Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and moan, and He will hear my voice. Psalm 55:17 NASB Evening and morning and at noon – I have always wondered why Judaism calls for prayers three times a day and Islam calls for prayers five times a day. Here is the justification for the Jewish sequence: Abraham initiated…
“Did he not fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD, and the LORD changed His mind about the misfortune which He had pronounced against them?” Jeremiah 26:19b NASB 1995 Entreat – What does it mean to entreat someone? Even in English we have a difficult time expressing this thought succinctly. Certainly the…
Who is like You among the gods, Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?Exodus 15:11 NASB Awesome – While Walter Otto provides us with an insight into to paradigm of the religious pagan, it is Abraham Heschel who establishes the experiential foundation of our faith, not as a systematic articulation of the…
My eyes preceded the watches to speak of Your word. Psalm 119:148 Chabad Watches – Unless you knew something about palaces in ancient times, this verse would probably be unintelligible. And even if you knew about night watches in the 10th Century B.C.E., the verse still might not make any sense. The only way to…
Revive me according to Your faithfulness, so that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth. Psalm 119:88 NASB Revive – We’ve been at this for quite a while. Perhaps “revive” is the right term for the halfway point. Halfway through the longest psalm, we should pause and ask ourselves, “Why is the poet spending…
Let my prayer come before You; Incline Your ear to my cry! Psalm 88:2 NASB Let . . . come before You – The first thing you should notice is the change in syntax. In Hebrew the verb comes first. So, it reads, “Let come before You my prayer.” The action is the important thing. What…
Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Matthew 6:9 NASB Hallowed – “Thus, to ‘hallow’ here is no longer any single action; it is the transformation of all that is into a new ‘holy’ existence as God wills. It is the course of the world and of each individual life from creation…
My voice to God—let me cry out. My voice to God—and hearken to me. In the day of my straits I sought the Master. My eye flows at night, it will not stop. I refused to be consoled. Psalm 77:2-3 (Hebrew Bible) Robert Alter Refused – “You’ll feel better in the morning.” “This too will…
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NIV Teach us – “Theotropism, man’s turning toward God, is a structure of experience that may be attained through the performance of ritual acts, prayer,…
Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:24 NASB Unbelief – “To live without prayer is to live without God, to live without a soul.”[1] We’ve examined several insights about prayer. We’ve struggled with the idea—and the practice. We’ve confronted our own despondency, frailty, and unworthiness. We…
