Rev Donald Macdonald
Our English word prayer has in it the ideas of request and petition. It is speaking to one’s God by way of appeal. It involves addressing the One that we believe in. In all religious worship there is prayer; prayer with thanksgiving is one special part of religious worship (The Westminster Confession of Faith 21). Prayer is an expression of desire as expressed in our Catechisms.
The Larger Catechism, Answer 178, states: “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, in the name of Christ, by the help of His Spirit; with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies”. The Shorter Catechism, Answer 98, states: “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies”.
1. General Observations. “The duty of prayer is unquestionably grounded on the nature of man as originally made in the image of the Creator.”2 His
2A reference to the false ideas of transubstantiation and the mass.
1The first part of a paper given at last year’s Theological Conference.
2B M Palmer, The Theology of Prayer, Sprinkle Publications reprint, 1980, p 210.
intellectual and spiritual faculties reflect, at an infinite distance, the corresponding perfections of the deity. Man’s original powers are clouded and corrupted by sin. However dreadful the Fall and its consequences, he is still obliged to render constant, pure worship in this world and the next.
(1.) Prayer is an ordinance appointed and commanded by God. It is the duty of all to pray. “Men ought always to pray and not to faint” (Lk 18:1). “I will . . . that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting” (1 Tim 2:8). It aggravates their sin and guilt when God’s creatures refuse to pray to Him; it displays the practical atheism of the human heart when this duty is refused, which is owed to the Supreme Being, the Creator. Yet some professed atheists have been known to pray, in times of extreme danger, in spite of the creed that they have continually professed. Some men will also argue: If God is infinite in knowledge, why pray to Him? Why tell Him our necessities which He already knows? This argument is the expression of men, or the excuse of men, who have no desire to pray or to have any dealings with the Almighty, the One in whom they live, move and have their being. They are ignorant of the fact that man is a dependent creature, not one independent of his Creator.
(2.) Prayer is an act of worship, whether in public or private or in one’s family circle. In private prayer it can be a mental exercise, in the home, in the workplace, or while meditating in a field – where one is surrounded by the beauty of nature, which reflects the glory of our Creator, and His eternal power and Godhead. Or prayer can be ejaculatory, where we clothe our thoughts with words.
(3.) There is a distinction between true and false prayer. There is prayer that is for outward show, to be seen of men, as the Saviour taught, “When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. . . . After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. . . .” (Mt 6:5-15).
The use of the Lord’s Prayer is not restricted to outward forms. There is an emphasis in verse 9: “After this manner”. It suggests, not the mere repetition of words, but a methodology in our approach into God: first of all, it expresses what is directly to God’s glory, and then our own needs and considerations. R L Dabney states: The Lord’s Prayer “is an Old Testament prayer . . . because that dispensation was still standing”. There is “no express reference to a Mediator, and [to an] answer through His merit and intercession”. When this dispensation “was about to close, Christ completed this feature of it [in the upper room] by enjoining the use of His name. See John 14:13, 15:16,
16:23,24.”3 “Wherever there is religion, true or false, there is prayer. . . . The natural instinct of prayer reposes for its ground on God’s perfections and man’s dependence and wants. And so long as these two facts remain what they are, man must be a praying creature.”4
2. Old Testament Worship: Ever since man was expelled from paradise, it pleased God to make known how man was to approach Him.
(1.) On the basis of the first promise, sacrifice and the shedding of blood were introduced. We believe this was done at the gates of Eden, when God clothed our first parents with the skins of animals. There we have the first sacrifices. The way of worship was passed on from our first parents to their descendants. When men worshipped God and called on His name, the burnt offering was the main sacrifice. This was to be so, right through Patriarchal times, leading on to the time of Moses and the covenant at Sinai. Then Israel was formed into a nation with the introduction of the tabernacle, the ceremonial law and the national priesthood in the tribe of Levi.
All things subsequently were to be done according to this pattern shown to Moses in the mount. There was the most holy place of the tabernacle and its furniture, the ark of the covenant with the law placed in its side, with the mercy seat that covered it – which the high priest sprinkled yearly on the great Day of Atonement. In the most holy place was the Shekinah glory, for there God met His people. The mercy seat was typical of the throne of grace. The tabernacle became the temporary, typical residence of Jehovah, until the time of Solomon. More and more light was shining on the day of Christ, keeping His coming before the minds of the people. The book of Psalms, the true Church’s manual of praise, which includes many prayers, was largely composed by David, who is named the sweet psalmist of Israel. The Holy Spirit has left on record here the length and breadth, height and depth of Christian experience, and many psalms find their meaning and fulfilment in their messianic context.
(2.) The temple of Solomon was built at great cost, according to the pattern shown to Moses in the mount. At the dedication of the temple, Solomon was pleading God’s promise that He would place His name there. How wide and comprehensive were his intercessions, as recorded in 1 Kings 8 and 2 Chronicles 6 – for individuals, for the nation Israel in all sorts of situations: afflictions, chastisements, judgements and captivity. Solomon pleads that, if God’s people Israel would think of the temple and turn to Him with all their heart and pray to Him, God would hear “from heaven and forgive”. We have another example when Daniel, in the land of captivity, opened his
3R L Dabney, Systematic Theology, Banner of Truth reprint, 1985, p 721.
4Dabney, Systematic Theology, p 715.
window and prayed towards Jerusalem (particularly the prayer in chapter 9).
Another example is in the Book of Jonah, when he was cast into the Mediterranean Sea (2:1-9) – particularly verse 4: “Then I said, I am cast out of Thy sight; yet I will look again toward Thy holy temple”. The temple also was established as the temporary residence of Jehovah until the coming of Christ. The way into the holiest was not yet made manifest. In that dispensation this was how God was making known His mercy to sinful men.