The Sprit intercedes for us through wordless groans...

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

Romans 8:26

Last night, I wasn't doing so great. Overwhelmed from my day, I sat in my room as tears streamed down my face. I whispered prayers without words, my heart unable to express to God how much I needed Him in that moment.

I was about to just go to sleep when I felt the desire to pray. Knowing that I needed God's comfort, I pulled out my Bible reading plan. The first chapter for the day was Psalm 42, and from the very first line, I knew that God's Spirit was speaking my prayers through the words of the chapter. When I didn't know the words to express my pain and need for God, the Spirit knew.

Here are the words of that Psalm; words written thousands of years ago by a distant and foreign king, yet still somehow the words my heart could not find.....


Psalm 42
¹ As the deer pants for streams of water,
   so my soul pants for you, my God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
   When can I go and meet with God?
³ My tears have been my food
   day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
   “Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember
   as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
   under the protection of the Mighty One^[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
   among the festive throng.
 ⁵ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
   Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
   for I will yet praise him,
   my Savior and my God.
 ⁶ My soul is downcast within me;
   therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
   the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep
   in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
   have swept over me.
 ⁸ By day the LORD directs his love,
   at night his song is with me—
   a prayer to the God of my life.
 ⁹ I say to God my Rock,
   “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
   oppressed by the enemy?”
¹⁰ My bones suffer mortal agony
   as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
   “Where is your God?”
 ¹¹ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
   Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
   for I will yet praise him,
   my Savior and my God.