The Theocentric Perspective of Prayer
By Lawrence Hilliard of Clarion Voice
In the prayer literature of Judaism, the Sovereignty of God is the focal point of praise and petition. The nature of Jewish prayer is centripetal, centering around the truth that God controls and guides the universe, from the ordaining of the celestial spheres to the most intimate details of a man’s life. Psalms 16:8, describes the proper attitude of prayer, “I have set the Lord always before me.” As man contemplates the world, Israel, his daily life, and family, he recognizes that God is the Master and he a servant of the Most High. Man’s thoughts are to focus centrally upon the Lord as the “Center of the world.” “When thou prayest always remember before whom thou standest,” is the ancient admonition. One was to meditate on the Glory, Power, Majesty, Love, Mercy, and Holiness of God before formal worship commenced. Otherwise prayer would degenerate into an empty, hypocritical, self-seeking exercise completely devoid of truth. The use of God’s Name as a Divine Imprimatur put upon one’s concealed lusts (Ps. 78:36-37, Ezek. 33:31, James 4:3) fallaciously passing as prayer, is unmasked by the searing condemnation of God, “Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote...” (Isa. 29:13, Matt. 15:7-9) Prayer required “Kavvanah” (i.e., “directed intention”, “concentration”, a conscious awareness of Whom we address in prayer).Kavvanah means that a man should empty his mind of all other thoughts and regard himself as if he were standing before the Divine Presence.One may stand to pray only in a solemn frame of mind. The early pious ones used to tarry one hour [before they would pray], so that they could direct their hearts to the Omnipresent.When R. Elizer was asked by his disciples to teach them the ways of life that they might learn them and by following attain the life of the world to come, part of his reply was: “When you pray, know before Whom you stand."The Rabbis have taught: ‘He who prays must concentrate his heart upon heaven.’ Abba Saul said: ‘We find a suggestion of this in the Psalm (10:17): ‘Thou wilt direct their heart, Thou wilt cause thine ear to attend.’
The Yarmulka (i.e., skullcap) is worn during prayer and study of the Torah. A folk etymology of the word gives it as an abbreviation of “yare Mulka” (i.e., one who fears the King).Reverence before the Almighty to whom we address our petition is essential.The great men among the Sages would not uncover their heads because they believed that God’s Glory was round them and over them.And know before whom you are standing, before the King of kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He. He tests the heart and searches out one’s thoughts and knows the hidden things. When the Jew approaches God in prayer he comes before the Ruler of the universe, the King of the world. As petitioners they see themselves as suppliants addressing the King of the universe. Elie Weisel relates a childhood incident that underscores the holy nature of prayer, as an audience with the August King of the Ages. In the month of Elul (corresponding to the month of September) while preparing for the High Holy days, news of the German army’s advance reached his town of Sighet in Hungary, “In a corner of the synagogue, my father and his friends, draped in prayer shawls and wearing phylacteries [box-like religious objects], talked about the latest news. There excited voices rose, and the elders hissed at them to be quiet. ‘Ssh!’, they said, ‘We’re praying here!’ To this day, I can still hear that ‘Ssh’, and I know so well what it meant: what an idea to chatter and fret when Jews are addressing the King of the Universe. What an idea for peoples and their armies to slaughter one another over a few scraps of land or a few slogans while God is listening to His faithful.” (Elie Weisel)There is nothing (whether a Hitler, Hussein, terrorism, calamity, famine) that will ever supercede the preeminent importance of addressing the King of the Ages.For we kneel and bow low before the supreme King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, acknowledging that He has stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. His glorious abode is in the heavens above, the domain of His might in exalted heights. He is our God, there is no other, in truth our King, there is none else.And Oh, the depth of mercy of the Lord who hears the prayers of the faithful not as an aloof potentate but as One who is immanent within their lives. God humbles himself to speak personally to each petitioner in the most intimate manner. The Rabbis declared, “See how exalted the Most High is above the world! And yet let a man enter God’s House and but whisper a prayer, and the Almighty hearkens, even as a friend into whose ear one pours his secret.” It was ordained that the observant Jews’ first prayer on waking up each morning should be: “O my God, the soul which thou hast given me is pure. Thou didst create it within me, and thou wilt take it from me, but wilt restore it unto me hereafter. So long as the soul is within me, I will give thanks Prayer is existential theology in the truest sense. In prayer, the eternal God speaks to His handiwork thus freeing man from a prison of interminable silence and in that communication changes the petitioner. The Divine presence bridges the gulf between Creator and creature, and there transpires an I-Thou inter-communion with the God of eternity. Prayer “is an expression of man’s quest for the Divine and his longing to unburden his soul before God (Ps. 42: 2-3, 62:9).Prayer’s source is the same; in its irresistible outpouring, the human heart merges all categories in an indivisible ‘I-Thou’ relationship.The quintessential nature of prayer is to know God. Even the desire to pray comes from a Divine provocation, whether engendered by circumstances, tragedy, loss, self-exhaustion, adoration, to awaken our souls to an understanding that from His hands we have come and will return.The pedagogic nature of prayer is instructive of the eternal nature of the One whose presence