Praying the Bible

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“Our prayers should arise out of immersion in the Scripture. [We] speak only to the degree we are spoken to. . .The wedding of the Bible and prayer anchors your life down in the real God.” (Keller 2014, 55, 56)

Many books have been written, and many electrons have been rearranged on the internet, about prayer.  And rightly so; prayer is the way we bend our wills to God’s will and influence the things only God can change.  One of the best ways for a Christian to pray is to use the words of the Bible to guide those prayers. 

The first place to turn is the Psalms.  The Psalms are often called God’s prayer book.  Luther called them “a Little Bible” because “in it all things that are contained in the whole Bible are given to us in the most wonderfully brief and sweet manner and condensed into a most beautiful manual” (Luther n.d.).

The poems of the Psalms cover the full range of human emotions and allow those emotions to be expressed to God.  Every one of the major parts of prayer are voiced including praise, confession of sin, thankfulness, and asking for our requests. 

Take Psalm 51, a Psalm David wrote after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba.  We see confession and praise:

Have mercy on me, O God,

    according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion

    blot out my transgressions.

Wash away all my iniquity

    and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,

    and my sin is always before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned

    and done what is evil in your sight;

so you are right in your verdict

    and justified when you judge.

Surely I was sinful at birth,

    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;

    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

We see requests for personal holiness:

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;

    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness;

    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins

    and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence

    or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation

    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Expressions of commitment:

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

    so that sinners will turn back to you.

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,

    you who are God my Savior,

    and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

Open my lips, Lord,

    and my mouth will declare your praise.

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;

    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;

    a broken and contrite heart

    you, God, will not despise.

And more requests:

May it please you to prosper Zion,

    to build up the walls of Jerusalem.

Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,

    in burnt offerings offered whole;

    then bulls will be offered on your altar.

(Psalm 51 is from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved.)

It is a wonderful place to start, praying using David’s words. Of course, the Christian can use other words.  They can use the words of the Bible and are, “taking words that originated in the heart and mind of God and circulating them through your heart and mind back to God. By this means his words become the wings of your prayers.” The idea of “the wings of your prayers” is that the biblical words are a starting place, a jumping off point that allows Christians to pray specific things from their own lives and in their own words that are related to the text.  (Whitney 2015, 32)

As I write, I pray this prayer for you: “May these words of [your] mouth and this meditation of [your] heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14, NIV).  May the words of Scripture inform and enliven our prayer lives.

References

Keller, Timothy. Prayer:Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God. New York, New York: Dutton, 2014.

Luther, Martin. Full text of "A manual of the Book of psalms: Or, The Subject-contents of All the Psalms". n.d. https://archive.org/stream/amanualbookpsal00luthgoog/amanualbookpsal00luthgoog_djvu.txt (accessed March 21, 2024).

Whitney, Donald S. Praying the Bible, Kindle Edition. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2015.

 

 

 

 





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