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. 

What is written and how do you read it?

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is unique to the Gospel of Luke (Luke 10). Often misunderstood as a story about helping the needy, the primary point of this parable was to define the ‘Neighbour’ that the Torah commanded one to Love (Leviticus 19vs8). However, before the parable is used to explain a teaching there is a discussion between Jesus and an expert in the Torah. These opening questions are almost always overlooked. 

As is common in the Jewish world of teaching, Jesus is asked a question. He is asked by the expert, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (עולם הבא ‘Olam HaBa’ the World to Come!). It’s a very important question, one that everyone on the planet should ponder. Seeings as how Jesus has been asked this, the most important of questions, now would have been a perfect opportunity to answer… “Believe in Me, the one who has come from the Father to save the World.”  After all, that is the message of the Church through the ages. 

Western Christianity, under the heavy influence of the early protestant reformers like Luther and Calvin, who were lawyers as well as theologians, has too often reduced Christianity to a legal transaction. That is, we are sinners, sinful from the womb, dead in our sins and we are saved and redeemed by the payment made through the blood of the Messiah. This is very true of course, but the transaction is only one part of the message and teaching of the Messiah. Christianity and the Faith in the Messiah is so much more. 

When asked how to guarantee a place in the World to Come, Yeshua responds with a very important question of His own. “What is written in the Torah and how do you read it?” (Luke 10vs26). That question is for all of us. How do you read what is written? How we read the Bible influences our behaviour in the world. The expert in the Torah responds by quoting the Greatest of Commandments, to love God and to love your neighbour. Jesus replies that he has answered correctly. So how do you love God and your neighbour? How do we read and understand the command to Love? 

After Paul reduces the Faith to three words, Faith Hope and Love, he declares that the greatest of these is not Faith, it’s Love. Absolutely, Faith in the Messiah is important, very much so, and yet Scripture declares that Love is even more important. How do we read what is written? We are commanded to Love the Lord our God with all our Heart, all our Soul and all our Strength. From this we can deduce that Love is a choice. It is not an emotion, not something beyond our control. If love was simply an emotion then the commandment makes no sense. God does not say, Love the Lord your God .. but only if you feel like it, only on weekends, only after two cups of coffee in the morning, only if you manage to fall head over heels in love with God. Love is a command and we can choose to obey that command or not. God Himself thinks we can do this and choose wisely, for He says in Deuteronomy 30vs11 “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.”

Faith may indeed be a gift from God, however Love is a choice and from the Parable we learn that too often we hide behind rules in choosing not to love, especially in not loving our Neighbour. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan the Priest and the Levite have excellent excuses as to why they cannot assist the beaten, bleeding man on the side of the road. They are going to the Temple. God has commanded that they be unblemished, untainted by death and disease.  They must be clean before the Lord. They choose not to assist, not to act in love and they have biblical reasons for not helping. Just like the Priest and Levite, we too often hide behind rules and Christian legalism. We chose not to love our Neighbour by convincing ourselves that “it’s not my department, that’s a job for another ministry but not mine, it’s not my calling or my ministry’s calling, God wants me to look after my family first…” 

Those are not the attitudes, nor choices, the Lord would have us make. Jesus uses the parable to teach in context of His initial question, “What is written and how do you read it?” Jewish preaching and teaching is always practical. We have been shown by the Messiah how to read the command to Love, the Greatest of Commandments.  Now we need to “Go and do likewise!"

Shalom, Peace.

The Bible is a very special book. Obviously! We call it the Holy Bible and that title is imprinted on the front of most Bible covers. In Jewish thought the Bible is indeed Holy. It’s even more than that, it’s Divine Language. The Language of God is so special and powerful, it can create worlds, speak blessings, demand wrath and prophesy the future. No word or sound in the Bible is superfluous. Words in the text of the Bible are not just there to fill up space on a parchment. They are chosen for a reason and interestingly the words that are not used are considered just as important as the words that are used. 

According to Jewish exegesis there are at least 4 ways to read every verse, text and word of the Hebrew Bible. The first level of reading Bible is called P’shat פְּשָׁט. This is the direct literal, or simple, plain meaning of the text. Simply what the basic text says is what it means. The rule to Hebraic understanding of Bible is that all other forms of exegesis are valid as long as they do not contradict the P’shat, the literal meaning of the text. 