we are invited to commune with.The idea of prayer is the foundation of the whole Torah. This means that man knows God, recognizing His greatness and His splendor with a serene and whole mind, and an understanding heart. Man should reflect on these ideas until his rational soul is awakened to love God, to cleave to Him and to His Torah, and to desire His commandments.For in lieu of a formal theology, prayer became the “Theology of Israel.”Judaism needed no theology in a narrow sense, no ‘Science of God’, no philosophy; prayer took their place. He who prayed knew to whom he prayed, His glory, His power, His majesty, and His love. God simply was. He was there, He was near. Formal prayer was the system of Jewish philosophy, simplified, made accessible to everyone.Thus prayer embodied the ever-living relational knowledge of the One True God. R. Simeon says, “Be meticulous in the recitation of the shema (Deut. 6:4, 5) and the Prayer. And when you pray, don’t treat your praying as a matter of routine. But let it be a plea for mercy and supplication before the Omnipresent, blessed be He. As it is said, ‘For he is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and full of mercy, and repents of the evil (Joel 2:13).
Lord our God, hear our voice, have compassion and pity on us. Accept our supplication with loving favor, for Thou art God who harkens to plea and prayer. Send us not from Thy presence without response, O our King, for Thou hearest the prayer of Thy people Israel in compassion. Blessed art Thou, Lord who hearkens to prayer. Pressed down under the heel of tyranny, persecuted as a hunted animal, with martyrdom as a legacy to faith, the Jew, though faced with the perplexity of oppression could pray. When human language failed, when even a monosyllabic cry was curtailed by incalculable suffering, the language of the heart reached God. And God was not silent! “This is how Rabbi Uri expounded the words of the prayer: ‘May He who knows that which is hidden accept our call for help and listen to our cry.’ We know very well how we ought to pray; and still we cry for help in the need of the moment. The soul wishes us to cry out in spiritual need, but we are not able to express what the soul means. And so we pray that God may accept our call for help, but also that He, who knows that which is hidden, may hear the silent cry of the soul. All prayer has as its central focus the Divine Kingship of God. As all the planets in our solar system revolve around a central foci, so all praise, intercession, and petition center upon the central Source of Life, the Great Sovereign, I Chron. 29:11-14, Matt. 6:8-13.A benediction which contains no reference to the Divine Kingship is no benediction.The benediction had to be introduced by the formula, “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe."Prayers are addressed to God as “Melek haolam” (Heb. “the King of the Universe”) and “Ribbono shel olam” (Heb. “the Universal Lord”). Theocentric prayer presupposes the eternal will of God who has the capacity to intervene in a micro or macro manner within His creation. “Ah Lord God! Behold, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power and by Thine outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult (Heb. pala, “incomprehensible, arduous”) for Thee...” “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult (Heb. pala) for Me?” (Jer. 32:17, 27) God’s transcendent authority was the foundation upon which all prayer was offered. The confidence in which the petitioner could address the Eternal Sovereign is engendered by the knowledge that the object of prayer is the King of the universe, “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe.” Let us listen across the ages to the Distant Voices of affirmation that pierce through the vicissitudes of Israel’s history collectively and individually, declaring the ever-present Sovereignty of the Eternal God. The following extracts come from the Taanaitic and Amoraic periods of Judaism. Prayer was not to be interrupted even if a message or command came from an earthly potentate,for the worshipper was addressing the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Prayer was to continue even in the face of eminent danger.And even if a serpent is entwined around his heel, he may not interrupt [his prayer]. “In the morning my prayer comes before Thee.” Psalms 88:13.The angel who is appointed to prayer (i.e., a sort of Heavenly Secretary of State for the Department of Prayer), awaits till the Israelites in the last synagogue have finished their prayers, and then he takes all the prayers, and makes them into a chaplet, and places them upon God’s head, as it says, ‘Blessings are upon the head of the just, that is upon Him who is the life of the Worlds, who lives forever.’” (Proverbs 10:16) From the Midrash, Psalms on 88, 4.Sovereign of all Worlds! Not because of our righteous acts do we lay our supplications before Thee, but because of Thine abundant mercies. A prayer for thanksgiving was included in the liturgy to be said after attending to nature's call; “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our King, King of the Universe, Who hast formed man in wisdom and created in him many orifices and vessels. It is revealed and known before the Throne of Thy Glory, that if one of these be opened or one of these closed, it would be impossible to exist and to stand before Thee. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Who healest all flesh and doest wondrously.” The blessing one recites over produce, over the fruit of a tree, “[Blessed are You, O Lord God, King of the Universe] Creator of the fruit of the tree,” [as regards] any [kinds of produce] if one says, “[Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe] for all was created according to His word...”.When the much needed rains came, Rabbi Elekiah would bless the Lord: “May your name be magnified, sanctified, and exalted, our King, for every drop that You send to us.”“We are obligated to praise Your Name our King for each drop that You send to us, for You do good to debtors.”
