Have you ever wondered why music is such a powerful thing, and can impact a person’s attitude so easily? The Rabbis say we were created to pray, and many times prayer is us singing to God. In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 it says that it is God’s will for us to “pray without ceasing.” Prayer should be an essential part of our walk with God; prayer is our life force. As part of your repentance journey, make prayer one of the things every year you grow stronger in.
In Psalm 42:8 it says, “By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.”
You should see yourself as a songwriter and God wants to hear your prayers. Your prayers are music to God’s ears.
If you stand outside downtown Jerusalem on the Sabbath, it is very likely you will hear singing from the families in the neighborhoods because singing is big part of the day. Many of the songs sung are rooted in the scriptures. If you visit a Jewish Synagogue on any given day you will hear them singing the Psalms and other scriptures. Hearing the prayers of the Jewish people singing to the Lord is something every Christian should experience. It will change your entire perspective on prayer, and It will help make more sense of Psalm 42:8 mentioned above.
Our Prayers Are a Melody to God
Our prayers are songs to God, and He loves to hear them from our mouths. We were created to praise Him, to sing to Him, to serve Him. As Rabbi Anava says we are a music station that God listens to. Even the Torah Portions are sung every Sabbath in the Jewish Synagogues. The Torah has symbols that are called cantillation marks, and in the Torah Scroll that is written in the Hebrew language, they are used as notes to sing the scriptures. As an example here is someone singing the scriptures in Hebrew very slowly in order to teach others how to pronounce the words. God created us to sing to Him, and when you sing the scriptures in the Hebrew, the scriptures sound beautiful. They are music to God.
Although a small part of prayer is for our benefit, the prayers are mainly for God’s benefit. This physical world is a shadow of the spiritual world. Just as music is such an enormous part of our life in the physical world, it is a huge part of the spiritual world. If you read Revelation 4-5, you will see that liturgical prayers are being sung, and are a big a part of what John saw in Heaven. Understanding that prayers are singing puts a little bit of a different perspective of what he saw.
There are many types of prayers:
- Repentance
- Request for needs
- Praise to the Master of the Universe
- Of thanksgiving
- Begging and asking for mercy
- Dedication to God
- Grace after meals
- Sabbath prayers, and for other appointed times
- Healing
- Travel
- Many others….
Devout Jews pray a minimum of three times a day, and many of those prayers are sung. The Bible says in Psalm 55:17
“Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and He hears my voice.”
Many other God-Fearing people pray three times a day as well. As an example in Acts 10:1-3
“There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius.”
The ninth hour is referring to the time of Jewish prayer, and Cornelius was a Gentile praying. Aaron Eby wrote a couple of books on prayer that are excellent resources called Rabbi Teach Us To Pray, and First Steps in Messianic Jewish Prayer. Both of these are very good if you want to grow in your prayer life. Aaron speaks of the rhythm of prayer times, of how prayers are being offered together and the world is worshiping in unison when praying at the appointed times. This is like a continual soundwave emanating from the earth 24 hours a day through the different time zones every day, all year, around the world.
Here is Troy Mitchell singing the last half of Psalm 116 in Hebrew in honor of Rosh Chodesh Sivan.
God wants us to take time every day to pray to Him, to sing to Him, and spend time with Him. When we pray, we should pray persistently and with intent. We need to focus on who we are speaking to, and know that it is what we were created to do. There is a book called the Didache: The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. The Didache, is a brief anonymous set of instructions, and they have been dated by most modern scholars to the first century. It provides a window into the faith and practice of the earliest Gentile disciples and the instructions they received from the Jewish Apostles. Toby Janicki wrote an excellent commentary on it in a book called “Didache: A New Translation and Messianic Jewish Commentary”. The Apostles told the Gentiles to pray the Lord’s Prayer at least three times a day. Here is an excellent article explaining grace after meals.
The Lord’s Prayer
Luke 11:1 says, “Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
Understanding the Lord’s Prayer from a Jewish perspective can be very eye opening. It is common for Rabbis to teach their followers how to pray, and Jesus said in Matthew 6:9-13 this is how we should pray
“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Jesus said we should be praying about these six topics when praying as He taught:
- We ask God to let His name be sanctified in our life – “Hallowed (Sanctified) be Your name”
- Let Jesus come back to reign as King – “Your kingdom come”
- Let God’s commandments be done on this earth – “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
- Give us our portion of God’s Instructions for each day – “Give us this day our daily bread”
- Forgive us and help us to walk out repentance – “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”
- Deliver us from our evil inclination that is in us, and to help us overcome the challenges in order to grow in our faith – “deliver us from the evil one”
In addition to praying the Lord’s prayer, here is an excellent prayer for the Restoration of Israel, along with some other great resources from FFOZ for prayer.
Below is a wonderful teaching from a Pastor in Jerusalem, Lars Enarson from the Watchman International, on the Lord’s Prayer. May it bless you.
As part of your repentance journey, make prayer one of the things every year you grow stronger in. Become a songwriter, make your prayers music to God’s ears!
Also check out the importance of prayer and standing before the king.
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