The second level is called Remez רֶמֶז. This refers to the allegorical nature of the words, the symbolic meanings of things. While not often used in application by Paul, there is the example in Galatians 4 of allegorizing Hagar and Sarah into symbolic mountains of Sinai and Jerusalem. This never went against the fact that there was a real Hagar and Sarah. 

Following the Remez is the D’rash דְּרַשׁ from the verb ‘to demand’ which calls the reader to exegete the text and make it applicable in action. An example of a D’rash is when Paul quotes “Don’t muzzle the oxen while it is treading the grain.” in 1 Timothy 5vs18 from the book of Deuteronomy 25vs4. The plain text is an agrarian commandment for farmers but Paul applies this to the wages of a pastor. Paul’s use of the text does not undermine the P’shat, the literalness of the text, of what you do if you have a bovine grinding your wheat. 

Lastly, there is the Sod סוֹד, the mystery nature behind the text. The Sod is a part of understanding the Bible that only the Messiah will explain when He comes. We automatically begin all study of the Bible admitting that we will never know everything. A humbling beginning. We see Paul refer to this when he says, ‘Now I show you a mystery ..’ 1 Corinthians 15vs51. For Paul, who sees the post resurrection gospel, some of the mystery in the Hebrew text is explained in the person of Jesus. 

Enabled with this multi-layered background to the Biblical text, let’s examine one simple word of the Messiah. After His Resurrection, Jesus appears to His disciples as they gathered behind locked doors (John 20) and says, ‘Peace’. One simple word, Shalom in Hebrew שָׁלוֹם. Now quite literally Shalom does indeed mean peace, but according to its Hebraic context also means so much more. Shalom comes from the verb ‘to pay’. שָׁלם (Shalem) means Paid, masculine singular in the past tense. שָׁלם (Shalem) also means whole. So when I go to the market in Jerusalem and want a whole roast chicken, I use the word שָׁלם.  That means the whole thing including the neck, and even some of the feathers still attached :)

Before Jesus was in that room with His disciples, they were scared, nervous, uncertain of current events and unsure of the future. Then He appears. It’s a miracle, the resurrection is true and certain. In that context Jesus proclaims שָׁלוֹם Peace! How did He bring Peace? He had Paid it, and He had Paid it in full, the whole amount. All of that wrapped up in one word. Shalom שָׁלוֹם

Unity Attracts God's Presence

The Jewish People have just finished celebrating Shavuot. Shavuot in the Hebrew Bible is a purely agrarian harvest festival that during the Second Temple Period become theologically attributed to the Giving of the Torah on Mt Sinai. It is at this time in the Jewish calendar that we ask ourselves this question: What was the purpose of the Exodus? If your first reaction is to say it was to get the Israelites to the Promised Land then you'd be mistaken. If the purpose of the redemption from Egypt was to get a bunch of Hebrews into Canaan, then God would have given better directions. He would have said to Moses, 'Get over the river, hang a left, when you come to the Mediterranean turn right and you can't miss it.' Pretty simple, turn left then right. The point of the Exodus is to bring the people to Mt Sinai. And what happened at Sinai? Pentecost happened (Shavout in Hebrew). Not just the giving of the Torah, but the fact that God revealed Himself to His people for the first time. 

What did the Hebrews know about God while they had been in Egypt for 430 years? To be honest, not very much. They had no Temple, they had no priests, they had no prophets and they had no Bible. What they had were a few campfire stories about the Creation of the world, then the world went bad and then there was some guy with a big boat and a rainbow, followed by a wandering nomad called Abraham and now they are all here. They knew they had a God but they didn't know much about Him. Then with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm He redeems His people from darkness and brings them to Himself at Sinai and reveals Himself. The first commandment isn't actually a commandment, it’s God’s business card. He says, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out the land of Egypt ...” Redemption always leads to Revelation. Notice the Israelites were saved from Egypt and then given the Torah. The Torah doesn't save you, they were already saved from Egypt. The same theology is in the New Testament. ‘While I was a sinner, Christ died for me.’ (Romans 5vs8). I didn’t hear about Jesus and then He died on the cross, He already had. 

We all have our personal Exodus stories of how God redeemed us from darkness, but He never left us there. That was never the end of our history. He always follows up revealing His character and Will to us.  

