PRAYERS QUOTING OLD TESTAMENT BOOKS – PART 5

O Adonai, who is the giver of all good things, fill our hearts with gratitude for the food and drink laid before us. And as we fill our bellies, may we be sober and frugal in our eating, taking only that which is necessary to refresh ourselves for Your service. Let the pleasure we take in the bread that nourishes our earthly bodies be as nothing to the joy we take in the spiritual bread of Your truth, which nourishes the soul. (Proverbs 13).

O Adonai, who has so loved my soul, make me a lover of souls. Fill me with an unwearied, unconditional love, one that perceives keenly and endures strongly. Let such love enable others to do and be their best. Help me to be an advocate for the powerless and invisible. Take from me the spirit of nervousness and self-absorption. Being inwardly cured and thoroughly cleansed, may I am fit to love, steady to persevere. Let no sickness or accident, no task or weariness, make me ungracious to those about me, but in all things make me like Your Holy Son, Yeshua. (Proverbs 16).

YHVH of Truth, protector of Your people, come to the aid of all who are poor and oppressed. By the power of Your life-giving Word, lead us in the ways of peace and integrity, and give us the help we long for in Yeshua Moshiach our Saviour. (Proverbs 29).

The breath of life, O Adonai, seems spent. My body is tense, my mind filled with anxiety, yet I have no zest, no energy. I am helpless to allay my fears; I am incapable of relaxing my limbs. Dark thoughts constantly invade my head, and I have no power to resist them. . .. Friends no longer want to visit me. You have driven away my spiritual brethren. I am now an outcast from Your church. No longer have the flowers wanted to bloom for me. No longer have the trees come into leaf for me. No longer have the birds sung at my window. My fellow Christians condemn me as an idle sinner. Adonai, raise up my soul, revives my body. (Ecclesiastes 2).

Teach us, O Adonai and enable us to live the life of saints and angels. Take us out of the apathy, the irritability, the sensitiveness, the anarchy in which our souls lie, and fill them with Your fullness. Breathe on us with Your breath, which infuses energy and kindles fervour. In asking for fervour, we ask for all that we may need and all that You can give. In asking for fervour, we are asking for faith, hope, and charity; we are asking for that loyal perception of duty, which follows on yearning affection; we are asking for sanctity, peace, and joy, all at once. Nothing would be a trouble to us, nothing a difficulty, had we but fervour of soul. Adonai, in asking for fervour we are asking for You, for nothing short of You, O YHVH. Enter our hearts, and fill them with fervour by filling them with You. (Ecclesiastes 12).

Majestic Sovereign, Timeless Wisdom, Your kindness melts my hard, cold soul. Handsome Lover, Selfless Giver, Your beauty fills my dull, sad eyes. I am Yours, You made me. I am Yours, You called me. I am Yours, You saved me. I am Yours, You loved me. I will never leave Your presence. Give me death, give me life. Give me sickness, give me health. Give me honour, give me shame. Give me weakness, give me strength. I will have whatever You give. (Song of Songs 2).

I ask You, Adonai Yeshua, to develop in me, Your lover, an immeasurable urge toward You, an affection that is unbounded, a longing that is unrestrained, a fervour that throws discretion to the winds! The more worthwhile our love for You, all the more pressing does it become. Reason cannot hold it in check, fear does not make it tremble, and wise judgment does not temper it. (Song of Songs 8).

Merciful Father, we come to You confessing the sins of our civilization, in which we have all shared. We have been so bent upon our selfish ends that we would not stop to have mercy. When we have seen those whom the injustices of the world have bruised and beaten, we have passed by on the other side. We have built around ourselves the walls of privilege, within which we might not hear the passion of exploited men, the weeping of women, and the bitter cry of children robbed of happy youth. O YHVH of judgment, make us fit to ask for Your forgiveness before it is too late. (Isaiah 1).

Almighty YHVH and Father of light, a child is born for us and a son is given to us. Your eternal Word leaped down from heaven in the silent watches of the night, and now Your Church is filled with wonder at the nearness of her YHVH. Open our heart to receive his life and increase our vision with the rising of dawn, that our life may be filled with His glory and His peace, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. (Isaiah 9).

Adonai, we beseech You to help and defend us. Deliver the oppressed, pity the poor, uplift those who have fallen, be the portion of those in need, return to Your care those who have feed the hungry, strengthen the weak, and break the chains of the prisoners. May all people come to know that You only are YHVH, that Yeshua Moshiach is Your Son, and that we are Your people and the sheep of Your pasture.
(Isaiah 25).

O eternal and most glorious YHVH, You who assure us that precious in Your sight is the death of Your saints, enable us in life and death, seriously to consider the value, the price of a soul. It is precious, O Adonai, because Your image is stamped and imprinted upon it; precious, because the blood of Your Son was paid for it; precious, because Your blessed Spirit, Ruach HaKodesh, works upon it and tests it by His various fires; and precious, because it is entered into Your revenue and made part of Your treasure. (Isaiah 43)

I asked for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness that I might feel the need of YHVH. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I had asked for but everything that I had hoped for. Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered; I am, among all men, most richly blessed. (Isaiah 55).

Behold Adonai, an empty vessel that needs to be filled. My Adonai, fill it. My faith is weak; strengthen me. I am cold in love; warm me and make me fervent that my love may go out to my neighbour. I do not have a strong and firm faith; at times I doubt and am unable to trust You altogether. O Adonai, help me. Strengthen my faith and trust in You. In You I have sealed the treasures of all I have. I am poor; You are rich and did come to be merciful to the poor. I am a sinner; You are upright. With me there is an abundance of sin; in You is the fullness of righteousness. Therefore, I will remain with You of whom I can receive but to whom I may not give. (Isaiah 65).

Grant to me, O Adonai, to know what I ought to know, to love what I ought to love, to praise what delights You most, to value what is precious in Your sight, to hate what is offensive to You. Do not suffer me to judge according to the sight of my eyes nor to pass sentence according to the hearing of the ears of ignorant men; but to discern with true judgment between things visible and spiritual, and above all things to enquire what the good pleasure of Your will is. (Jeremiah 8).

O Adonai Almighty, Father un-begotten, upon us miserable sinners have mercy. O Adonai, who has redeemed the work of Your hands by Your only Son, have mercy upon us. O Adonai, blot out our offences, and upon Your people have mercy. O Moshiach, Brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person, have mercy upon us. O Moshiach, who saved the world at the command of the Father, have mercy upon us. O Moshiach, Saviour of men, eternal life of angels, have mercy upon us. O Adonai, Spirit, the Comforter, Dispenser of pardon, have mercy upon us. O Adonai, Fountain of mercy and of sevenfold grace, have mercy upon us. O most bountiful Giver of gifts, Rabbeinu, Source of life, of Your goodness have mercy upon us. (Jeremiah 15).

Come forth from Your royal chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth. Put on the visible robes of Your imperial majesty. Take up that limitless sceptre that Your Almighty Father has bequeathed you. For now the voice of Your bride, the church, calls You, and all creatures sigh to be renewed. (Jeremiah 23).