“He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.”— Ps. cxlvii. 9.
Flood
At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. - Genesis 8:6-9
During the flood, Noah sends out a raven to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground, but it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. He switched to using a dove instead. (Genesis 8:6-12)
The Raven's Cry
A sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon delivered on January 14, 1866. Taken from Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Volume 12. I'll paraphrase.
Caryl says naturalists tell us that ravens feed their young until they are well fledged and able to fly abroad, then he thrusts them out of the nest, and will not let them abide there, but puts them to get their own living. Some say the old ones will not allow the young to stay in the same country they were born in.
The Lord provides food for these young ones when they are on their own for the first time. "Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?"
If God hears the harsh, inarticulate, croaking ravens and cares for them, will he not hear the prayers of the unsaved? Will He understand the craving cry but not "God be merciful to me a sinner?" Shall the penitents’ tears drop and no longer move his compassion? The raven is an unclean bird with a brief life, lacking God's image. We have immortal souls and are made in His image - how much more will He care for us?
Do not despair that the raven is not as sinful as man. It shows that we belong to the world of souls that the raven has no portion in, and the soul is infinitely more precious than a body. If God cares for flesh, blood, and black feathers, He will care for your will, judgment, conscience, and immortal soul.
A raven has one great advantage over sinners, though, in that they are more in earnest about their food than some are about their souls. Ravens do not cease crying until they have their food. Some of you need to pray more vehemently, and do not quiet until your heart is full of divine mercy.
It's not a burden to God to answer your prayer. Ah! sinner, when you cry to God you give him an opportunity to do that which he loves most to do, for he delights to forgive, to press his Ephraim to his bosom, to say of his prodigal son, “He was lost, but is found; he was dead, but is alive again.”
Ravens are nowhere commanded to cry. You have a warrant derived from Divine exhortations to approach the throne of God in prayer. Ravens come without being bidden, yet they are not sent away empty; you come as a bidden and an invited guest; how shall you be denied?
The cry of a young raven is nothing but the natural cry of a creature, but your cry of "God be merciful to me a sinner" is the Holy Spirit crying in you. Sincere prayer requires God himself. You can read a prayer-book for seventy years and never once pray. Pray isn't words. True prayer is the trading of the heart with God, and the heart never comes into spiritual commerce with the ports of heaven until God the Holy Ghost puts wind into the sails and speeds the ship into its heaven. “Ye must be born again.” If He hears prayers that do not come from Himself, how much more will He hear those that do! Seek the Lord. Natural and spiritual cries are heard.
- “Prayer is a creature’s strength, his very breath and being;
- Prayer is the golden key that can open the wicket of mercy;
- Prayer is the magic sound that saith to fate, so be it;
- Prayer is the slender nerve that moveth the muscles of Omnipotence,
- Wherefore, pray, O creature, for many and great are thy wants;
- Thy mind, thy conscience, and thy being, thy needs commend thee unto prayer,
- The cure of all cares, the grand panacea for all pains,
- Doubt’s destroyer, ruin’s remedy, the antidote to all anxieties.”
(Spurgeon's Sermons on Prayer by Charles H. Spurgeon (2007). Page 17-30., https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/the-ravens-cry/#flipbook/)