Thus if the purpose of the Exodus is revelation and an encounter with God, why does it take God 50 days before He actually shows up and reveals Himself? If it was that important, surely He would have come sooner. Good question I hear you ask. Exodus 19vs1-2 says that during the third month after they had left Egypt, the Israelites came to Sinai and made camp. What is interesting about verse 2 is that in the Hebrew text it says Israel made camp twice. 

Jewish people read the Bible with a fine tooth comb, so the question is raised, Why does the text mention they made camp twice? Is that not redundant? A closer look reveals that the first time they made camp the verb ‘to camp’ was in the plural. The second time they make camp the verb switches to singular. They camped as one, and only then does God show up. What we learn from this is that unity is something that attracts the Almighty. The Rabbis comment by saying that Israel finally stopped fighting amongst themselves, they stopped squabbling over who has which tent and who gets which portion of food, they stopped arguing with each other and got it together. They were united for the first time since they left Egypt, they were one, and unity is something that attracts God. This occurred at Shavuot (Pentecost in the Greek). 

Acts 2 and the Pentecost in Jerusalem similarly reflects the Pentecost of Mt Sinai. Acts 2 describes the disciples being all together and notes they were of one accord. Just as the people were in the desert, here the text is very careful to mention that the disciples were united. It’s in their unity that the Holy Spirit came and God showed up. 

If unity is so important to attracting the presence of God this begs the next question, What then is unity? Unity is not something theological or ideological. It’s not one-two-three everyone think like me. Unity in the biblical sense is behavioural. Colossians 3vs12-14 instructs us to clothe ourselves with compassion for each other, with kindness, humility and gentleness, and patience. To bear with each other despite the offence and to forgive each other. To wrap all this in love and this will be our unity. Unity is functional, practical, revealed in behaviour and a magnet for attracting God. When Jesus Himself prays for us it is so that we might be one, to be united. There is no force greater than a united community. And we will have the promise of Jesus that He will be with us, His presence, until the end of the age. 

Mystery and the Trinity

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honour of Kings to search a thing. Proverbs 25vs2

Mystery, the Hebrew Bible loves mystery and to hold things in tension. The Bible describes mystery as the Glory or Honour of God (the same word in Hebrew). Many times in the sacred texts a prophet speaks, or the Lord declares a thing or a prayer is prayed by one of the heroes of the Bible and then left unanalyzed and not expounded. The ancient Hebrew mind is content to dwell on the mystery and the Bible will often allow a mystery to pan out over thousands of years before it can be explained. King David says in the Psalms ‘I meditate on your Word, day and night’, he doesn't say he solves it. In contrast the Greek (Western) mind does not do well with Mystery. We have the constant compulsion to solve everything. The Western mind dislikes an unsolved mystery.

To highlight a difference between Hebrew and Greek thought, the Hebrew word for Womb is רָ֫חֶם Rechem, this is also the word for Mercy. By comparison the Greek word for Womb is  ὑστερικός Hysterikos, from where we derived the words hysterical and hysterectomy. One thought describes a mysterious secret place that is warm, compassionate and full of mercy, the other alludes to hysteria and suffering and something to be removed. So also is the difference in approach to Mystery. 

God is a mystery, and no greater concept of God is more mysterious than the concept of the Trinity. In the Christian calendar last Sunday was Trinity Sunday. The day assigned to the preaching of God and His mysterious trinitarian nature. Most preachers are happy that Trinity Sunday only comes around once a year. For if you talk about the Trinity for longer than 5 minutes it’s highly likely you are now entering into heresy. Describing the nature of God is not rocket science, it’s more difficult than that. We can put a man on the moon, but we can’t fully describe the majesty of God. The word trinity does not appear in the Bible and only first came into use in the 3rd Century by Tertullian of Carthage (present day Tunisia). While the word Trinity is not in the Bible the mystery of God’s nature is. The Apostle Paul reminds us that for us there is one God and one Lord in 1 Corinthians 8vs6. We only have one God, so what do we do with this Father-Son-Spirit thing? The nature of God truly is a mystery. And those early mysteries are indeed found in Hebrew Bible.