The Rabbis ordained that “on beholding shooting stars, earthquakes, thunders, storms, and lightnings, the benediction to be uttered is, ‘Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Whose strength and might fill the world.’A blessing is recited when seeing lightning, “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, King of the Universe, Who performs the act of creation.” “For we bend the knee and offer worship and thanks before the supreme King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, who stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, the seat of whose glory is in the heavens above, and the abode of whose might is in the loftiest heights. He is our God; there is none else, in Truth He is our King; there is none besides Him;...” “For the Kingdom is Thine, and to all eternity Thou wilt reign in glory; as it is written in Thy Law, ‘The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.’ And it is said, ‘And the Lord shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall the Lord be One and His Name One.’ On hearing good news one must say, “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who art good and dispensest good.” (Rabbinic Anthology, pg. 377) On hearing evil one says, “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe." A blessing in constant use on festivals and all joyful occasions is this: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has kept us in life, and hast preserved us, and hast enabled us to reach this season.” “Has he built a new house or bought new clothes he shall pronounce praise; Blessed art Thou God, our Lord, King of the Universe, who hast kept us alive, hast sustained us and hast brought us to this (happy) time.”“Blessed are You, Lord our God, eternal King, who has given us true Torah, and planted eternal life in our midst. Blessed are You, Giver of the Torah.” The heavens are portrayed as praising God’s Sovereignty over all the Universe, “...when God gave the Torah to Israel, earth gave praise, but the heavens were silent. God said to the heavens, ‘You whose place is above, should have given praise to My Glory and to my daughter [the Torah], even more than the earth has done.’ They [the heavens] said, ‘Sovereign of the Universe, the earth may well give praise since it is to her that the Torah has been given; but we, from whom the Torah goes forth, how can we praise and not be grieved?’” “Our God and God of our fathers, reign Thou in Thy Glory over the whole universe and be exalted above all the earth in Thine honour, and shine forth in the splendour and excellence of Thy might upon all the inhabitants of Thy World, that whatsoever has been made may know that Thou hast made it, and whatsoever has been created may understand that Thou hast created it and whatsoever has breath in it’s nostrils may say, ‘The Lord God of Israel is King, and His dominion rules over all. Sanctify us with Thy Goodness, and gladden us with Thy Salvation: O purify our hearts to serve Thee in truth, for Thou art God in truth, for Thou art God in truth and Thy Word is truth, and endures forever. Blessed art Thou, King over all the earth, who sanctifiest Israel and the Day of Memorial.’ An ancient blessing that appears in the present-day Jewish Prayer Book, is recited after a sick person has recovered, or someone has returned safely from a dangerous journey, “Blessed are You O Lord our God, King of the World, who does good to debtors for He has done good to me.” “Thou O Lord art great in all Thy Greatness: Thou art mighty in all strength; Thou revivest the dead by a word; Thou doest great things unfathomable and wonders uncountable.” “O Master of the World! Redeem, help, save, and assist Thy nation from pestilence, the sword; from rapine, blight, and drought; from the evil which assails the world. Before we call unto Thee, answer us. Blessed be Thou who canst remove calamity among the peoples.” “Let not thy prayer be a matter of fixed routine, but heartfelt supplication for mercy at the Divine Footstool.” “Address your prayer to the Master of Life and not to His Servants; He will hear you in every trouble,” “Blessed be He who spoke, and the world existed; Blessed be He who was the Master of the world in the beginning.” The Night Prayer conjoins God's Transcendence and His immanent Presence over us, “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who makest the bonds of sleep to fall upon my eyes, and slumber upon my eyelids.” (Ber. 60b) “Lord of the World who hast been ruling for eons ere creation came and all was made by Thine ordaining; as King Thy Name then found a claim. And afterwards when all’s complete alone wilt rule in majesty; Thou always wast and Thou art now, and through eternity shalt be. And Thou art One, no second Person compares to thee nor Thine associate be; without beginning, without end, the power Thine and Sovereignty. Thou art my God, living Redeemer; in pain Thou art the strength I need; my banner Thou and my Protection; salvation’s