I will want to be the first to admit I have a hard time focusing when I pray. I struggle with distraction and fatigue. Corporate prayer can be challenging for different reasons.
If children are tugging at me or I stop listening to a lengthy prayer, it is difficult to rejoin with a prayerful heart. Do I wish prayer was effortless when I am struggling? Yes. But it’s helpful for me to remember that prayer—like all Christian practices and habits—is not a spectator sport. It takes involvement and attention and bodily effort. At times, praises or requests come bubbling out of me and I wholeheartedly want to worship and pray. Other times, it’s a sacrifice.
When I first stumbled across the statement, “The one who sings prays twice,” it immediately resonated with me. I don’t know the context or history of the phrase except that it’s attributed to St. Augustine. Narrowly, prayer can be defined as a request for help or petitioning. In a broader sense, prayer is about seeking God as Wendy talked about in “Prayer with no Results”. With that in mind, Augustine’s quote made me consider that when we sing to God it’s our bodies (and hopefully our minds and spirits) that are participating in communing with God in a similar way to prayer. I think a chord was struck within me with the quote because singing to God helps me communicate and focus in a way that I want to happen in my prayer life.
We know prayer and singing are distinct acts of worship (see 1 Corinthians 14:15). However, Augustine’s connection of song and prayer helpfully acknowledges singing’s role in prayer as well as celebrates singing as prayer. So, how does God’s Word associate them together? Is there a link between the two that can instruct and encourage us in how to pray?
The Book of Psalms, by definition, is a collection of sacred hymns or poems. It may not be on the forefront of our minds that psalms were (and are!) songs because we’ve primarily learned them by reading or reciting them, not singing them. Musical terms like “selah” and addresses made out “to the choirmaster,” as well as mentions of instruments, all indicate the musical nature of the psalms found in Scripture. It is interesting then that the Hebrew word te pillâ that we translate prayer is found in the Old Testament most frequently in the Book of Psalms (Eric Lyons, Apologetics Press, 2011). Certainly, not every citation of the word prayer means that the song is a type of prayer. It is recorded, though, that five of the Psalms are specifically labeled as prayers—Psalms 17, 86, 90, 102, and 142 (Harris, Archer, and Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament). The Psalms are also riddled with prayer language. The psalmists directly address the Lord in their songs using phrases like “earnestly I seek you” (Ps 63:1), “give ear to my prayer, O God” (Ps 55:1), “save me, O God” (Ps 69:1), and “I cry out day and night before you” (Ps 88:1).
I went looking for contemporary categories of prayer throughout the songs of the Psalms. In these examples the psalmists are addressing God directly in a petitioning or prayerfully seeking way.
Adoration: “I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will make music.” Psalm 101:1
Confession: “For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever before me. I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.” Psalm 38:17-18
“O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” Psalm 130:2-3
Thanksgiving: “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night.” Psalm 92:1-2
Supplication: “Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise up against me.” Psalm 59:1
Even if it’s not normal for us, the Scriptures model that many types of prayers can be sung and were sung, corporately and privately.
In the New Testament singing is a predominant activity that surrounds worship in John’s vision of Revelation. A familiar and incredibly powerful scene from chapter 5 displays worship through song of the Lamb and One Who sits on the throne.
“And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
Revelation 5:8-10
If you read to the end of the chapter, you’ll notice the progression in the song starting with the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders (vs 8) before adding “myriads and myriads of angels” (vs 11). At the end “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea” has joined in (13). I love that the chapter ends with the let-it-be-so prayer term—“Amen!”
“And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ and the elders fell down and worshiped.” Revelation 5:14
If prayer is the act of coming to God in the name of Jesus—focusing our attention and requests to the One Who is worthy and capable of answering . . .
And if singing, at times, is praying like Augustine believed—and even a variety of kinds of praying, like the Psalms support . . .
Then singing is a holy instrument, as it is in Revelation, to use in prayer as we worship the Lord.
More good news: You don’t have to be a piano-playing pastor’s wife with skills (and time!) to write your own prayer to pray through song. I’m not even suggesting you have to be good at singing other people’s songs to use them in praying!
If singing might help you focus and use your whole being to seek God through prayer then try an idea:
–Turn on worship music when you need an attitude or mindset shift.
–If a particular category of prayer comes hard for you, find a Psalm or an artist’s song with that theme or those lyrics and add them to a playlist.
–A specific song may articulate something you never knew how to put into words or expression. Pray the song.
–In contrast, a Sunday morning congregational song may not be what you are feeling. You can still pray that song in faith, proclaiming that it’s true and asking God to help you experience its reality.
–Songs utilize the work of others who have laboured over lyrics and music. Don’t be afraid to reuse the good stuff from Scripture and from musicians who have written music to focus on Jesus.
–Sing your prayers at the meal table.
–Teach the children in your life to pray using music.
–Memorize or post songs that are your prayers (or are ones that prompt you to pray).
–Sing a song’s first verse and chorus on repeat because that’s all you can remember!
One day every knee in heaven and on earth will bend in worship. Until then, we will have days when praying is hard. When you struggle to pray next, remember the instrument of song. Raise yourself and your requests back to the Giver Himself.
