Database events but not triggers

This is a question regarding general DB inner workings, not particular to an implementation or paradigm, though answers for certain technologies are welcome. I am asking if there is a way to listen to what commands the database has received, or something like read an inner log of the database, at least the last changes. I need such a functionality to be able to find if there were changes to a table and if so, read the particular row that has changed. It is assumed changes to the columns are not to happen. I am only a listener of the database, hence I am not able to program triggers.