cup Thou givest when I plead. Into Thy hand I put my soul when I’m asleep to wake with cheer; and with my soul my body too; Thou God art with me and I shall not fear." “Thou art the Sovereign and I the subject. Who should have mercy on the subject if not the Sovereign? Thou art the Mighty and I nothing. Who should have mercy on the nothing if not the Mighty? Thou art the Ruler and I the ruled. Who should have mercy on the ruled if not the Ruler?” The Rabbis declared, “See how exalted the Most High is above the world! And yet let a man enter God’s House and but whisper a prayer, and the Almighty hearkens even as a friend into whose ear one pours his secret.” “True it is that Thou art Jehovah our God, and the God of our fathers; our King and the King of our fathers; our Savior and the Savior of our fathers; our Maker and the Rock of our Salvation; our Help and our Deliverer. Thy name is from everlasting, and there is no god beside Thee. A new song did they that were delivered sing to thy name by the seashore; together did all praise and own Thee as King, and say, ‘Jehovah shall reign who saveth Israel.’” “Therefore place the fear of you, O Lord our God, upon all your works, and the awe of you upon all that you have created. That all your works may revere you and all your creatures prostrate themselves before you, that they may all be made a single company to do your will with a perfect heart. Even as we know, O Lord our God, that dominion is in your presence, power is in your hand, and might is in your right hand, and your name is to be revered above all that you have created.” “Grant us, O Lord our God, to lie down in peace, and raise us up again. O our King unto life. Spread over us the tent of Thy peace. Direct us aright through Thine own good counsel; help us for Thy Name sake. Be a shield about us. Keep away from us every enemy, pestilence, sword, famine, and sorrow. Protect us from evil desires that may confront us or follow us but shelter us in the shadow of Thy wings. For Thou, O God, art our Protector and Deliverer. Guard our going out and our coming in unto life and peace, from now on and forever more. Blessed art Thou, O God, who guardest Thy people Israel forever.” In II Maccabees6 8:12-20, in preparation for battle against Nicanors forces, (i.e., Syrian commander of the Elephant Corps, II Maccabees 14,12), Judas Maccabees assembles his men and prayed, “They rely on their weapons and their audacity but we rely on God Almighty, who is able to overthrow with a nod our present assailants and if need be, the whole world.” “He who lives forever is the creator of the whole universe; right belongs to the Lord alone. Who can steer the world with his little finger, so that all things obey his will...” (Ecclesiasticus 18.1-38) “God overthrows and judges who boast of and trust in, their power status and do not recognize the Sovereignty of God.” “O Master of the Universe, if per chance it is not yet time that the cattle should be gathered together and redeemed from their exile, I pray Thee, at least, to water the sheep and go and feed them, to let the Jews make a living so that they will have enough to eat and drink until the time is ripe for their deliverance." The appellatives abound in the Apocryphal literature in respect to God’s universal providence. Titles of unsurpassing greatness exalt and praise the only King among the nations. A sampling will reveal such adoration for the Most High. “Lord, you are our King forever and ever, for in you, O God, our soul makes its boast.” (Psalms of Solomon 17:1) “For the might of our God is forever in mercy; and the reign of our God forever over the nations, in judgement.” (Psalms of Solomon 17:3) “The Lord Himself is our King forever and ever.” (Psalms of Solomon 17:46) “Blessed art Thou on Thy royal Throne; most worthy to be hymned, exalted forever. Blessed art Thou in the dome of heaven; worthy to be hymned and glorified forever.” (From the Prayer of Azariah 5, verses 33-34.) “What born fools all men were who lived in ignorance of God, who from the good things before their eyes could not learn to know him who really is, and fail to recognize the artificer though they observed his works! Fire, wind, swift air, the circle of the starry signs, rushing water, are the great lights in heaven that rule the world, these they accounted gods. If it was through delight in the beauty of these things that men suppose them gods, they ought to have understood how much better is the Lord and Master of it all; for it was by the prime author of all beauty that they were created.” (The Wisdom of Solomon 13:1-4) “Yet even so they do not deserve to be excused, for with enough understanding to speculate about the universe, why did they not sooner discover the Lord and Master of it all?” (The Wisdom of Solomon 13:9) God is acknowledged and worshipped as “Sovereign Lord” in Ezra 4, 6:1; “Lord Almighty,” literally “Kurios Pantocrateo” in the prayer of Manasseh, verse 1; “Master,” i.e., Gk. “despotes” or