00.2. Preface
Preface The Bible is richer in prayers than many realize, and they frequently do not receive the attention they deserve. The prayers cast a light on Chrisitanity, while providing us with much to learn. Both interests are safeguarded in this volume. This book is an attempt to understand Biblical prayer by an examination of the prayers and allusions to prayer. Our goal of this examination is to apply them to the public and private devotions of today. In order to facilitate the study of the prayers, I have collected and arranged them topically, and then canonically, and the New Testament. It thus becomes as easy as it is interesting to trace the development of prayer in the Bible. Following this collection is a selection of Biblical prayers suitable for modern use. The collection is, I believe, practically complete, except that I have purposely excluded from it the prayers of the Psalter. To have included them would have been to transcribe most of the Psalter; but in the selection for modern use, I have drawn from it such prayers as are of permanent interest and value. The prayers here collected might have been considerably enlarged by including the meditations—for example, Psalms 103, 139—and the indirect prayers in the third person scattered up and down both Testaments, and especially numerous in the epistles of Paul. But I have confined the list almost exclusively to prayers addressed to God in the second person. As a specimen of the prayers of Paul, however, I have included the well-known prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19. For completeness’ sake, I have added a list of Sentences introductory to Public Worship, though these are not all strictly prayers.
I have kept as close as possible to the Authorized Version of the English Bible, except where it is manifestly wrong—as, for example, in its rendering of Jehovah by Lord. But in the selection of prayers for modern use, I have retained the incorrect, but more familiar and not inappropriate term Lord. Sometimes, as in the Psalms, a verse has been omitted owing to the extreme difficulty of the text; at other times a reading has been adopted without discussion. The results of recent criticism are throughout the volume presupposed. Where there is such comparative unanimity, it did not seem wise or necessary to delay the argument by discussions which were strictly extraneous to the topic in hand. In any case, the heart of the problem is not in the least affected by the findings of criticism. This may affect our view of the development, but not the essence of the prayers themselves. A prayer is a prayer, whatever be its date, and whoever composed it. Apart from all critical questions, the prayers of the Bible bring us, more than anything else can do, into the inner chamber of ancient Hebrew piety, and there we may hear how God was addressed by the men who counted Him their Friend.
JOHN E. McFADYEN
Glasgow.
(Revised by J.B.)