A song in my despair

As we go through the Psalms this summer, I would love to have some guest writers share about how God uses music to minister to you, or specific songs that help you in your relationship with God. Contact me if you are interested. Today’s post is adapted from a June 26, 2012 post.
“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-- more than that, who was raised to life-- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:33-35)

Music has a way of helping us express ourselves in ways that we might not be able to do on our own. When it comes to my worship of God, music often helps me enter into His presence and express whatever emotions are on my heart. There are songs that remind me to trust in God, others that give expression to the joy I feel in knowing Him, and still others that express the deep longing of my heart to know Him more. But the song I want to share about today is one that touches me at a depth that no other song has ever reached.

A number of years ago, I went through a very difficult season, and I found that it was challenging to even vocalize a prayer to God at times, let alone even know how to pray. It was like the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 6:6:  “I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.” I would go through the songbook in my head, but found that none of them touched how I was feeling. But then I remembered a song from my time at the Worship Center in Hebron, which I attended for a couple years when I was in college. It was a song written by Bruce Ramsey, their worship leader, and was simply called, “Jesus, please pray for me.” Its lyrics went like this:

Oh Great High Priest, standing before the Father, ever living to intercede
For Your inheritance, and that you may receive the reward of your sacrifice in me
I’m learning to trust when I don’t know why, and believe You hear me when I cry
Jesus, You know what I need
Jesus, please pray for me

There it was – a song that touched the depth of my hurt, a song that recognized that our Lord and Savior is at the right hand of the Father, and as it says in Hebrews 7:25, “he always lives to intercede for them.” I might not know what to do, or even what to pray, but at least I could throw myself at the feet of my loving Lord and know that He would hear the cry of my heart and pray for me. What comfort to know that Jesus (and the Holy Spirit, see Romans 8:26) is interceding for us, praying on our behalf to the Father. And what a blessing to have a song that expressed for me what I could not find words to vocalize myself.