fiat ruler over all, Azariah, verse 14; “Lord and Master of All” in the Wisdom of Solomon 13:3, 9; “Almighty” in II Maccabees 8:24. From the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods, God's Sovereignty is expressed in many different phrases and titles: “Sovereign of the Universe” from Talmud of Babylon, Ber. 17a, Ta’an 3:8, and in Genesis R. 65.9 on Genesis 21:1; “The Supreme King of Kings” in the Talmud of Babylon, Ber. 32b; “Master of the World” in Talmud of Babylon, Ta'an 23a; “King of Kings, The Holy One” in Talmud of Babylon, Ber. 28b. “The fountain from which good things are poured forth is the presence of the bounteous and beneficent God; on which account setting the seal to his lovingkindness he says, ‘I will be with thee.’” To those in a covenant relationship with God, the active, preserving presence of their Redeemer is of the greatest assurance in a world of vacillating degradation. In the strongest form of asseveration God promises his abiding presence to Moses and the nation, “Certainly I will be with you,...” (Ex. 3:12) God’s promise, “Expressed the abiding providence that would sustain the people throughout their unfolding history.” God would be with them! The verb “be” indicates the immediacy of God’s presence that would constantly lead, sustain, nourish, uphold, defend, and preserve His people from the Exodus, establishment in the land of Canaan, and throughout the varied changes of their national life whether in or out of the land of Zion. It is an enduring promise to His people. “The verb used in this declaration leans towards the idea of ‘take place’, ‘come to pass,’ ‘happen,’ etc., since it is not static but potent with movement. Perhaps ‘become’ is its nearest English equivalent. Applied to the living, active God of the Bible this verb must represent movement of some kind; and so it means, perhaps, ‘I will become with thee.’God promises that He is with us! He is in the situation, crisis, trial, pressure, gauntlet, and circumstance with his people. He becomes to each believer, within the events of each day, all that is required to pass through faithfully and triumphantly. “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid and tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.” “And the Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear, or be dismayed.” (Deut. 31:6, 8) “...just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.” (Jos. 1:5, Gen. 31:3, Deut. 20:4) God’s providential keeping of his people is not a result of some mystical experience conjured up from an emotional frenzy in prayer or a supposed attainment of a superior level of faith. “...the practice of the presence of God consists not of projecting an imaginary object from within his own mind and then seeking to realize its presence; it is rather to recognize the real presence of the One whom all sound theology declares to be already there, an objective entity, existing apart from any apprehension of Him on the part of His creatures. The resultant experience is not visionary but real.God’s promise of his abiding presence, once given to his people, reaffirmed incessantly, and fulfilled in generation after generation toward the redeemed is what Scripture so clearly proclaims, “Nevertheless I am continually with Thee; thou hast taken hold of my right hand.” (Ps. 73:23) “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” “For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand, who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’” (Isa. 41:10, 13) “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you.” (Isa. 43:2, Heb. 13:5-6, Matt. 28:20)Inasmuch then as, on looking back to its [Israel] past history, it could not fail to perceive that it was so thoroughly a creation of Divine power and grace, it ought not to be fearful, and look about with timidity and anxiety; for He who had presented Himself at the very beginning as its God, was still always near. “The Holy One seems to be far away, but nothing is nearer than He. Let a man enter the synagogue and pray in an undertone, and God will give ear to his prayer. It is as if a man uttered his thoughts in the ear of his comrade who heard him. Can you have a God nearer than this, who is as near to his creatures as the mouth is to the ear?” --Y. Berakot, 13a When the cardinal truth of God’s eternal sovereignty and providential presence within the nation was sublimated by Israel’s apostasy, her existence would lose the moorings of being eternally elected and chosen in time, to embody the revelation of the panoply of God’s attributes.If the ‘acids of modernity’ were to corrode the belief in the living God, the Jew would lose his raison d’etre. Without a belief in a covenant with God there can be no meaningful Jewish survival. To live as if God were not the “Lord of Israel,” has been the greatest shame of the Siniatic people. But, glory to His Name, there has always been the “Holy Seed” in the stump (Isaiah 6:13). When the axe of divine judgment