure and escape, with a focus on children as special victims; and the contemporary worldwide tragedy of immigrants. Zec has been weaving his emotional responses on canvas. He is driven by compassion and indignation at human tragedies and adamant about representing the capacity for survival and hope with reverence, dignity, and respect for the victims and survivors. His rich opus of works inspired by human tragedy––with a focus on the Srebrenica genocide––is Safet Zec’s immeasurable contribution to preserve Bosnia’s tragedy and genocide from oblivion.
https://www.fena.news/bih/exhibition-exodus-by-safet-zec-to-be-presented-in-potocari-on-tuesday/
https://www.biserje.ba/zec-i-srebrenica-kako-likovno-izraziti-ono-sto-je-neizrecivo/
https://www.fena.news/bih/exhibition-exodus-by-renowned-bosnian-painter-safet-zec-opens-in-potocari/
About the Artist:
Safet Zec (b. 1943) is a Bosnian artist. Influenced by his own experiences of war in Bosnia and then from his adopted city of Venice, Zec creates haunting and disturbing paintings that reflect those experiences. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, where he attained both an undergraduate and postgraduate degree in painting. When the Bosnian War broke out in 1992, Zec moved from Sarajevo to Venice, Italy, where he lives and works today. When fleeing Sarajevo, Zec left most of his paintings behind, so, once he was settled in Italy, he began recreating his entire body of work. This experience marked both his life and career, and the theme of conflict became more prevalent in his paintings, as did images of Venice, which became both a shelter and source of artistic inspiration. He has won over twenty awards and is acknowledged internationally for his art. In 2007 he was awarded with the Order of the Arts and Literature of France. His works are in major European and international galleries, as well as private collections.
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/bosnia-herzegovina/articles/haunted-by-war-the-art-of-safet-zec/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safet_Zec
http://www.safetzec.com/index.php?id=22
About the Music:
“Out of the Depths (Psalm 130)” from the album Deeper
Lyrics:
Out of the depths I cry to You O Lord.
Lord hear my voice.
Lord hear my cry.
Let Your ear be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
Lord hear my voice.
Lord hear my cry.
If You O Lord should mark our transgressions,
Who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with You.
So that Your name may be revered
Lord hear my voice.
Lord hear my cry. (4x)
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope,
My soul waits for the lord
More than those who wait for the morning (3x)
My soul waits for the Lord (repeat/ad lib)
Lord hear my cry. (4x)
O Israel, hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is steadfast love
And with Him is great power to redeem
It is He who will redeem israel (3x)
From all her iniquities
More than those who wait for the morning (3x)
My soul waits for the Lord (repeat/ad lib)
About the Performer/Composer:
Ruth Fazal is a British-born Canadian worship leader, composer, violinist, and singer/songwriter. Fazal began her musical studies on the piano and the violin, attending Dartington College for the Arts, before graduating from the Guildhall School of Music in London. Since emigrating to Toronto, Canada, she has performed with all of the major orchestras in Toronto. Her deepest desire is to see the body of Christ enter into a truly intimate relationship with Jesus. She says, “Listening for His voice is the most important thing for us to be doing. I believe that there is a realm that the Lord wants to bring us into, in which we will begin to see with a ‘Kingdom of God’ perspective. I feel sure that it is on God’s heart to bring us there, and in that place, for us to come to a greater understanding of who He is, and of who we are in Him. It is time for the Church to be functioning as real citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. This is what I am giving my heart to! I want to learn how to live that way.” In recent years, Ruth has begun to express this through various compositions for orchestra and choirs. The Seven Last Words of Christ (2001) for orchestra, spoken voice, and violin solo was the first of Fazal’s new compositions. This was followed by the much-acclaimed Oratorio Terezin (2003), a composition for choirs, soloists, and symphony orchestra. Using the poetry of children from the Holocaust, woven together with the Hebrew Scriptures, Oratorio Terezin has brought much hope and comfort to audiences in Canada, Europe, Israel, and the United States.
https://hubministries.org/portfolio/ruth-fazal/
About the Poet:
Christian Wiman (b. 1966) is an American author, editor, and translator of eleven books including, most recently, Joy: 100 Poems. He graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, and has taught at Northwestern University, Stanford University, and Lynchburg College. Currently, he teaches literature and religion at Yale Divinity School and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Wiman has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Atlantic, and numerous other publications. He is a former Guggenheim Fellow. Wiman explores themes of spiritual faith and doubt in his sparse, precise poems. Praising Wiman’s “ear for silence” in a book review of Every Riven Thing for the Smartish Pace blog, writer John Poch observed, “Repeatedly in this collection, in his careful way, he presses his ear against the hive of belief. It takes a renewed childlike faith, and Wiman achieves it through memory and imagination and, one gets the feeling, grace.”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/christian-wiman
https://imagejournal.org/artist/christian-wiman/
About the Devotion Author:
Dr. Greg E. Ganssle
Professor of Philosophy
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University
Gregory Ganssle is a professor of philosophy at the Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. His interest is in the philosophy of religion and the history of philosophy. His latest book is Our Deepest Desires: How the Christian Story Fulfills Human Aspiration (IVP, 2017).