Biblical Theology Of Prayer In The Old Testament

Prayer is a major topic within Christian theology. The biblical text has various references to various recorded and reported prayers. In fact, references to prayer are found within the rich diversity of the various books, corpora and genres of Scripture. As can be expected, much has been written about prayer in the biblical text. However, a comprehensive Biblical Theology dealing with the concept of prayer in Scripture has not been published before, and this book intends to fill this gap, assuming that such an approach can provide a valuable contribution to the theological discourse on prayer and related concepts. This book aims to investigate prayer and its related elements – including worship, praise, thanksgiving, adoration, petition, intercession, lament and confession – in the Old Testament on a book-by-book or corpus-by-corpus basis. The investigation follows a Biblical Theological approach, reading the Old Testament on a book-by-book basis in its final form to uncover the Old Testament’s overarching theology of prayer, understanding the parts in relation to the whole. By doing this, the discrete nuances of the prayers of the different Old Testament books and corpora can be uncovered, letting the books and corpora speak for themselves. In addition, the advantage of this approach is that it provides findings that can benefit the modern Christian community and contribute to the practice of Reformed theology in Africa. This book is of significant value to scholars. It will inspire scholars to think about prayer and use the Bible as the major ‘prayer handbook’ in their spiritual lives.

This publication deals with a biblical theology of prayer based on the New Testament. It forms the second of a two-volume publication on a biblical theology of prayer, dealing with the concept of prayer in the Old and New Testament, respectively. This New Testament volume begins with an introduction on prayer and worship in early Jewish tradition, followed by eleven chapters dealing with New Testament corpora. It concludes with a final chapter synthesising the findings of the respective investigations of the Old and New Testament corpora to provide a summative theological perspective of the development of the concept of prayer through scripture. Prayer forms a major and continuous theme throughout the biblical text. Prayer was an integral part of the religious existence of God’s people in both the Old and New Testament. It underwent its greatest developments during, after and as a result of the Exile and was deepened and transformed in the New Testament. In both the Old and the New Testament, God is the sole ‘addressee’ of his people’s prayer. This conviction continued into the New Testament, but was broadened with Trinitarian elements of worship, adoration and intercession. A biblical theological investigation is chosen as methodology. Since all the biblical books form part of one canonical text, the assumption is that the various theologies about prayer being displayed in these books can be synthesised into a developing meta-theology about prayer. As the Old and New Testament form part of the canonical text, the results about prayer in the Old Testament can be brought into play with the results about prayer in the New Testament. This eventually leads toward an overarching biblical theology of prayer.

At the heart of this study is a biblical-theological approach to central passages on intercessory prayers in the OT. After examining these largely prophetic prayer dialogues, Widmer argues that they provide an important key to biblical theology and spirituality. Furthermore, a close reading of prayers by Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, and Amos reveals fascinating insights into the portrayals of these characters and confirms strong conceptual associations with Moses, Israel’s archetypal mediator. Widmer reads these prayers in both their immediate literary and wider canonical contexts. The ultimate aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the God whom the church worships and confesses to be the Father of Jesus Christ. Particularly pertinent is the finding that many OT prayers interact with God’s nature as revealed to Moses in Exod 34:6–7. Yhwh’s fullest revelation is also given in the context of an intercessory prayer. Widmer argues that intercessory prayer and theology have a hermeneutical-spiral relationship, mutually informing and correcting each other. It is in engaging with a loving and holy God that the phenomenon of divine mutability must be understood. Overall, Standing in the Breach suggests that fundamental biblical themes such as God’s mercy and judgment, divine retribution and forgiveness, covenant mediation, substitutionary suffering and atonement, and eventually the dynamics of the cross are all intrinsically related to and illuminated by prophetic OT intercessory prayers.

