01.11. PRAYER AND REVELATION

11. PRAYER AND REVELATION

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (Psalms 42:11)

Portions of the Psalms and the Prophets are often used to support the teaching that we should freely express our thoughts and our emotions during prayer, even if they consist of intense frustration, or even anger and bitterness against God. It appears that the assumption is that since the prophets were righteous men, and since these righteous men vented their frustrations to God, therefore we may, or even should, likewise vent our frustrations to God when we pray. But this is a false inference. From the fact that the prophets sometimes vented their frustrations to God, we cannot immediately infer that we should also do the same. Rather, we must first examine the contexts of the relevant biblical passages, and note the Scripture’s own infallible interpretations of and comments on such instances of venting one’s frustrations. In other words, the Bible records what the prophets did, but what does the same Bible say about what they did? The biblical characters sometimes bitterly complained to God, but it would be irresponsible to immediately say that we should imitate them without first noting how God responded.

Job, of course, is the classic case. He has been suffering great pains and tragedies, and says:

I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God: Do not condemn me, but tell me what charges you have against me. Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the schemes of the wicked? (Job 10:1-3)

If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would find out what he would answer me, and consider what he would say. (Job 23:3-5) Oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature; let the Almighty answer me! (Job 31:35, NASB) Does God praise Job for his forthrightness, or does he rebuke Job for his words and for his lack of understanding? God says to Job, "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!...Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?" (Job 40:2; Job 40:7-8). God does not take pleasure at those who demand of him, "Answer me!" Rather, he will say to these people, "No, you answer me!"

Habakkuk says to God, "How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ’Violence!’ but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds" (Habakkuk 1:2-3). In Habakkuk 1:4 he states his concern: "Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted." This is the state of his own nation.

Then, God answers that he is using the Babylonians to punish the Jews: "Look at the nations and watch ­ - and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own" (Habakkuk 1:5-6). In other words, God says he is indeed doing something about the situation. But Habakkuk disapproves of the divine strategy: "O LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, we will not die. O LORD, you have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, you have ordained them to punish. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?" (Habakkuk 1:12-13). It appears shocking to the prophet that God would use heathens to judge his own people.

What most people fail to note when they try to use the Bible to support an almost unrestrained expression of one’s anger and frustration against God is that these instances in the Bible are very different from those that they have in mind, and that the prophets’ motivations are often much more noble than their own. The above example from Habakkuk involves a serious historical and political context, and Habakkuk himself was no ignoramus when it comes to theology. The few verses that we have cited already exhibit his recognition of divine eternity and sovereignty, but what he wants to better understand is God’s dealing with the nations.

Without examining the answer God gives, since it is not our topic, we should note Habakkuk’s words after he has expressed his complaint: "I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint" (Habakkuk 2:1). Or, as the NASB has it, "I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; and I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, and how I may reply when I am reproved."73 Although his address to God is already much more reverent and informed than many believers in our day, Habakkuk himself expects that God’s answer to his complaint will be in the form of a rebuke.

Jeremiah brings before God a plain question: "You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?" (Jeremiah 12:1). Does God then encourage Jeremiah to vent his emotions, as some Christian writers teach that we should vent our anger toward God just as a frustrated child beats on his father’s chest? Or is the Heavenly Father still a God to us? God responds, "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?" (Jeremiah 12:5). In other words, "If you cannot handle what you have been through so far, how can you handle the greater difficulties that are coming?"

Again, Jeremiah complains, "Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails?" (Jeremiah 15:18). Does God apologize to Jeremiah? No, but he gives the prophet first a rebuke and then a promise:

"If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them. I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you," declares the LORD. I will save you from the hands of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the cruel. (Jeremiah 18:19-21)

God calls Jeremiah to repent for what he said and stop uttering "worthless words"! Doubtless many professing Christians, influenced by secular psychology and an unbiblical understanding of love, would accuse God of being insensitive. Even the promise God gives to Jeremiah is a repetition and reminder, at most an extension, of what was already given at the beginning of the prophet’s ministry:

Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land ­ against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you. (Jeremiah 1:17-19)

Although the Bible records instances in which the prophets vented their emotions toward and against God, the same Bible gives no encouragement for its readers to imitate such behavior. This does not oppose honesty and reverent forthrightness toward God, but the question is whether we should resolve our frustration through venting and complaining in prayer. What we can say for certain is that it is especially irreverent to demand answers from God that he has already given in the Bible. God already said to Habakkuk, "The righteous will live by his faith" (Habakkuk 2:4). In other words, if you claim to be a believer, then believe! Trust God! This is what God will tell you if he responds to your complaint, and if he already said it to the prophets, why does he need to say it again to you?

If we challenge God in the same way as some of the biblical characters did, even though God has already given and recorded his answers, are we not therefore testing his patience? Does it not show that we have little respect for the Bible, and act as if it does not exist? Or do we somehow expect that God will give us different answers to the same questions than those already recorded in the Bible? What justification, then, can we give to vent our emotions and frustrations if God has already responded to them by the words of Scripture? Job had learned his lesson: "I am unworthy ­ - how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer - ­ twice, but I will say no more....I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted" (Job 40:4-5; Job 42:2). We learn the same lessons as the biblical characters did by reading about them in the Bible, and not by repeating the same behavior that occasioned the answers and rebukes given to the prophets.

