The God of Jacob

Psalm 46 is a beautiful and comforting prayer. The Psalm begins with a powerful reminder that God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in times of trouble (verse 1). Treasured words to pray and reflect when life throws us a curve ball. 

The Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our Fortress (Psalm 46vs7). Here we see a common Hebrew parallel, where the Lord Almighty is paired with the descriptive title as the God of Jacob. Which begs a question: Out of all the people in the Bible for God to name Himself by, why choose Jacob? Are there not other characters whom might be better suited with better qualities in which to pair God’s Name with? Perhaps a good king like Hezekiah or Josiah the reformer. 

What is the character of Jacob? He is usually not one that we would hold up as a role model for ourselves. He is not an obvious hero type like David, someone who is noble and brave and stands up to the enemy? David faced giants and defeated them. He battled and stood against kings of all types. On a tender note, it is David who wrote psalms and prayed with heartfelt intent. After all, it is through David that we designate the lineage of the Messiah. Messiah is to be of the House of David, not the House of Jacob. 

Rather, Jacob is swindler, a liar and a charlatan. He steals a birthright from his own brother and then cowardly flees the family. Jacob lacks the courage to face his crime. To square the circle while Jacob is away serving his Uncle Laban, the deceiver himself gets deceived by Laban. Jacob is a fearful man, often paired in the text with the word fear, announcing his reasons for fleeing Laban as ‘I was afraid ..’ (Genesis 31vs31).

And yet, God identifies Himself as the God of Jacob. It is in that choice of Jacob against other Biblical figures that the we learn something of God’s character. We learn that He is not deterred by our failings or weaknesses. Instead it’s the reverse. It’s in those weaknesses that He is strong and can show His strength. When we are afraid we can hear the call of the Lord, “Do not Fear! For I am with you!”

Examining Jacob’s relationship with God in the Biblical text we discover that Jacob is not a compliant figure. In comparison to someone like Abraham, who obeys immediately the directions of the Words of Heaven, God doesn't give much direction to Jacob. God and Jacob wrestle together, however God does not communicate His intentions or directions to Jacob. Jacob is rarely saved out of his problems, he has to struggle though them, often without a rescue from God. And he has no great military victories like his grandfather Abraham. 

However, we see that God pursues Jacob, no matter how far he runs away, giving reassurance often in dreams and visions, often walking behind the scenes in Jacob’s life. We see that redemption sometimes works itself out in a lifetime and is not always instantaneous. 

To a character that is fearful, highly flawed and struggling, we find God drawing near, reassuring and boldly declaring, “I am the God of Jacob”. This reveals a great deal about the character of God. He is concerned with the struggler, the fearful and the burdened. He sees us in our weakness, loves and guides us anyway, and declares Himself proudly to be ours. Psalm 47vs4 declares, “He is the Pride of Jacob, whom He loved”. And that is a very comforting thought indeed. 

Prayer is Reflexive

The Psalms are the Prayer Book of the Jewish People. The English title, the Psalms, is derived from the Greek translation of ‘Psalmoi’ meaning instrumental music. In Hebrew the word Psalm is derived from the verb to Pray and the Psalms are indeed at their essence prayers. They are also songs and poems and have been incorporated into public and private worship for close to 3000 years. The Psalms have become part of the liturgy in both Judaism and Christianity. From the Second Temple Period the Psalms have been part of the daily prayer life of the Jewish People. They had become a recognizable collection of material by the turn of the Common Era that was distinct from other sections of Scripture. Jesus says to his disciples, “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” (Luke 24vs44). Today the Psalms are prayed daily, weekly, monthly and at special feast days in the religious calendars. All 150 Psalms are prayed every month in the Jewish calendar. So every psalm is said at least 12 times a year. Prayers are personal as well as communal. You can pray them alone, but also pray them together. 

The word ‘Prayer’ in English is derived from a Latin word ‘Precari’ which means to beg, or to entreat. Subsequently, too often prayers represent mostly petitions and requests to God. The Hebrew word for prayer is Tefilah which comes from the verb L’HitPallel. The verb to pray in Hebrew is a reflexive verb. A reflexive verb is something that you do to yourself. Example, the Hebrew verb to dress or to wear clothing is Lilbosh. The reflexive form of this verb, to dress oneself is L’HitLabesh. Yet how can prayer be reflexive? We pray to God and not to ourselves, right? Doesn't He listen? Even Jesus prays! The Hebraic concept of prayer contains within itself the concept of self analysis and self evaluation while in communication with God. The goal therefore is not to try to influence God, rather the opposite, to let God influence you. Perhaps prayer is more listening than speaking. 

Question - Does God need our prayers? The answer is of course, no. He does not need our prayers. Whether we pray to Him or not He will still be God, He will still rule and He will still have His Will done. Does God want our prayers? The answer is a definite yes! He loves to hear our prayers, He wants us to talk to Him and probably more importantly He wants to talk back. Our prayers as they say, are like sweet incense before the Throne of God. 

Within the Prayer Book of Psalms we can see the full gambit of human emotion. There are Psalms of praise and adoration through to prayers of sadness and despair. Some Psalms just don't end well at all, they just stop at rock bottom, such as Psalm 88 which ends in utter darkness. God has emotions, just like we do. We are made in His image and as we have emotions, so too does the Lord. He gets angry, He gets jealous, He loves, He weeps and He laughs. God is in greater control of His emotions than I am. God made us and He knows us better than we know ourselves. And so He has provided us with a prayer for every emotion that we might come across. He knows that we will have days where we are in distress and days when we are sad, and He has prayers that reflect that. There will be other times to shout, dance and rejoice, and there are prayers for those times too. 

Some people find it difficult and uninspiring in praying the same prayers over and over again. Praying as a routine can indeed lose its meaning and a spontaneous prayer life perhaps seems more preferable. However, the Rabbis have a saying, If you prayed today because you prayed yesterday, then you haven't prayed. This reflects that Prayers must always come from the heart of the person praying. Whether they be spontaneous and free form prayers or liturgical prayers and psalms. Jesus prayed both types of Prayers and even taught His disciples a liturgical prayer. 

You can tell people’s theology and how they think and feel by how they pray. It’s not what goes in your mouth that is important (says Jesus), instead it’s what comes out (Matt 15vs11). One of the things that comes out of our mouths are our prayers, how and what we say to God. Our prayers and prayer life reflect our thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Prayer is reflexive, we should listen to our own prayers as they will reveal things about ourselves. About the things that are bothering us, the issues on our hearts and minds, and how they are affecting us and perhaps our response to those issues. God doesn't need our prayers (although He does desire them). Who truly needs to pray? We do.