Prayer Series Sermon Six - "Participating in Public Prayer" (Psalm 133)

1. The Need for Public Prayer

Personal prayer is very important, in fact, it is vital for the growing Christian. But as we are called together into the one body, represented in the form of the local church, we should also get involved in corporate collective prayer.

If we are shy or in any way resistant to this, then we need to seriously ask ourselves why. We should spend some time with God in an attempt to discover what it is that would be holding us back from praying in public.

The very fact of placing prayer at the top of our church goals becomes confronting for us all. We are going to have to measure how we responded to this goal this year, and how broad the participation levels were.

Our public prayer times, whether in the church worship service setting, or in a small group setting, should be like praying with loving, caring family members (who are all playing on the same team). Our public prayer is still a simple conversation with God, just with others listening in and supporting the process.

It is liberating when normally quiet introverts take hold of the opportunities public prayer brings. I can certainly testify to this in my life. Sessions of public prayer can bring “Nike” moments … “Just Do It”!

Yet, where resistance persists, we might have to ask ourselves whether our faith is far too personal (or self-inclined) rather than engaging and community-minded? When Jesus says to us, to pick up our cross and follow him, he is calling us to join a movement – a band of like-minded disciples on a collective journey of mission. Anything that excludes this is a distortion of the gospel message.

If some think that they just couldn’t come up with the right words, or that they would be judged by others for the sort of prayers they prayed, then we would need to do some more work together on building trust and social cohesion to break down such barriers. For each of us should feel equally able to access God, pray for others, and hear God’s voice, and also feel wholly supported in so doing.

It could be that some just don’t believe there will be any results – in other words there is perhaps an abiding lack of faith. And obviously a lack of faith or unbelief is a real problem for our prayer life (individually and collectively). In Matthew (chapter 13) we read that Jesus could not do any mighty works in Nazareth because of the unbelief there.

Yet opportunities of public prayer, if we take them, can build our individual and collective faith, because we will be likely praying with people whose faith has grown through many challenges and know for sure that God is wholly faithful and responsive. Such as these pray with great expectancy and watch for what God will do. Faith like this can be infectious.

Each and every Jesus follower has the power of the Holy Spirit available to them, yet we need to actively seek this effective assistance in our lives. Those whose prayers we admire, usually weren’t able to pray like that overnight – they have developed their praying over many years, having starting by dipping their toe trustingly in the water, asking for the Holy Spirit to build their the faith, give them the confidence, and help them with the words.

2. Text and Context – Psalm 133

One of the reasons that the Hebrew Scriptures are so relevant to us, is that in some ways the church resembles the ancient people of Israel – as they saw themselves collectively as the people of God. Their well-being and future were collectively tied together as they related to Yahweh God.

We see this beautifully expressed by an ancient song-writer in Psalm 133. In just three verses, we see expressed how beautiful it can be when people are united together in a common purpose. No doubt the psalmist would have in mind here the experience of collective worship and a corporate prayerful connectedness to God, in which the people were wholly unified and acted in complete harmony.

This of course is not to say that such people would always agree. After all that’s not how human beings are made. With such different backgrounds and personalities we will always see things from different angles and with varying opinions. The various interests and gifts we have been given bias each of us to the importance of some things over others.

The unity of believers referred to in the Bible is not about sameness, for this would be way too bland (and non-creative) to be of much help in such a complex and varied world. Rather such unity takes form as all the diversity amongst us melds together through a common purpose. And of course this common purpose is … following Jesus wherever he leads us … “to be the hub of the community for God, being innovative, proactive, engaging and welcoming to all people”.

Such unity becomes a reality through a growing and spreading faith in who God is – the creator of the universe, our loving parent, our personal redeemer, and our daily guide. And unity would be not so much an achievement, but a gift to be received from above (as we shall come to see from Psalm 133). We experience unity not so much because we work for it, but more so because we make ourselves available to receive it. Unity is one of God’s blessings to a community.

So it will be through bringing all of who and what we are, all of the individual parts of the local church body, every single part together, that we will fully discover what God requires of us (in as much detail as is necessary). As God is present binding us together, we listen to one another as we pray, start to hear new perspectives on things, and ultimately hear God’s voice speaking to the challenges around us.

This is a very large vision of the potential of public prayer, but one that needs to be embraced, for our community and the world in general desperately need the hope that should spring forth from this. Might it be that people who live around us, who suffer daily in a dog-eat-dog rush-rush-rush environment, be able to look at us, or hear about us, and say, How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! What if this could be said about us?

In this psalm, two analogies are given concerning the beauty and blessing of interactive unity. The first is a picture of the consecration or dedication of the priest Aaron, where with the anointing of oil customary on these occasions, we see the wonderfully fragrant oil running extravagantly through his hair, over his beard, and then all over his priestly robes, symbolically removing all stain, whereby he is thoroughly prepared for his tasks of ministry (on behalf of the people).

This might be like the effect of your first shower after a week long camping trip … thoroughly satisfying, not just for yourself, but also for all those who have to live with you! The point here is that the oil, representing God’s blessing, flows lavishly, with the benefit reaching to all.