"Prayer literature forms an integral part of the Old Testament. Unfortunately, the Biblical Theology of prayer was neglected in the past. This edited collection, written by several South African and international scholars, therefore makes a major contribution to the Biblical Theology of prayer. Most prayer books focus on the Psalm; however, this excellent book covers the entire Old Testament, from the Pentateuch to Chronicles. It emphasises that prayer plays a crucial role in the covenant relationship between God and his people, similar to how the Bible portrays different people (from women to kings) communicating with God under other circumstances. This book is of significant value to scholars. It will inspire scholars to think about prayer and use the Bible as the major ‘prayer handbook’ in their spiritual lives."--Back cover.

"The Biblical Theology of prayer is investigated in this work according to the principles of the New Testament. It forms the second of a two-volume publication on a Biblical Theology of prayer, engaging with the concept of prayer in the Old and New Testaments, respectively. This volume opens by introducing prayer and worship in the early Jewish tradition, followed by eleven chapters dealing with New Testament corpora. It concludes with a final chapter synthesising the findings of the respective investigations of the Old and New Testaments’ corpora. This provides a summative theological perspective of the development of the concept of prayer through scripture. Prayer forms a major and continuous theme throughout the biblical text. Prayer was integral to God’s people’s religious existence in both the Old and New Testaments. It underwent its most significant development during, after and following the Exile and was deepened and transformed in the New Testament. In both the Old and New Testaments, God is the sole ‘addressee’ of his people’s prayers, and with the introduction of Trinitarian elements of worship, adoration and intercession, this conviction also remained in the New Testament. It is anticipated that through synthesising the numerous theologies concerning prayer illustrated in these volumes, they can be merged into an evolving meta-theology of prayer. As the Old and New Testaments form part of the canonical text, the results of prayer in the Old Testament can be brought into play with the results of prayer in the New Testament. This eventually leads to an overarching Biblical Theology of prayer."--Back cover.

Preaching's 10 New Books Every Preacher Should Read "At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD" (Genesis 4:26 ESV). From this first mention of prayer in the Bible, right through to the end, when the church prays "Come, Lord Jesus!" (Revelation 22:20), prayer is intimately linked with the gospel—God's promised and provided solution to the problem of human rebellion against him and its consequences. After defining prayer simply as "calling on the name of the Lord," Gary Millar follows the contours of the Bible's teaching on prayer. His conviction is that even careful readers can often overlook significant material because it is deeply embedded in narrative or poetic passages where the main emphases lie elsewhere. Millar's initial focus is on how "calling on the name of the Lord" to deliver on his covenantal promises is the foundation for all that the Old Testament says about prayer. Moving to the New Testament, he shows how this is redefined by Jesus himself, and how, after his death and resurrection, the apostles understood "praying in the name of Jesus" to be the equivalent new covenant expression. Throughout the Bible, prayer is to be primarily understood as asking God to deliver on what he has already promised—as Calvin expressed it, "through the gospel our hearts are trained to call on God's name" (Institutes 3.20.1). This New Studies in Biblical Theology volume concludes his valuable study with an afterword offering pointers to application to the life of the church today. Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.

Oscar Cullman offers here the first complete treatment of the New Testament doctrine and practice of prayer, a subject he refers to as "the greatest gift of grace and a difficult task that has to be learned". He commends on the difficulties of praying, objections to prayer, prayer and human weakness, prayer in the Synoptic Gospels, in Paul, in John, and in the rest of the New Testament.

In almost 500 years of evangelical praying, there has never been a book like this. ÒTeach Us to PrayÓ is in effect four books in one. It begins with a detailed analysis of the biblical theology of prayer, surveying each part of the Scriptures in turn. Next comes an investigation of prayer and spirituality within Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, historic Christianity (Puritanism) and a different Christian contemporary tradition (Roman Catholicism). In addition, expert commentators offer ÒLessons in Prayer from the Worldwide Church,Ó featuring Korea, China, Latin America and Africa. Finally a group of Christian leaders write about prayer in their individual experience, adding a personal dimension to this comprehensive book. This is a full library on the subject of prayer, conserving the best insights of the past and breaking new ground with penetrating original thinking.