A Pattern of Prayer

Switching gears from preaching in Paul's letters to the church at Corinth to preaching the Psalms is a kind of intercanonical culture shock.  These two disparate genres pretty well represent the varied literary landscape of Scripture.  Paul's writings are letters which means they are highly contextual, written for a specific group of people at a specific place at a specific time.  These letters often take the form of carefully reasoned rhetoric as Paul's tries to persuade his audience to a specific course of action.  The Psalms, on the other hand, are anything but rhetoric and anything but contextual.  While scholars have assigned a few of the Psalms to specific times or events within Israel's story, most resist such labeling.  The very purpose of most of the Psalms is to transcend their context and have a universal quality to them; they are meant to be prayed and sung by anyone, anywhere, at anytime.  These are ready-made words for God...a pattern for our own words...words for when we have no words.

This is especially true of Psalm 25.  In Hebrew, this Psalm is an acrostic; each line beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet (with the exception of two letters and one letter repeated).  This Psalm is a pattern of prayer.  To say it is a pattern, however, is not to say it teaches the right way to pray or that it is a pattern that must be followed in robotic fashion.  After all, if this were so, there wouldn't be much point in having 150 different Psalms.  The existence of the collection itself witnesses to the plurality and freedom of prayer.  Perhaps the Psalm is not meant to be "taught" or "followed" at all.  Perhaps it is simply to say here is a pattern that contains movements familiar to those who have made a habit of prayer, to say this is how we have repeatedly found ourselves responding to the God who has saved us.

That pattern of response goes like this:

The Psalmist begins (v. 1-3) by expressing trust in God to deliver, asking God that he not be put to shame by his enemies.  Part of the Psalmist's expression of trust is to say that none who wait on the Lord will be put to shame.  This leads to the next movement of the prayer (v.4-5) in which the Psalmist recognizes his own need to wait upon the Lord if he is not to be put to shame.  So the Psalmist asks God to teach him God's ways.  This is the Psalmist's waiting; not only waiting to be taught by God but also waiting and trusting that God's reaching will be proved true.  This prayer to be taught by God reminds the  Psalmist of all the ways he has failed to be taught by God.  The next section of his prayer (v.6-7) asks God to remember his mercy and not the sins of the Psalmist.  The Psalmist is confident that God will do this, not because the Psalmist deserves it but because God is good and upright (v.8-10).  In fact, God's name, that is, God's reputation is honored when God provides for those who respect God as the Psalmist does (v.12-15).  Finally, the Psalmist ends his prayer by returning to his original request that God would deliver him (v. 16-21).  Then, just in case we missed that this prayer is not limited to one individual, the final verse "re-voices" the prayer as one for "Israel" - the man in whom all Israelites find their identity.

I trust you God.


Teach me to trust you God.


Forgive me for when I haven't trusted you God.


I know you'll forgive me God not because I deserve it but because you are just that good.  You are love.


May you be glorified in my life.


I present my request to you again because I trust you.

I can't tell you how many times I've prayed this prayer - and not because I was trying to imitate this Psalm or any other.  Anyone else find themselves praying basically this prayer over and over?  Sometimes it feels like I hardly know anything else to pray.  These are not the overly pious words of someone who has all the answers about God and prayer.  These are just the words of anyone who has ever tried to live with God for any sustained period of time.

There is a substantial market out there for books on prayer and how to pray.  Anyone who knows me knows I love books.  In fact, love probably isn't strong enough of a word.  Its more of an obsession.  I even have a couple of books on prayer.  But I've found that the only books I've ever encountered on prayer that were really worth anything weren't the ones that tried to explain what prayer is, how prayer works, how to go about praying, or how to make my prayer life more "effective" (whatever that means).  They were the ones that simply offered different kids of prayer, the ones that included prayers to be prayed.  They were the ones that simply got me praying.  It could be that's the kind of book Psalms is to be for us - just the kind that gets us praying - because prayer is a hands-on activity.  It is the real work of the Church.  And over time, if we'll keep wrestling and being honest with ourselves and God, we'll find that our prayers sound an awful lot like the Psalms, not because we wanted them to but just because this is what life with God is like.

Lord, Hear Our Prayer

The Old Testament reading for this week is Solomon's prayer dedicating the newly constructed Temple in 1 Kings 8:22-53. As I read over it, I realized that even though this prayer was prayed specifically for the Temple and the people of Israel, it is a prayer that the Church would do well to imitate today. Below is my own paraphrase of this passage as a prayer for the Church. It is not meant to be a precise parallel to the passage. It is only meant to be an example of how Solomon's prayer might serve the Church today.

O Lord, the God of Israel, the God of the Church, there is no one like You in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart. You are the God who kept your promises to David that his descendants would sit on the throne of Israel as long as they walked in your ways. So also may your promises to David's descendant, your Son, Jesus Christ be confirmed in your Church.

