Thoughts about Prayer
God's Voice in the Gospel...
Recently I have been thinking a bit about God’s silence during our prayers and how this silence may be properly understood. Normally we pray to God and trust that he is listening even though we do not hear him audibly speaking back to us. Despite the silence, we may sometimes feel a sense of direction however, a “leading” of the heart to do or to refrain from doing something, and on rare occasions we may even receive an inner message or conviction that seems quite authoritative. However most of the time we must discern a response to our prayers based on our faith that our heavenly Father is always present and that he always cares for us. That is the foundation of faith in God, namely that he attentively listens to us when we call upon Him.
Yeshua taught that our heavenly Father sees “in secret” and knows every thought of our hearts. Indeed, our Father knows what we mean even when we express unutterable groans and silent sighs. “There is not a word on my tongue, but lo, you know it altogether,” and that also means the words on our tongue that we are unable to fully understand...
Some have said prayer is a sort of “whistling in the dark,” an attempt to squelch hidden fears and to assure ourselves that we will somehow be okay... "Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." Yes, but courage is the crux of the matter, isn’t it, and suffering seems to be part of the divine plan. We all experience complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty; we all have ideals that are eaten up by the real; we experience times of joy and times of sorrow, times of celebration and times of disappointment. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” But prayer is a kind of remembering what God has said. “Hearing the Lord” requires the interpretation of life itself.
In light of this, the flow of the “river of life,” the ups and downs, point and counterpoint, everyone eventually raises questions about the meaning of life itself. Is it a good story or a tragic one? Is there a purpose to our lives, or is everything “havel havelim,” the vanity of vanities? Is there a secret design behind the appearances of daily life? Is the ideal more real than the real? Do we have free will? Can we change the course of our lives? We may say our prayers, but they are often wishes that things be other than they really are. How many of us are fatalists at heart, supposing that nothing is in our control and we are destined by forces that are greater than ourselves? The heart of faith believes that “all things work together” for our ultimate good and that God speaks “through” our experience. The unbeliever likewise has faith that nothing works together for good, or at least that life appears to be random and pointless. Is the cup half full or half empty? How we interpret what we see is a spiritual and theological concern, and therefore how we interpret and find meaning for our lives is a matter of life and death. Some people try to put off making a decision, but that is a decision itself. Many grow bitter while others find hope....
Interpretation requires wisdom more than knowledge. It is a matter of discernment and intuition. It certainly is not based on “empirical evidence” alone, as if any “fact” can be properly understood apart from its context and relationship with everything else. The philosopher asks “why is there something rather than nothing at all?” The Scripture says that the knowledge of the Creator is “manifest within” the human heart, and the existence of reality itself reveals his power and glory (Rom. 1:19-20). “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies above his handiwork.” The knowledge of God is therefore axiomatic to the apprehension of anything else, and the echo of creation is felt in all things.
Some people think that “reality” is a “construct” or matter of personal interpretation, and they therefore object to “grand narratives” that seek to explain the reason for existence. This is mere sophistry, however, since solipsism and/or “absolute relativism” is a contradiction in terms, an “unlivewithable” theory of knowledge that is logically incoherent. It is not a matter of “personal preference” whether gravity will apply if you were to jump off the roof of a 20 story building, or whether roasting your hand in a roaring fire will burn your skin.
Many judgments or inferences are “preconscious” aspects of human experience. We don’t usually ask if we are currently dreaming right now rather than experiencing something “real.” We unreflectingly assume that our perceptions of space and time are reasonably accurate so that we can navigate in the world. We further assume that the future will resemble the past, that the sun will rise tomorrow, and that real patterns of existence are discernible to human reason. We assume the laws of logic: that x=x, that something cannot both be entirely red and entirely green at the same time and place, that 1+1=2, that if A is larger than B, and B is larger than C, then A is larger than C, and so on.
Beyond such matters of fact and logical deduction, it’s also psychologically necessary to make value judgments. I am not referring to subjective preferences regarding the taste of certain foods, the appreciation of a piece of art or music, and so on, but rather value that is ascribed to the knowing process itself. Why should we care to know something rather than nothing? What makes “truth” valuable and “error” something to be avoided? After all, the empirical science can only be engaged using metaphysical assumptions that 1) there is an external world; 2) the scientific method is useful to understand that world; 3) the laws of logic are applicable to the world; 4) it is good to know rather than not to know, and so on.