The second analogy gives the picture of the prevalent dew that forms on top of the highest mountain – Mt Hermon, and then flows down through the whole mountain range, draining through the streams and rivers, bringing renewal and refreshment as it goes to all the lands and peoples; and thereby bringing the possibility of life to everyone (whether they live high up or low down). These analogies speak of God’s abundant blessing sent from above to below to all of his children; and it is in such blessing that the unified people of God live. And boy does it show!!

3. How can we move towards this interactive prayerful unity?

It is in the worshipping and prayerful life of the church that many will experience a sense of light shining in the darkness, and life in the face of hopelessness. One wonders why sometimes we take all this so lightly!!

On what basis do we make the decision as to whether we engage with corporate worship and prayer or not? What is uppermost in our mind – what we can get out of our church’s worship and prayer, or conversely … what we can add into it? [Just like the human body when some part isn’t working properly, the local church body is weaker when members are missing or not contributing.]

When we pray together, whether it is during Sunday worship, or at our small home group, or at a prayer group, we should not see ourselves so much as separate individuals, but rather as a collective representative of the ‘Body of Christ’ together seeking God’s will.

Sometimes we may be in the same room, but we’re not really praying together. We are not standing in line waiting for our turn to see Santa at the shopping centre with our personal wish-list, but rather gathering together addressing the collective need of God’s world.

Sometimes our own desire for comfort overrides our concern for the big issues. For instance we would all pray for rain (because of the great need of our land) except maybe when it might interrupt our particular plans. The “Christmas by the Lake” committee asks me to pray for a fine day each year, but I have to explain that that’s a bit difficult when we have placed such a high priority on praying for rain. If we pray for rain except when it’s inconvenient, I don’t think we should expect either prayer to be answered. So I pray that the event can proceed well whatever weather comes.

The question remains … how can we move towards this interactive prayerful unity?

(a) To truly and deliberately tune together into God’s heart. Our prayers should always have a sense of dependence and surrender, acknowledging that God has the answer for every situation, and that is what we are searching for. Our initial thoughts may be part of the answer (and contribute to the prayer of another), but we should always be seeking God’s ultimate answer, not be irreversibly locked into our own solution.

(b) For our prayers for one another and others to have integrity we need to develop a sincere concern and a caring attitude. This would be about understanding our common connection to a loving re-creative God. This would also involve understanding our common need as human beings. This would be combined where necessary with a willingness to offer practical help to those in particular need from time to time. This would cover the spectrum of our neighbour’s need for a cup of sugar to the most pressing international crisis.

There is a direct relationship between our level of caring and the potential of our prayers being heard and answered. We could listen here to the prophet Isaiah (58:6-12):

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

This caring attitude would include forming positive and encouraging thoughts toward each other, like Paul exhibited in his mission and his letter-writing, for instance in Philippians (1:4):

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now.

(c) When we are coming to gather, we should be prepared for, not only meeting with others, but also meeting with God; and at the same time we should be expectant that God is going to do something or say something or move somebody – that something good is going to happen. Sometimes we gain a greater sense of the presence of God than at other times. But, as God is always there when two or three sincerely gather in Jesus’ name, then this must be more about our level of preparation, receptivity and expectancy.

(d) When we are in prayer, we should fully engage in each others’ prayers. Often when someone else is praying, this is taken as an opportunity to prepare one’s own prayer. Whereas this is somewhat understandable, especially for the one who is a bit nervous, it does tend to break down the relational connectedness between each of the pray-ers and our collective approach to God. Also, we shouldn’t just be about ticking off the prayer requests, but really listening to what others are praying. American pastor Ben Patterson writes:

The method is to listen, really listen to a person’s prayer, and to let it sink into my mind and heart before I move onto my particular concerns. For instance, someone may pray for a family member’s health. As I mull over that prayer, I will add a kind of amen to it, verbally or silently, thus entering more deeply into the concern. Sometimes when I do that, I may find myself moved to add my own prayer, a nuance, to the prayer I heard. Others may do the same … building on the original prayer.

This all occurs before we too quickly move on.

(e) We should treat silence as a gift, and an opportunity of listening for God’s voice. This is especially so, because our lives tend to normally be so noisy. If you are uncomfortable in times of silence in group prayer, or find yourself thinking about what should go on the shopping list, then start to reflect on some scriptures or the words of some good worship songs, to keep you on the prayer journey.

(f) We should be ready to receive insight that others have received from God, listen to what others think of this; then test it according to the sort of criteria we talked about on week four of this series: is it consistent with scripture, does it work for good, is it connected to our areas of giftedness, will it lead to growth … then later … has it got continual green lights.

We should not be frightened to ask a question like: “Has anyone received specific leading about how to pray for this person, or how God is moving in this matter, or how we should act in cooperation with God”? If this matter of prayer was about church decision-making, we could see how this new idea weighs up against the vision and goals of the church previously prayed about and agreed to.

4. Practical Outcomes of this Prayer Series

(a) Take time to open conversations with God
(b) Be more involved in public prayer – worship services, small group, prayer group
(c) Prayer triplets
(d) Host a prayer gathering
(e) Help plan a creative prayer service
(f) Form a prayer walking group