Honesty toward God does not translate into unrestrained expression of every negative thought and emotion in prayer. Besides honesty, Scripture also maintains the believer’s responsibility to uphold knowledge and self-control. So in Psalms 42:1-11, the psalmist says in agony, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy? My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, ’Where is your God?’" (Psalms 42:9-10). But he immediately confronts his own attitude and says, "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God" (Psalms 42:11). John MacArthur observes, "In this active introspection the psalmist rebukes himself for his despondency."74

One of the premises of this book is that in thinking about prayer, we must not focus on the technique of prayer, although that has its place, but to look at the subject from a broader perspective. This is because God responds not only to what we say during prayer, but he responds to the entirety of our lives, including our thoughts and actions while we are not praying. Also, in the introduction to this section and in the previous chapter, I have established that we must not attempt to build our spiritual life with experience as its foundation. The conclusion is that to construct a better spiritual life in general, and a better prayer life in particular, one must enrich his inner life, and this inner life must have biblical revelation as its foundation. In what follows I will elaborate on this principle, and give some suggestions for implementation. To enhance our spiritual life by constructing our inner life upon biblical revelation, we must practice what MacArthur calls, "active introspection." We may also call it Christian contemplation or meditation. Now, by contemplation or meditation I do not include any mystical element, and I intend a meaning very different from non-Christian or New Age meditation. Christian contemplation does not aim to empty the mind and suspend logic; instead, it aims to fill the mind and apply logic. It does not repudiate rationality to achieve mystical union with the divine; rather, it embraces rationality to think after the thoughts of God. It does not wait for spontaneous insights or personal revelations, but it achieves understanding through deliberate thought and discursive reasoning founded on the infallible revelation of Scripture.

There is a great difference between Christian contemplation and non-Christian meditation. Christian contemplation or meditation is nothing other than active thinking controlled by the words of Scripture. Such meditation is deliberate, conscious, intellectual, rational, and full of content. But not just any content will do ­ - Christian thinking begins from the Reformation principle of "Scripture alone," and proceeds from this starting point to construct a coherent worldview that is applicable to and authoritative in every area of life and thought. By Christian meditation I mean an activity that involves intense thinking and reasoning, but thinking and reasoning that is grounded upon biblical revelation as its sole foundation. Edmund Clowney writes, "For man to receive God’s wisdom, it is not enough for God to display his wisdom in his works. He must also set forth his wisdom in his words....Divine and heavenly mysteries are revealed to us in God-given words. Meditation centers on God’s revelation, his Word."75 If you wish to grow in your spiritual life, then you must enrich your inner life, and such contemplation or meditation is what you must do.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." Some people interpret this as telling us to almost not think at all, or at least not to reason about our situation. However, Proverbs 22:19-21 teaches that if you trust in God, you must think, but the difference is in what you think: "So that your trust may be in the LORD, I teach you today, even you. Have I not written thirty sayings for you, sayings of counsel and knowledge, teaching you true and reliable words, so that you can give sound answers to him who sent you?" Therefore, to "lean not on your own understanding" does not mean to stop thinking, but it means to stop relying on what you can come up with and to begin relying on the information that God has given to you in the Bible. To trust in God is to believe what the Bible says. In the context of this chapter, we may say that it means to ground your reasoning upon Scripture, and let it supply the content of your thinking, and thus also your praying. To the extent that your mind has not been renewed by Scripture, it may be as if there are two voices in your mind ­ one reflects the assumptions and dispositions that were central before your conversion, and the other reflects the voice of knowledge and reason, founded on the words of Scripture. In our text from Psalms 42:1-11, the writer challenges his own mind, saying, "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God" (Psalms 42:1-11). He is not satisfied in allowing his mind to wander in just any direction, but he confronts himself with scriptural knowledge. His present state of mind has experience or feeling as its foundation, but he confronts himself with an authoritative voice that has biblical revelation as its foundation. Instead of encouraging his emotions, he questions and challenges them. Our culture favors the free expression of emotions, but the Bible teaches self-control. Yet this is not to encourage what is called "repression," in which case the thoughts are merely suppressed so as not to appear before one’s consciousness, and doing this will supposedly cause problems later. Rather, in biblical contemplation and meditation we confront these thoughts and we resolve them: The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself....And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do.... The essence of this matter is to understand that this self of ours, this other man within us, had got to be handled. Do not listen to him; turn on him; speak to him; condemn him; upbraid him; exhort him; encourage him; remind him of what you know, instead of listening placidly to him and allowing him to drag you down and depress you.76

Psalms 119:59 says, "I thought about my ways, and turned my feet to Your testimonies" (NKJ). It is by thinking, not praying, that anyone will turn to God, for even praying presupposes thinking:

Before you can speak a single word of prayer, you have to think. You have to use your mind. You need to know who you’re praying to. You need to know what you’re praying for. You need to know the basis on which you are offering these prayers. So if your prayers are real, and not just some ritual of thoughtless words, they will involve you in a vigorous use of your understanding....When you actually speak with [the Lord], you will spend all the riches of your intelligence in thoughtfully adoring, praising, petitioning and thanking him.77