So there is such a thing as objective “reality” and it is not known through subjective preference or through any number of imaginary speculations. Likewise reading Scripture is not of “private interpretation” but is based on the illumination of truth revealed by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:20-21). This truth derives from historical fact that is ratified by consensus of those who have tested its claims and declare them as warranted. In the case of the Bible, for instance, decisions were made through the collective wisdom of God’s people of what is or is not to be included in the “canon” of Scripture. The Bible is a book of sacred history, recording historical events that were collated by faithful followers of YHVH, the LORD God Almighty. The Holy Spirit ratifies and sets the seal of God’s testimony in the shared conviction of truth (2 John 2:27).
Hebrew is not written using vowels, that is, vocalizations created by breath through the body’s airway and therefore it is up to the reader to breathe words to life. But the breath supplied comes from the ruach, the Spirit of God, and therefore words are given life from God’s Spirit within us. But it is important to reiterate that this hearing is not of “private interpretation,” as a matter of idiosyncratic revelation, but rather by the inspiration, or “breathing in” of God. And it is also important to understand that the manner of “breathing,” that is, the how or the way the texts are meant to be read, is something learned from godly traditions of those originally authorized by God. In that sense the written word of God is based on oral tradition, since interpreting the words requires training and education.
Another way to say this is that the Bible is not “reader-centric” but “author-centric,” and that means that in order to properly read the Scriptures we must take the time to learn about the historical context and the grammatical/linguistic structures of the time of writing. This implies knowing something about who the author was, who the intended audience was, the usage and vernacular of particular words and ideas during that time period, and so on.
However since God is regarded as the overarching Author of the Bible, we may say that it is “theo-centric” since God imparted special revelation to certain people who faithfully conveyed his message both orally and later in written scrolls. The Bible itself, understood as a collection of scrolls recognized by godly tradition, is marvelous in its continuity of theme and message. It is a “timeless” form of communication that imparts divine truth in various forms, including stories, allegories, parables, historical accounts of the saga of the Jewish people, various songs and poems, the role of sacrificial rituals (and ultimately, the sacrifice of Yeshua for our atonement with God), wisdom literature, didactic letters, and so on.
Many examples of prayer in the Bible use first-person singular speech: “How long will you forget me, O Lord, forever?” (Psalm 13:1). “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck!”(Psalm 69:1); “I am so troubled that I cannot speak” (Psalm 77:4). and so on. Listening to the cries of David can help us relate to God. As we hear the struggle within his heart and his appeal for God’s help, we gain confidence and comfort that we are not alone. “Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me” (Psalm 66:2)
Besides first first-person singular prayers, first-person plural prayers are common. These “corporate” or group prayers are offered so that we may unite with others in our confession of faith: “Our Father in heaven, sacred is your Name...” “God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause your face to shine upon us; Selah.” As we listen to these prayers, we unite with others and gain comfort that we are not alone in our struggles and in our hope.
The silence or apparent absence of God is part of our experience of God. “All true knowledge of God begins with the knowledge of his hiddenness,” wrote Karl Barth, and this moves the heart to seek communion with him. “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, O God” (Psalm 42:1). We come to know God through our need, our poverty, our desperation (Matt. 5:2). The “troubles of love” lead our hearts to the truth of love.
The Hebrew word for "world" or "age" is olam (עולם), which is derived from a root verb (עלם) that means "to conceal" or "to hide." God "hides" His face from us so that we will seek Him, and that means pressing through ambiguity of this world to discern and take hold of the truth. Therefore King David said, בַּקְּשׁוּ פָנָיו תָּמִיד, bakeshu fanav tamid: "Seek His face continually" (Psalm 105:4). Note that the Hebrew gematria (numerical value) for the word "fanav" (i.e., "His face") is the same as that for the word "olam." When we truly seek God's face (i.e., His Presence), that is, do teshuvah, we are able to discern the underlying purpose for our lives in this age... As it says in our Scriptures: "Blessed is the one who endures temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life (עֲטֶרֶת הַחַיִּים) that the LORD has promised to those who love him" (James 1:12). This present age, then, olam ha’zeh, constitutes a test that God providentially designs to lead us to the "crown of life," and when we go through its fires we are not consumed. Indeed, only those who love the Lord are able to withstand the fires... The “crown of life” symbolizes that we have truly received the purpose for which we were created and that we are identified with God’s own passion and love. The light of the crown represents the Divine Presence within us, the Life that overcomes despair on our behalf.