The opening verse of Genesis initiates the mystery. God (אֱלֹהִים Elohim) which is a plural subject whose actions are described by a singular verb Created (בָּרָא Bara). This is grammatically incorrect to have a verb in singular form in conjunction with a plural subject. Despite its grammatical incorrectness for most of the Hebrew Bible this is how God’s actions are described. But not always! In Genesis 20vs13 for example, Abraham declares that Gods (using a plural verb form הִתְעוּ) caused him to wander from his father’s house. One would think that if this was a mistake in the text it would have been corrected after several thousand years. And yet this example and others of plural verb forms have been preserved as the text has been copied and handed down, guarding the mystery but not explaining it. 

Yeshua (Jesus) tells his disciples in John 16vs12 that He has many things still to explain to them, but they cannot bear it at present and must be patient. 

One of my favourite allusions to the Mystery occurs in the Prophet Isaiah 48vs12-16. The passage begins with a powerful Hebrew word שְׁמַע ‘Shma’. Shma means listen or hear in the imperative form. Hebrew was predominately an oral language and when you heard the word Shma you thought of the Oath of Loyalty to the King of the Universe known as the Shma from Deuteronomy 6vs4. ‘Hear Oh Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord Alone’. It’s a powerful start to the passage and demands attention.

שְׁמַע אֵלַי יַעֲקֹב, וְיִשְׂרָאֵל מְקֹרָאִי:  אֲנִי-הוּא אֲנִי רִאשׁוֹן, אַף אֲנִי אַחֲרוֹן 

(Listen to Me Jacob and Israel whom I called. I am He, I am the First I am also the Last) NASB

Here in Isaiah 48vs12 the person commanding us to listen then defines himself as the First and the Last. This begs the question: Who is the First and the Last? Well we know that Yeshua calls Himself that, but only at the end of Revelation. While Jesus was on the planet He titled Himself as the Son of Man, an allusion to the eschatological figure in Daniel 7. At the time of the prophet Isaiah we do not initially know who belongs to the title, the First and the Last. However this being continues to describe himself through to verse 16. The First and the Last laid the foundations of the world, ordered the universe, is supernatural in power, when He calls the Heavens and the Earth they stand up for Him. The answer to the question, Who made the Heavens and the Earth? is of course, God. In Isaiah the First and the Last creates the World and thus the First and the Last must be God. Case solved right? No! not so easy, the Mystery now begins to unfold.  

קִרְבוּ אֵלַי שִׁמְעוּ-זֹאת, לֹא מֵרֹאשׁ בַּסֵּתֶר דִּבַּרְתִּי--מֵעֵת הֱיוֹתָהּ, שָׁם אָנִי; וְעַתָּה, אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה שְׁלָחַנִי וְרוּחוֹ.

(Come near to Me, listen to this: From the first I have not spoken in secret, From the time it took place I was there, and now the Lord God has sent Me with His spirit) NASB

Isaiah 48vs16 starts softly with a call to ‘Come close and listen’, then the word Shma appears again, linking the passage together with the previous verses. לֹא מֵרֹאשׁ בַּסֵּתֶר דִּבַּרְתִּי ‘Not since the beginning have I spoken in secret?’ The question is asked! The word for Speak is the same word as Word, דִּבַּרְ, which is also the same word for Thing. So the Word is a Thing. Then in Hebrew we have מֵעֵת הֱיוֹתָהּ. Which literally means “from the time that was, or from the beginning”. שָׁם אָנִי means “I was there”. וְעַתָּה means “and I am there now”. אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה שְׁלָחַנִי means “My Lord Yahweh (God) has sent me. Suddenly we learn that the Lord God (Yahweh) is not the First and the Last. וְרוּחוֹ means ‘and His Spirit’ and is also sent’. 

We have multiple powerful personalities present in these few verses. The Mystery is that the First and the Last is not the Lord God, but instead it is Yahweh who sends Him along with the Spirit of God. The First and the Last is a supernatural being, capable of creating the world, existing before time and serves God. The Prophet Isaiah does not go on to elaborate who He is. The Mystery is the Glory of God to conceal and the honour of Man to seek. Yeshua could not explain it to us for we could not bear it, but when we see Him we will know Him as He is.

The Resurrection before the Crucifiction

The 8 day Feast of Passover (Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread) has ended for 2016. This has been a time of eating, drinking, singing and prayers. Even the non-religious Jewish people will have engaged in many of the prayers at Passover. In Jewish tradition the Exodus represents the greatest act of Redemption undertaken by the Lord for His people. In this season we will have remembered that with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm God redeemed a people for Himself. Once we were slaves and now we are free. Many families have formed their own traditions in connection to this special time. For my family, we have the tradition of watching The Prince of Egypt together at Passover. 