fell, an indistinguishable remnant kept hope alive as the true corpus of Israel; becoming the messengers of God (Isaiah 40:9 and 52:7), whose message “Your God reigns!” pierced though the demonic illusion that the world was ruled by competing petty deities. This proclamation would sustain the weary of heart and mind to live beneath the eternal throne, when no place on earth could be found to lay one’s head.Judaism has seen history not as a ‘register of the curses, follies, and misfortunes,’ [Gibbon] but seeing God at work in the world, they [the teachers in Israel], trace the line of divine action in the lives of men and nations. They saw in history a continuous revelation of divine thought and purpose across the abyss of time.The central focus of the faithful is ever monopolized with Him who occupies the throne of Eternity, controlling time. The ‘new theology’ is the reductio ad absurdum of a theology which looks to external forces and to popular opinion to determine its belief. The present obscuration in contemporary Judaism and Christianity has buried the continuum of historical theology in the graveyard of irrevelancy to follow the winds of pop-feel-goodism. “And the prophets are as wind, and the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them!” (Jer. 5:13) “If a man walking after wind and falsehood had told lies and said, ‘I will speak out to you concerning wine and liquor,’ he would be spokesman to this people.” (Micah 2:11) The prophets of obscuration who walk after the wind of novellity are in reality sounding forth the flatulence of a dying age. God’s purpose was not initiated when eisegetical topicality, self-esteem orientation, subjectivistic faith, pragmatic relational preaching, or mass religious media was spawned; He is the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:13), whose counsels are from of old (Ps. 33:11, Isa. 25:1, 46:10-11). The current plethora of “God talk” is not indicative of an enlightened era, but only the stolid chattering from blinded minds grasping in the dark. “Be delayed and wait. Blind yourselves and be blind. They become drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For the Lord has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep, he has shut your eyes, the prophets; and He has covered your heads, the seers.” (Isa. 29:9-10) The miasma of indulgent narcissism in the name of religion has contoured a god for the selfish of heart (Ezek. 14:3-4, 7), but not the God Scripture reveals. This is not a generation that has forgotten God, it has never known Him. The true prophetic message shatters our illusory icons of God presenting the “High and Holy One” (Isa. 57:15) whose presence shocks our sin-hardened nature, crushing our hearts into brokenness of humility, Ps. 34:18. “Thus says the Lord, ‘Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you shall find rest for your souls.’ But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” (Jer. 6:16) To reject God’s express command is to forfeit the path that begins and ends in eternity, for the vaporous days of puerility that will end in destruction (Deut. 30:19, Jer. 21:8, Matt. 7:13-14, Aboth 2:1, 13). Returning to the everlasting, immutable way is our only hope of peace.The soul needs rest; it can only find this by walking in the good way. The good way is that which has been trodden by the saints from the beginning: it is the old way, the way of faith and holiness. Believe, Love, Obey; be holy, and be happy. This is the way; let us inquire for it, and walk in it. Times Father, you have so meticulously arranged an enduring testimony to your word of authority. I must hear anew those distant voices, that speak afresh to my thirsting soul, of Your all-encompassing rule. May I listen until I can stand in direct continuum on the ancient paths and replicate their anthem. Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the universe who opens the eyes of the blind.
Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the universe who clothes the naked.
Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the universe who releases the bound.
Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the universe who raises up those who are bowed down.
Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the universe who stretches forth the earth over the waters.
Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the universe who has provided for my every need.
Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the universe who guides the steps of man. Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the universe who girds Israel with might. Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the universe who crowns Israel with glory. Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the universe who gives strength to the weary.
Lawrence Hilliard has a M.A. from U.S.C. in history.In an anthropocentric world Mr. Hilliard teaches from a theocentic perspective.
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