In this world the righteous feel the pain of God’s absence and long for his presence. Their hearts are grieved over the wickedness within their own hearts, and they lament the wickedness of others in the world. This leads them to heartfelt prayer, “wrestling with the Angel,” yearning for deliverance, and trusting in the ultimate vindication of what is truly good. Ironically it is the very struggle with darkness that leads to the awareness of being God’s presence, as David proclaimed: “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken” (Psalm 16:8).
“The essence of Christian prayer is to seek God,” wrote John Stott, and this implies that God hides for us to find him. Notice that the righteous do not deny the absence of God, but they are given comfort by the Holy Spirit to persevere, and their perseverance validates God’s presence despite his seeming absence... “The Kingdom of heaven is within you.”
Prayer helps us focus on the deeper truth of what we already know and therefore it leads to the confession of God’s blessing. It is to join the heavenly chorus, unheard in this world, that rejoices over God’s great love and care for all generations. It is a call to remember the truth of who God is and to proclaim the ultimate healing that is to come. "You are worthy, O Lord, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for you have created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."
The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Alef (א), a silent letter, and the sages furthermore say that the first word (הדבר הראשון) is always God’s. The Lord calls and we do teshuvah, that is, we answer: ה' קורא לנו לענות. Our prayers are therefore part of a conversation that God has begun with mankind of which we participate. Because of Yeshua, the Living Word of God, we are invited to come boldly before the Throne of Grace and to know God’s heart (Heb. 4:16). There, in that place, we can express our yearning and our groans without fear, for Yeshua has made the way for us to be accepted as God’s beloved children.
So God is not silent, after all. He has revealed himself to this world, both in the call of Abraham and the Jewish people, but also in the incarnation of Yeshua as the mouthpiece of the LORD. Torah is written in the language of men. And especially In light of God’s great redemption through his incarnation as the Living Word of God, our prayers have meaning and are contextualized, and the voice of God’s message is heard. If we are tempted to think that God is not hearing us, we are forgetting the great story and our place in it. It is our faith that includes our lives as part of the story; it is our trust that receives the truth of God’s presence and blessing. Listen again to the voice of God, our Creator, our Savior, our heavenly Father who loves us with everlasting love.
Remember again that as Yeshua was dying on the cross he was thinking of you, mediating your life by absorbing the pain of your sin and releasing you from shame and death. Understand that you are a part of the greatest story ever told, and your life is found in union with him. Yeshua repeatedly prayed that we would be “one” with him, and it is that union that makes our prayers possible. In a sense, our prayers answer his own, and therefore the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that are unutterable (Rom. 8:26).
Now a few closing thoughts. First, understand that your life itself is a prayer of sorts... Whatever we do, say and desire is a mode of praying. It is our secret thoughts as much as our poetic hymns; it is the grumble of our hearts as much as our creeds or exalted expressions of theology. Prayer reveals what we really are. “Every unthinking word that people speak shall be accounted in the day of judgment, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:36-37). “Where can I go from your Spirit, or where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7). We may feel awkward over God’s seeming absence, but do we hide from who God is? Do you remember his heart? his sacrifice? his passion? We want God to listen to us, we beg him to serve us and help us, but to what end? Do we listen to him? Do we honor him and seek to do his will?
To pray is "hitpallel" (התפלל) in Hebrew, from the root “palal” (פלל) that means to mediate, to intercede, or to judge. The prefix "hit-" (-הת) before the root often implies reflextive action and is always connected with the root, and therefore hitpallel means judging yourself or mediating your life in light of the truth of God. In this sense it is a form of “cheshbon nefesh” (חשבון נפש) or soul searching and taking personal responsibility for your life.
We don’t need to feel or see God’s presence to know his reality. Faith is the substance of hope, not a hopeful feeling; it is the conviction of what is real and of ultimate importance. What a tremendous honor and blessing it is to commune with God, to be connected to him as his redeemed child, and to know that your life is eternally significant because of what Yeshua has done for you. What an unspeakably wonderful privilege you have to be made a part of God’s very heart and life, and to be forever cherished as his beloved... May you hear that voice, the voice of your Heavenly Father!
Psalm 39:12
שִׁמְעָה־תְפִלָּתִי יְהוָה
וְשַׁוְעָתִי הַאֲזִינָה
אֶל־דִּמְעָתִי אַל־תֶּחֱרַשׁ
כִּי גֵר אָנֹכִי עִמָּךְ
תּוֹשָׁב כְּכָל־אֲבוֹתָי׃
Hear my prayer, O LORD,
and give ear unto my cry;
keep not silent at my tears.
For I am a stranger with you,
a sojourner as were all my fathers.”
Encouraging words
I love this,very comforting.