The Prayer Book of the Bible

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. LUKE 11:1

In 1940 Bonhoeffer published a very short book on the Psalms. It was the last book he saw into print. In English it has appeared as Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, and it can be read in an hour. It was written at a time when the Old Testament was being scorned in Germany as a Jewish book unfit for Christians, and it drew the disapproval of the authorities. Its argument is simple, and it has taught many Christians to pray.

Learning to pray

Bonhoeffer began with the disciples’ request: Lord, teach us to pray. They had been praying all their lives, as devout Jews did; and yet, watching Jesus, they knew they did not know how. Bonhoeffer thought this is where every Christian must begin. Prayer does not come naturally. We assume that it is simply pouring out our hearts to God. But the heart, left to itself, pours out wishes, fears, complaints and confusion. It does not know how to pray, as Paul says plainly.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. ROMANS 8:26

How then do we learn? Bonhoeffer used a homely picture. A child learns to speak because his father speaks to him. He learns his father’s language by hearing it and repeating it. So it is with prayer. We learn to speak to God by hearing God speak to us, and by praying back to him the words he has given. That is why the Bible contains a book of prayers. God has given us, in the Psalms, the words with which to answer him.

God’s word and our prayer

This raises a puzzle, which Bonhoeffer faced squarely. The Bible is God’s word to us. The Psalms are human prayers to God. How can they be both? How can the words of David, crying out in distress or joy, be the word of God?

His answer was that the Psalms are, first of all, the prayer of Jesus Christ. Christ, the true Son of David, prayed these psalms during his earthly life. He took them on his lips in the synagogue, in the Temple, on the road — and on the cross. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? is the first line of Psalm 22. Into thine hand I commit my spirit is from Psalm 31. The Psalter was the prayer book of Jesus. And because Christ prays it, it is at once the word of God and the prayer of man — for he is both.

Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth. PSALM 31:5

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. LUKE 23:46

And because Christ prays it, his church can pray it with him. We pray the Psalms not merely as our own words but as members of his body, joining our voices to his. That is why Bonhoeffer thought the Psalms belong especially to the church’s common prayer. They are the prayer of the whole Christ, head and members together.

Praying what we do not feel

This has an immediate practical consequence. Many of the Psalms do not match our feelings on a given day. We are cheerful, and the psalm is a lament. We are grieving, and the psalm is a shout of praise. We feel innocent, and the psalm confesses sin; we feel guilty, and the psalm protests innocence. Bonhoeffer said that this is exactly as it should be. The Psalms are not the expression of our moods. They are the prayer of Christ and his whole church, and on any given day someone in that church is weeping and someone is rejoicing. When we pray a psalm that does not fit our mood, we pray for and with those whose mood it does fit. And we learn to pray beyond ourselves.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. PSALM 42:5

The hard psalms

What of the psalms that seem impossible to pray — the psalms of innocence, where the psalmist protests his righteousness, and the psalms of vengeance, where he calls down curses on his enemies?

Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide. PSALM 26:1

Bonhoeffer answered both from the same centre. The psalms of innocence are true, first of all, of Christ, the only truly innocent one. We pray them in him, as those clothed in his righteousness.

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21

The psalms of vengeance he handled with great care. He did not soften them, nor did he treat them as sub-Christian outbursts to be skipped. He noted, first, that the psalmist does not take vengeance himself; he hands it over to God. That is already a great act of faith. Secondly, the enemies in these psalms are the enemies of God and his cause, not merely private rivals. And thirdly — this was his deepest point — God’s vengeance on sin has been carried out. It fell on Christ at the cross. The one who prays these psalms in Christ knows that the judgement he asks for has been borne by the Son, who prayed for his own enemies as he died.

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. LUKE 23:34

So the Christian may pray even these psalms, not in personal hatred, but in the longing for God’s justice to be done and for evil to be ended — and in the knowledge that the justice of God has been satisfied at the cross, so that enemies too may be forgiven.

Not every reader will find this answer fully satisfying, and there are other ways Christians have handled these texts. But Bonhoeffer’s refusal to cut them out, and his insistence on reading them through the cross, is a wise guide.

The whole of life

Bonhoeffer ended the book by setting out the great themes of the Psalter: creation, the law, the history of God’s people, the Messiah, the church, life, suffering, guilt, enemies and the end. The Psalms, he showed, cover the whole of human life before God. There is nothing we can experience that they do not bring into prayer. And so he urged that Christians pray them regularly, daily, as the church has done for centuries.

Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments. PSALM 119:164

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Begin praying one psalm a day, aloud, in order, starting with Psalm 1. Pray it, do not merely read it.

2. When a psalm does not fit your mood, pray it for someone whose mood it does fit — someone grieving, rejoicing, afraid or guilty.

3. Read Psalm 22 alongside the account of the crucifixion in Matthew 27. Notice how Christ prayed the Psalms.

4. Choose one psalm of lament and pray it on behalf of Christians suffering persecution today.

5. If you find a psalm of vengeance hard to pray, pray it slowly while looking at the cross, and then pray for your own enemies.

A PRAYER

Lord, teach me to pray. I do not know how, and my own heart speaks mostly of itself.

Thank You for the words You have given, the prayers of Your Son and of Your people through the ages. Let me learn Your language by speaking it back to You.

When the psalm does not match my mood, let me pray with those whose mood it does match, and so pray beyond myself.

Lord Jesus, You prayed these psalms on earth and pray for me still. Take my poor prayers into Yours, and bring them to the Father. Amen.