When A Baby Cries

A mother’s ears are tuned in to hear her baby cry. Day or night, when her baby cries, she goes to see what her little one may need. She will bend down to get near to her baby and attend to his or her needs. I love this imagery when I read Psalm 40:1, “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.” In the original Hebrew, the word inclined is Natah, pronounced naw-taw’. It means to stretch out and bend down. Just as a mother stretches out and bends down to attend to her baby’s needs, so does our Heavenly Father toward us.

This psalm is written by David who would later be King of Israel. At the moment of this writing, he’s in a terrible situation. He is being hunted down by King Saul who hates him. Saul wants to find David and kill him. What does David do? He waits before the Lord. He displays trust in His God in the midst of a life and death situation. He waits, not in a state of uncertainty, wondering if God might come to help him, but he waits in a state of knowing He will come. God who loves him will hear his cry, and He will bend down toward him to tend to his needs. That’s his God; that’s our God, too.

The Psalm goes on to say that God “brought me up also out of an horrible pit….and set my feet upon a rock.” Once again, God behaves just like an attentive parent. A baby cries, a loving parent bends down to the baby, lifts it up, cradles and soothes and tends to the present needs. Our Heavenly Father does the same thing for you and for me.

We need not despair when troubles of this world upsets us, makes us cry, or even torments us with feelings of distress. Our loving, Heavenly Father is there. He watches over. He bends down to soothe, to tend to our needs. He lifts us up to comfort us, to assure us that He is in control. He will be our everything to get us through anything, just as a mother does when a baby cries. Therefore, wait and know.