The first day of Passover began with the Seder, the evening meal and the liturgical retelling of the Exodus as part of the action of remembering. Following Passover is the 7 day Feast of Unleavened Bread. By the time of Jesus the two festivals (Passover and Unleavened Bread) and the traditions around them had merged into one long 8 day festival simply termed Passover. Eight days became the time frame of celebration for festivals, like Hanukkah and Tabernacles. Each day of the festival has portions of Scripture to read and study and prayers to pray. Interestingly, the Haftorah portion of Scripture (the reading from the Prophets) that is read on the last and eighth day to end the Passover is full of messianic hope of a future Redeemer. It is Isaiah 10vs32-12vs6. Isaiah speaks of the Spirit of God resting on the Branch of Jesse (the Messiah). 

Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch (19th Century Rabbi) once made the connection between the first and last days of Passover. ‘The first night of Passover is our festival commemorating our redemption from Egypt by the Holy One, Blessed be He, this was the first redemption, carried out through Moses, our teacher, who was the first redeemer: it was the beginning. The last day of Passover is our festival commemorating the final redemption, when the Holy One, Blessed be He, will redeem us from the last exile though our righteous Messiah, who is the final redeemer. The first day of Passover is the Moses festival, the last day of Passover is the Messiah’s feast.’

Obviously there is a connection with the Christian festival of Easter and Passover, with many in the Church both historically and presently calling Easter the ‘Christian Passover’, which is also an 8 day holy week, Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. Both festivals carry a historical hope for the community. Jesus was killed at Passover and Easter Sunday rejoices at His resurrection. While there is a historical connection, we find that this year Easter occurred 3 weeks prior to Passover.  Thus we managed to celebrate a resurrection before a crucifixion. Strange, so how did that happen?

The Jewish calendar follows the lunar cycle, while the Christian calendars (both Julian and Gregorian) adhere to a solar cycle. The date of Passover is set from the Biblical text to be the 14th of Aviv, now called Nisan. Jesus celebrates Passover in Jerusalem and then is crucified, becoming the Passover lamb. Because the Gospels indicate that He was resurrected early Sunday morning, redeeming the world, the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE decided that Easter needed to always fall on a Sunday. Thus cementing in motion the divergent calendars we have today, however it was not always so. 

The early believers in Messiah were all Jewish and Gentile God-fearers. They read and studied the Hebrew Bible and followed the Torah and Jewish Festivals just as Jesus had done. This included the celebration of Passover on the 14th of Nisan. The early believers had no problem continuing the Jewish liturgical/calendrical/scriptural practices of their forefathers. This continued well into the 4th Century, that is 300 years after Jesus. Gentile Christians who followed the lunar calendar and celebrated Passover according to the Jewish Calendar were known as Quartodecimans (latin for the fourteenth of Nisan). Initially there was no hostility towards those who chose to continue to observe Passover and those who chose to observe the ‘Christian Passover, the Feast of the Resurrection’. Tension grew over time and as the number of Jewish believers became significantly a minority. Western Christianity had the weakest linkage to the early Jewish church in Jerusalem. Culturally the West followed a solar calendar and with differences in language and thinking to the East, led to the build up of antagonism towards Jewish practise and Jewish people, culminating into ‘Replacement Theology’. 

The name Easter first appears in the 7th Century to describe the Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection. Easter is indeed a derivative of a pagan goddess associated with Spring festivals. While no one worships the goddess Ishtar at Easter it is for this reason the Orthodox Christian traditions in the East still call the festival of Easter by its Greek name, Pascha, which is the Greek translation of Pesach, the Hebrew word for Passover. 

In losing the connection of Easter/Pascha to the Hebraic source we arrive at our current scenario where we celebrate a resurrection before the time of a crucifixion. The Passover reminds us of the redemptive activity of God, both in the past through Moses and the Messiah, and in the future redemption of the world with the return of Jesus. In contrast, the Easter culture gives us bunnies, eggs and chocolates. Celebrating the Easter resurrection is very important. It would be remiss, not just ignorance, to neglect the connection to Passover and to supplant a memorial of redemption that God commanded to be observed for all time. 

‘This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord, an ordinance forever’ Exodus 12vs14 

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.