Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness:
O LORD, quicken me according to thy judgment (Psa 119.149).
It should sober us to realize that God rejects much of the so-called prayer going on in the world today. Jesus implied that by saying of the “vain repetitions” of the heathen, for example, “They think that they shall be heard for their much speaking,” clearly intimating that they shall not be heard by God, despite their expectation (Matt 6.7). Even religious people with a knowledge of Scripture sometimes pray in vain, as the Pharisee who “prayed thus with himself,” boasting of his supposed righteousness, and then went down to his house unjustified before God, without saving grace and forgiveness, though he knew it not (Luke 18.9-14).
We desperately need to engage in prayer done right, that is, in a manner that pleases God. Feeling this need, Jesus’ disciples pled, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples” (Luke 11.1). Jesus responded by giving them a model, now known as the Lord’s Prayer (vv. 2-4), and then some basic teaching about persistence in prayer and confidence in God’s fatherly delight to give the best things to his children (vv. 5-13).
The Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms both ask and answer the question, “What is prayer?”1 Combining their two answers improves upon each:2
Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, by the help of his Spirit; with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.
One might almost think that the psalmist was heir to the famed Reformed catechisms, but quite the reverse is true. Our grand subordinate standards of the Reformation period are excellent because they are biblical. Our text is a brief prayer illustrating some of its various elements. The others are represented in the psalmist’s other prayers (e.g., the help of God’s Spirit in 143.10, and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies in 119.62).
We seem from our text, then, that prayer done right expresses our sincere desire, appeals to God alone, asks only what he wants for us, relies on our Mediator, and owns our sinful unworthiness.
EXPRESSES OUR SINCERE DESIRE
That the psalmist was in earnest is suggested by his praying aloud, for he makes mention of his “voice” in prayer, and also by his emotional interjection, “O LORD,” which we presume to be justified in translation from the original Hebrew. Webster explained in his original dictionary, “O is often used as an exclamation, expressing a wish,”3 and such it seems to be here.
It is for lack of desire of any blessing from God that many remain prayerless, and making petitions without any sincere desire does but make a mockery of God, as if he did not know what is in our hearts, and we could deceive him.
What should one do if he has no heart to pray? What if we must confess that the kind of desires that give birth to sincere prayer are exceedingly faint, if they exist at all?
We would say, first of all, that this would be a very dangerous spiritual condition for anyone, like a man about to die from hunger without any appetite, if we can imagine such a thing. Little to no desire is not a result of spiritual health or actual self-sufficiency, but rather of insensitivity to our greatest needs. Spiritually lukewarm people believe they are “rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,” when in fact, Jesus tells them they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev 3.17), and offensive to him. “I will spew thee out of my mouth” (v. 16) is a graphic way for Jesus to say that he is disgusted with these self-satisfied professing Christians.
Our problem is that we are more aware of our physical needs than our spiritual, even though the life of the soul is paramount. We hunger more for grub than godliness, for our next meal than our next meeting with God.
So then, we must resort to Holy Scripture to discover the greatness and urgency of our spiritual needs. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10.17). Faith is the fuel that drives spiritual desire and the resulting earnest prayer. By faith we come to know that our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. By faith we come to know that we started our existence far from God and disabled from worshiping him aright. By faith we come to know of our guilt, corruption, folly, and helplessness. All of these problems are beyond our own natural and inherent resources. Realizing that God is the Savior from them is foundational to prayer done right.
APPEALS TO GOD ALONE
Throughout all of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, the righteous address their prayers always and only to God. You will not find one, single appeal to idols as in heathenism, or to dead saints, as advocated by Romanism. Here, the psalmist prays, “O LORD,” using the unique name of the only true and living God, “Yahweh.”
The so-called “Hail Mary” (Ave Maria) prayer4 offered with the full approval and encouragement of the Roman Catholic Church is every bit as idolatrous as that heard on Mount Carmel so long ago, “O Baal, hear us” (1 Kgs 18.26), which God answered by summarily slaughtering all 450 of Baal’s prophets.
Both prayers are evil because they both rob God of his unique honor. By its very nature, prayer is an act of worship, for it is an implicit recognition of the one we regard as our Savior from all ills. And as the Holy Spirit said through the apostle Paul, “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2.5). Prayer done right appeals to God alone. All other prayers are an abomination to him and only ripen the idolater for judgment.
ASKS ONLY WHAT HE WANTS FOR US
Prayer done right is only “for things agreeable to God’s will.” That the psalmist so directed his prayers is implied when he asks for God to answer according to his “lovingkindess” and “judgment,” or, “steadfast love” and “justice” (ESV). These terms are covenantal language, and evocative of the commitment God had already made to all his true worshipers. Lord, show me your covenant love and mercy! Lord, keep your covenant promises, as justice requires.
The psalmist calls upon Yahweh, the faithful God of Israel, who has graciously entered into a covenant with his chosen people in which he voluntarily binds himself by promise to bless them forever and ever. The New Testament uses the word gospel for this covenant of gracious salvation through Christ. It guarantees eternal life as God’s free gift, and every true and lasting blessing imaginable is comprehended in it.
The substance of this request is “quicken me,” which means revive me, or give me life. And this is what God had already promised to do. Prayer done right supremely values the blessings of the gospel promise, and realizes that anything outside of that is not worth having, or asking of God. A devout soul asks temporal blessings only insofar as they are consistent with God’s will for us and a further display of gospel grace.
RELIES ON OUR MEDIATOR
While Christ is not explicitly mentioned in the verse under consideration, he is implied. The OT saints possessed a conscious faith in Christ as the coming Savior, although with less revelatory light than we have today. To pray truly “in the name of Christ” is not merely to conclude with these words, but to rely upon his mediation and to seek his glory above all in our prayers. Prayer done right relies on our Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ.
OWNS OUR SINFUL UNWORTHINESS
The plea in this prayer for life is tacit admission of his own spiritual deadness, an indispensable feature of prayer done right. We must present ourselves to God in prayer not as righteous, but as sinners in ourselves, not as worthy to receive an answer, but as so desperately unworthy that unless he is gracious we will be undone forever.
The English Protestant martyr John Bradford (1510-1555) began one prayer this way:
O Lord God and dear Father, what shall I say? that feel all things to be in manner with me as in the wicked. Blind is my mind, crooked is my will, and perverse concupiscence [lust] is, in me as a spring or stinking puddle. O how faint is faith in me! How little is love to thee or thy people, how great is self-love, how hard is my heart! By the reason whereof I am moved to doubt of thy goodness towards me, whether thou art my Father or no, and whether I be thy child or no.5
How can we expect God to accept our prayers if we refuse to bend low before his throne as the unworthy sinners we are? Prayer done right is offered humbly by those who certainly know their humility is completely, amply justified.
May the Lord, then, grant us the grace to engage in prayer done right, for his glory. Amen.
Notes:
1 WLC #178, WSC #98.
2 For this insight I am indebted to B. M. Palmer, Theology of Prayer.
3 Webster’s 1828 Dictionary.
4 The Roman Catholic rosary prayer contains fifty recitations of this prayer: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
5 Writings of John Bradford, “A Prayer for the Mercy of God.”