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Jewish Prayer
“One
thing I have asked from the Lord, That I may dwell in the House of the Lord all
the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His
temple.” The Jews were people of devotion and covenant. They were a nomadic people whom God called into a place of prosperity and rest. They were a strong people. Through the years the priests of God had developed a daily habit of praying Gods and Singing Gods word back to Him. They took God at His word when He said that He watches over His word to perform it and would actually pray the prophetic promises of scripture, pray the prayers of the bible and sing the psalms as prayers to God. The New Testament Apostolic church meet in the Jewish synagogue at the time of prayer and followed the same pattern they prayed for centuries even as our Lord Jesus did. Wouldn’t be wise for us to follow their godly example. The Psalmist said that he would praise God morning, noon, and night. The Jews were very devout and followed his godly example, as did the New Testament church. We would find a lot of discipline and devotion bringing forth spiritual power in our lives if we would do likewise. The Jews use the actual biblical text as their prayer text. The Jews would pray the Bible as it is written, while also being able to launch out into spontaneous and personalized application of the biblical prayer. The original Psalms were prayers set in a context of musical arrangements and accompaniment that magnified the prayers as worship and devotion to God. For centuries praying the bible has been the practice of ancient holy men and women. The pattern of monks and nuns, was to pray through the entire book of Psalms weekly. They prayed all one hundred and fifty psalms every week – that twenty-one a Psalms a day! The following is a layout of the daily Jewish prayer basic pattern. There are some variations on special holy days however we will not deal with that here. Jewish
Morning Prayers
1.
The morning blessings. The Jewish people new how to start of the morning
right instead of mopping and groping they would bless those who curse them. The
power of life and death, blessing and cursing is in our tongue. Our tongue can
be a flame of fire or a cool refreshing wind. We can either add fuel to the fire
or put it out. We must learn when is the right time to say the right things so
as not to become a stumbling block and we do this by being rightly connected to
God so that His spirit can convict and guide us into all truth. 2.
Recitation of verses of Praise out of Psalms. The bible says we come into
His presence with singing, into His courts with thanksgiving and we enter His
gates with praise. The Jews would sing out selected chapters of the Psalms and
the song of the splitting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:30-15:19). 3.
The Monotheistic blessing – The Jewish people would read the Shema
(Deut 6:4-9), preceded and followed by it's blessings. It is important the
Trinitarian benedictions of scripture be a central part of our prayers. 4.
The Eighteen Blessings also called Amidah are said standing and is
recited quietly. 5.
Daily Supplication. The primary part of Supplication was 'falling on the
face', where the Jews would lower their heads into the Old Testament birthing
position as Elijah did in prayer and travail. This form or prayer and
supplication is a sign of humility and submission to God. 6.
Hallel – exciting exuberant 'Praise,' is a selection from the Psalms,
which is read and sung in an attitude of excited worship toward God. 7.
The Daily Torah Reading, the Torah scroll is taken out and individual
congregants are called up to read the Torah in prayerful fashion. 8.
Prayers taken from Psalms are recited, followed by Psalms 20. 9.
The Daily Song, A special chapter of Psalm is sung as a worship chorus on
each day of the week. Afternoon
Prayers
1.
Ashrei is recited. 2.
Shemoneh Esrei - The
Amidah is recited. 3.
Tachanun is said. 4.
The prayer of Aleinu is
recited. Evening
Prayers
1.
The Shema and it's Blessings is
recited again preceded and followed by it's blessings, (Deut 6:4-9). 2.
Shemoneh Esrei - The Amidah is recited. 3.
The Aleinu prayer is recited. |
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