It follows that if "all the riches of your intelligence" is nil, then you cannot pray at all. It also follows that to increase the effectiveness and meaningfulness of your prayer life, you must first work on the intellect. And even when you pray, you must give priority to asking God for wisdom and understanding, as the apostles are prone to practice and recommend:

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Ephesians 1:17) For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. (Colossians 1:9)

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. (James 1:5) So by contemplation or meditation, I mean the active and deliberate interaction of your mind with biblical revelation, that is, the words of the Bible, and to relate and apply the spiritual wisdom grasped by your intellect to your own life. Christian contemplation refers to intense theological thinking, but such thinking must have revelation as its foundation. Therefore, the crucial element in Christian contemplation is the careful construction of such a foundation. In other words, thinking is never without content, and the believer receives the content for his thinking from the Bible. This means that we have several definite options in implementing Christian contemplation. One main source of biblical content to fuel our contemplation comes from reading. Nowadays, to say that you have learned something from a book means to some people that you do not really know it; that is, you can read about something all you want, but you do not know it until you have done it or experienced it. But the Bible itself is a book, and no professing believer should dare say that he does not know or believe that there is a heaven until he experiences it. Jesus tells us, "In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you" (John 14:2). If you consider your experience more reliable than the words of Christ, then by what definition and by what authority are you a Christian?

Richard de Bury says, "A library of wisdom is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it. Whoever therefore claims to be zealous of truth, of happiness, of wisdom or knowledge, aye even of the faith, must needs become a lover of books."78 The Bible is a book, and it is the only infallible standard of truth by which all knowledge is founded, and by which all things are measured. To be effective in spirituality and in learning, we must have more respect for books ­ surely not the contents of all books, but the very method of learning from books itself.

Although our ultimate and infallible authority is the Scripture alone, to interact with the full range of biblical materials, we ought to consult the insights of other people who have diligently researched and studied the Scripture. Therefore, we are justified in reading books written by believers who have faithfully worked out the meanings and implications of biblical passages, and also to hear sermons and lectures given by them. Nevertheless, we cannot overemphasize the importance of holding only to Scripture as our ultimate and infallible standard. The process does not end with reading and listening, which supply the content for our thinking, and indeed are parts of contemplation itself, since one cannot read or listen without thinking at the same time. Indeed, even as you have been reading this book, you have been practicing biblical contemplation ­ - thinking about the teaching of Scripture and its implications. However, we must continue to practice contemplation even when we are not reading a book or hearing a sermon. Paul says to Timothy, "Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this" (2 Timothy 2:7). Spiritual insight usually does not come without rational and deliberate thinking; rather, it is by means of reasoning from the foundation of scriptural revelation that God will grant us wisdom and knowledge. Thus God indeed governs what each of us knows and understands, but usually not without means such as reading and thinking, which are also the two things that Timothy has to do as indicated in the verse above. This again distinguishes Christian contemplation from the meditation of the mystics. The writer of Psalms 119:1-176 says that he thinks on God’s law "all day long" (Psalms 119:97), and because of this, he is wiser than his enemies and his teachers. Of course, some of you will complain that there is no time to think about theology all day along, but I am unsympathetic. W. Bingham Hunter writes: "In contrast to Jesus, most of us are too busy coping with existence to see prayer as vital or essential. But life could be more simple. An older car, a less trendy wardrobe, reupholstered rather than replaced furniture, a little less meat on the table ­ changes like this could reduce the need for so much income and perhaps provide more time for prayer."79

Many people wish to better their spiritual and prayer lives precisely to gain these things that he suggests we should let go in order to better our spiritual and prayer lives. But Jesus says, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15). If you think that life does consist in the abundance of possessions, then you have already fallen into the trap of greed. Alas, once we reduce the importance of material things, there remains no motivation for many people to pray.

Maybe there are things that you can do without threatening your standard of living. If you will stop socializing with unproductive and unspiritual people other than those to whom you are preaching the gospel, if you will stop watching so much television or reading newspapers and magazines, then perhaps you will already be adding hours of free time to your week. Then again, maybe it is necessary for you to make the kind of changes Hunter mentions. However, if you are unwilling to discipline yourself or make any sort of changes, then you are not serious about the Christian faith, and maybe you are not even a Christian, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21).

God says to his people, "Give careful thought to your ways" (Haggai 1:5). Think about your life. But by what standard do we think about anything? Christian conversion itself means that, by the sovereign grace of God, you have abandoned your former way of thinking, and now you have adopted biblical revelation as the foundation ­ - the first principle and the starting point ­ - of all your thought and conduct. Then, Christian sanctification involves making all of your life increasingly consistent with this infallible foundation. You begin to do this by gaining a systematic understanding of biblical revelation, which means that you must immerse yourself in theological reading and reflection. As you continue to think about the words of God, he will grant you understanding, and then you will know that experience counts for nothing, that biblical revelation alone is reliable, and that the answers you seek are already written in the Book that God has given to us.