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Lord, Hear Our Prayer
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Thou who art beyond the farthest This verse from an old hymn asks a question which has always been relevant whenever people have prayed. God, the maker of heaven and earth, is so infinitely great. How can he possibly pay attention to my prayers, and notice one unworthy person among the millions of human kind This difficulty of communicating with God was part of Job's problem. Job was a decent, good-living sort of man who got into trouble which was none of his making. His business, his family and his health were all under threat, and he got little sympathy from his wife. He believed that everything that happens is under God's control, he wanted to talk to God about it. If what had happened was a personal judgment upon him, he wanted to discuss the case. God is not an unreasonable judge, Job wanted to make it clear that he did not deserve what had happened to him. But God was not available to speak to. "Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!" (Job 23.3). The story ends with God revealing Himself, putting Job in his proper humble place, and showing mercy. Solomon built his great temple as a means of speaking to God. It was to be the place where the people could speak to God and He would hear. Not, Solomon realised, that God can be confined to a building, but that in His mercy He might choose to be present there in a special way. Solomon made a prayer that when people turned toward the temple, God would hear, forgive, and save. The sort of situations Solomon as king had in mind were: providing justice; and defeat in war, famine, deportation, which things Solomon saw as judgments upon the nation because they had failed to be faithful to their God. But any individual too might turn to the temple: "whatever prayer... made by any man... knowing his own affliction and his own sorrow and stretching out his hands towards this house; then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each whose heart thou knowest, according to all his ways (for thou, only, knowest the hearts of the children of men)....." (2 Chronicles 6.29‑30 RSV) The effectiveness of the temple as a channel of prayer lay in the hearts of the people. Old Testament history shows how, as it turned out, they were not faithful, and their temple was destroyed by one of the great powers and the people were deported to Babylon. Yet the prophet Jeremiah had this to say on God's behalf: when the right time came "you will call upon me and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart I will be found by you, says the Lord" (Jer. 29.12-14 RSV). Jacob, away from home, having left his family, was alone. Above him, the stars. Below him, a stone for a pillow. The future, bleak. Human contact, none. The world around him, empty. And the Lord spoke to him. Afterwards, Jacob awoke from his sleep, and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it." (Gen.28.16) For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy. "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite." (Isaiah 57.15). Speaking to God does not require a building, or to be praying with other people - though these things may help. What is needed is a humble heart and a sincere mind. And then to wait in faith for God's response. Jesus said, "he that seeks... finds." (Matthew 7.7)
In the early years of Queen Victoria, a young lady was busy with Christian work. She was involved with writing and Bible classes. (She had once been awarded a prize by the Band of Hope for a poem on kindness to animals!) She must have been greatly impressed by Solomon's great prayer at the dedication of the temple (1 Kings 8), for she seems to have made it the model for a hymn she wrote. God of pity, God of grace,
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