Day 48: Poured Out
Read: Psalm 22:12–18
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast.
— Psalm 22:14 (ESV)
Reflect
Some prayers are composed. This one is poured.
"I am poured out like water." The word is nishpakhti, "I am poured out." Notice that it is something done to him. He is not pouring; he is being poured. Like water spilled on the ground, he can no longer hold his shape. His bones are out of joint. His heart is melting like wax.
Here is the striking thing. The same verb, turned the other way, is what God invites us to do in prayer: "Pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us" (Psalm 62:8). In one place you are poured out. In the other, you do the pouring.
The psalmist has become a vessel that has been emptied. And yet he is still speaking to God. Even emptied, he aims what is left toward the One who can hold it.
Christians have always read these verses at the foot of the cross. A few lines later the psalm speaks of pierced hands and feet, and of clothing divided by lot (vv. 16, 18). This is the prayer of someone with nothing left to hold together. Jesus went all the way down into it.
Across Scripture
Hannah, praying in anguish, told the priest, "I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD" (1 Samuel 1:15). Lamentations urges, "Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord!" (Lamentations 2:19). Paul, facing death, spoke of being "poured out as a drink offering" (Philippians 2:17). And John tells us the soldiers cast lots for Jesus' clothing so that this psalm would be fulfilled (John 19:24).
Sit With It
Prayer at the bottom is not composed. It is poured. If that is where you are, you do not need better words. Let the water go to him.
Pray
I pour out my heart before you.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.