Is it really possible for God's own Spirit to dwell among us, mere human beings? Behold, heaven and even the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this feeble church building which we have built or these feeble bodies in which we live! In spite of our feebleness Lord, have regard for the prayers of Your servants and our supplications. O Lord my God, listen to the cry of Your people and to the prayer which Your servants pray before You today; that Your eyes may be open toward this people whom you have made Your home night and day, toward the people of whom You have said, "My name shall be there," to listen to the prayer which Your servants shall pray in this place. Listen to the supplication of Your servants, Your Church, when they pray in this place; hear in heaven Your dwelling place; hear and forgive.

If one of us sins against our neighbor and we then we promise to make things right and we come to this house and repeat that promise before You and God's people, listen from heaven and act accordingly. Judge and reveal any wicked way in us. Vindicate us when we act in accordance with Your righteousness.

When Your people suffer loss and defeat because we have sinned against You but we then turn to You again and confess Your name and pray and make supplication to You in this house then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your people and bring us back to the place of faith which you gave to our spiritual mentors.

When the heavens are shut up and your showers of blessing cease because we have sinned against You but we then pray in this place and confess Your name and turn from our sin when we are afflicted by You, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your Church. Indeed, teach us the good way in which we should walk and soak us with Your showers of blessing once again.

If there is shortage of food among us, if there is disease or injury, if there is economic downturn, if there is job-loss, if there is war, if their are political rivalries, whatever plagues us, wherever anyone is in need, whatever prayer is made by one of Your people or Your people as a whole, all of us knowing our own afflictions and our desparate need for You, hear that prayer in heaven, Your dwelling place, and forgive and act and render to each according to all his or her ways, for You alone know the hearts of all people. May we live with respect for Your righteous judgments and live in the faith of those who have journeyed this way before us.

Even Lord, those who are not a part of this congregation or this denomination or this nation, even those who do not call themselves Christian, even those who do not know you, even those who are considered religious outsiders, when they hear of Your great power and Your great mecry and they pray to you, hear them! Answer their prayers so that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name and reverence You as we do. May they know that you have built up the Church, Your people who are called by Your name.

When Your people go to battle, whatever kind of battle it might be, and we go into that battle prayerfully following only Your lead and not our own, then Lord hear our prayer and sustain us in the cause that You have given us.

When we sin against you, for we know that we are not without sin, and You are angry with us and deliver us over to the destructive forces of our world so that we live in exile from Your Holy presence, if in that exile we repent and pray to You in the midst of our captivity, if we return to You with all our heart and with all of our soul and we pray to You, then hear our prayer and our supplication in heaven, Your dwelling place, and forgive us of our sins against You and forgive our transgressions and make us objects of Your compassion just as you did when you brought us up out of our slavery through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Exodus. May Your eyes always be open to the prayers of Your people. May You listen whenever we call upon You for you have set us apart for Your holy purposes as Your very own inheritance by the redemption and liberation that comes through the life, death, and resurrection of Your Son Jesus Christ, in whose name we ask all these things. Amen.

A Song for Good Friday

With good reason, we often remember Good Friday with an eye toward Easter Sunday morning. We know that today is not the end of the story and without the resurrection, Jesus' death would mean little or nothing.

But there is also a sense in which we need to see Good Friday for what it is in itself, apart from Easter. Today is a day that signifies everything that is wrong with out world; a world so rampant and overwhelmed by sin that we put to death our own God and crucified our own savior. Today is a day for reflecting on the pain and suffering that exists all around us; a day for remembering the bruised and broken for whom Christ himself became broken and poured out.

This is a song that often helps me to do just that. (The video is supposed to be just a black screen. The lyrics are provided below.)

The Blues by Switchfoot



Is this the New Year or just another night?
Is this the new fear or just another fright?
Is this the new tear or just another desperation?

Is this the finger or just another fist?
Is this the kingdom or just a hit n' miss?
I miss direction, most in all this desperation.

Is this what they call freedom?
Is this what you call pain?
Is this what they call discontented fame?

It'll be a day like this one
When the world caves in
When the world caves in
When the world caves in

I'm singing this one like a broken piece of glass,
From broken hearts and broken noses in the back.
Is this the New Year or just another desperation?

You push until you're shoving
You bend until you break
Do you stand on the broken fields where your fathers lay?

It'll be a day like this one
When the world caves in
When the world caves in
When the world caves in

When the world caves in (yeah)
When the world caves in
When the world caves in

Is nothing here worth saving?
Is no one here at all?
Is there any net left that could break our fall?

It'll be a day like this one
When the sky falls down and the hungry and poor and deserted are found.
Are you discontented? Have you been pushing hard?
Have you been throwing down this broken house of cards?

It'll be a day like this one
When the world caves in
When the world caves in
When the world caves in

Is there nothing left now?
Nothing left to sing?
Are there any left who haven't kissed the enemy?
Is this the New Year or just another desperation?

yeah, yeah

Does justice never find you? Do the wicked never lose?
Is there any honest song to sing besides these blues?

And nothing is okay
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in

A Prayer for Maundy Thursday

Our Holy Father,
By your grace, you have sanctified items as common as crushed wheat and grapes.
We pray that by that same grace, you would continue to sanctify us,
A people always common and often crushed,
To be Your Holy people.

In this meal,
May we find ourselves
To be a people gathered in unity around your table
A community centered around and shaped by your broken body and shed blood
Recipients of life in Your New Covenant
Amen.

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday; the beginning of the season of Lent. This season is one in which we as the Church and as believers journey with Jesus towards the cross. We are reminded of our own mortality as well the mortal death that the Son of God faced in order to bring us life. It is a season in which we are encouraged to engage in confession, repentance, and discipline so that God's grace might shape us into a more Christ-like people.

So let's begin with confession. I don't pray like I should. I don't like admitting it and its something a pastor should probably never have to say, especially not the pastor of a church where prayer is valued as highly as it is in this one. But I guess that's the thing about confession; you've got to make known those weak and not-so-great parts of you that you would rather hide. I struggle with prayer and I've struggled with it for a long time. In fact, its difficult to think of any significant portion of my adult life where it hasn't been a struggle. I've read books, heard opinions from people I respect, taken classes, and tried numerous different practices of prayer. I think it is even safe to say that many of those things helped for a time and helped me to grow in certain ways. In spite of that, I'm back where I always end up; a place where I'm not praying on any kind of regular basis. Of course, there are the prayers I lead as a pastor and I think those times of corporate prayer are extremely important, probably even more important than times of individual prayer. But I also know that Jesus had to withdraw to lonely places to pray. I confess now that over the last several months I have not been making those lonely places a priority in my life.

Repentance. I feel some level of guilt over my poor prayer life but I've got to be honest, I'm pretty convinced those feelings don't come from God. We often talk as if guilt is God's tug on our conscience to get us back on track and there may be some level of truth to that but I think we must admit that guilt has been an unwieldy tool in the hands of Christianity. More importantly, this kind of guilt stems from an unhealthy image of God; a portrait of God that looks something like a perpetually disappointed parent. I think God probably hates that we so often see him in this way. Instead, he wants us to remember that he is the loving father in the story of the "prodigal son", always welcoming us back home. And if that is the proper image of God, then I think that the son who decides to return home is the proper image of repentance. Luke never says anything about the prodigal feeling sorry for what he has done. Instead, he says that "he came to his senses" and decided to return home. His return home is his act of repentance because it shows that he recognized the error of his way, changed direction, and started heading down the right path. The father doesn't hold it over the son's head that he ran away. He welcomes him home because he realizes that the son's arrival is his repentance. He wouldn't have come home if hadn't already recognized the error of his ways. I recognize that my prayer life needs to be more than it is and I am turning away from the lazy and indifferent approach I have taken toward it recently.

Discipline. If repentance is not focused on guilt but a change of direction, then discipline is not a matter of punishment but of taking steps down that new path. Often people will choose to give up something as their Lenten discipline. This is something I've done for the past two years and I have found it to be an important means of spiritual formation. The spirit of Christ's life on this earth was one of service and sacrifice. Therefore, I believe that Christ's Spirit speaks to us when we engage in these practices, no matter how small. However, this year I intend to adopt a different discipline for Lent. Instead of giving something up specifically, I am making a commitment to seek those quiet places of prayer at least three times a week. I'm not going to say for how long each day or which days or what time of day or what kind of prayer practices I will engage in or anything like that because I know from experience that those things lead me down a road to a legalistic prayer life and therefore ultimately back to where I am now. But I will say that this commitment will at least mean getting out of my house, my office, or whatever other place there is that will provide insurmountable distractions three times a week throughout the season of Lent. Because saying 'yes' to a serious time of prayer, automatically means saying 'no' to the many things that clamor for my attention. This commitment means seeking those quite and lonely places.

I believe that the Spirit of God will meet me in those places and shape me to be more like his Son to the glory of the Father.

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. I want to encourage anyone who is reading this to take some time to pray for Christians around the world who suffer for the sake of Christ. You can also learn more about the persecuted church and how you can take action by following the Voice of the Martyrs and International Christian Concern links below on the right sidebar of this blog. The situation in India is especially intense right now and is deserving of special attention.

Heavenly Father, who has all power to save, deliver your Church. Deliver from harm and oppression those who suffer for your name. Deliver those who rarely suffer for your name from complacency and indifference. Unite your Church as the one body of your Son, broken for the sake of the world. Whatever our fate, may we know the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in Christ's suffering as we are conformed to the image of his death by the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

A Prayer for Election Day

Heavenly Father, who reigns over all the earth, we give you thanks that this day has come and will go and that you are still our King. Whatever happens today, may your Church be a people who value and embody life, justice, and peace. Forgive us for the times that we have misplaced our allegiance that belongs only to you. Rid us of the illusion that our feeble attempts at government could ever bring about your Kingdom. May your light and your truth lead us to your place of worship. Amen.