The Power of the Puritans - Prayer and Praise

Power of the Puritans - Prayer and Praise

Foreword:

In my last post I spoke on the Puritan view on Assurance of Salvation. That post was the longest Power of the Puritans post to date, and likewise the least commented upon! This post shall be shorter, however, I do implore you to read the previous post. It is divided up into accessible chapters that can be read individually, and it contains an overview of some very edifying things. I do not call it edifying because I wrote it, but because I quote and summarize things that other people have written that are edifying. I will leave it at that without ruining the post itself in my digression; I hope you find the post as much a blessing as I found the works from which it sprang.

This post has been one that some of you have been requesting for some time, not because of any merit I have as a writer but because the two books discussed here are very dear to most of you. I assure you that they are also dear to me. For those of you who have not read the following two books, I recommend that you buy them at the first opportunity.

That said, let us look briefly at the Puritan’s high view of prayer and worship, as evidenced in the books Valley of Vision and Worthy is the Lamb.

The Puritan’s Relationship with God:

Going back into history you will recall that the Puritans began to form into congregations because of several differences that they had with the state church, that is, the Anglican church. This is why they eventually decided to get as far away from England as they could, and so headed for America.

One of the differences that the Puritans had with the Anglicans at that time reveals the true nature of Puritan belief on prayer.

“Enemies of the Puritans might accuse them of having a dervish’s idea of praying, but they were affirming the sovereign freedom of the Creator Spirit whom liturgists try to tap and tame into formulae. They were afraid of the formality and dullness engendered by repetition and the staleness that breeds indifference… it seemed to them as if the Anglicans wished only to approach a distant and dignified deity with the words “Your Majesty”; while Puritans would prefer to say, “Abba, Father”. The simple spontaneity of such prayers was matched with assurance, naturalness, intimacy, and a moving directness.” (The Worship of the American Puritans, 1929-1730 by Horton Davies, Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1999. Pages 42-43)

Many churches today seem to wrestle with this. I was raised in a Christian home and in a wonderful church, but for some reason I, in my fallen nature, regarded God as no more than a far off King when He really is so much more. My idea of praying was that you pray in a way that you might write a letter, then you send it off to heaven with an “Amen.” As I have noted in a blog post before, I usually do not end my own private prayers anymore with “amen”, because most people tend to use this as a sort of hanging up of the spiritual phone, as if to say “Goodbye God, I’m through talking to You.” In reality, I think that private prayer should be a constant thing - we can pray while eating, I can pray while typing this blog post, or while brushing my teeth, or while walking from class to class at college. Constant prayer makes one’s relationship with God so much stronger - no longer does God seem distant, but rather as if He is walking with you. “Amen” is a perfectly proper response to corporate prayer, but in private prayer it does not make much sense anyways. “Amen” is a response of assent or agreement. Of course an individual agrees with himself when praying privately!

I believe the Puritans understood this. Likewise, when they praised God, they treated their hymns as prayers put to music. Too often modern Christians find themselves singing the tune but not thinking about the words. I heard a joke about Baptists once that said “If you never sing the middle or fifth stanza in church, you might be a Baptist”. Unfortunately, the practice of cutting out hymn stanzas (usually in a way that makes the hymn lose all coherency and meaning) is prevalent through all denominations, not just Baptist, even though most hymns portray a particular theme or subject throughout all the stanzas, rather than isolated subjects in each stanza.

Today I am going to give everyone a brief introduction to Puritan prayer and poetry. I am not going to apply it any further to our modern lives, but I am going to show you how seriously the Puritans took their relationship with God to be.

Puritan Prayer:

“A second factor marking prayer’s importance [to the Puritans] was the great length at which some ministers prayed and the intensity of their private piety. Some ministers prayed for as long as they preached.” (The Worship of the American Puritans, 1929-1730 by Horton Davies, Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1999. Page 147-148)

Puritan prayer was powerful because it was not empty (like “God is great, God is good, God we thank You for our food, amen”) but poured out with fervor and meaning. Though the Puritans recognized that the length of a prayer did not affect its meaning or importance to God, they also loved prayer so much that they used the privilege of prayer without cessation. Their often long prayers showed that they took this privilege seriously. Puritans, for the most part, did not pray long prayers to be impressive like Pharisees, but to take full advantage of this extraordinary blessing. While others in their day and all throughout history have taken prayer for granted, the Puritans recognized it for what it was: an undeserved mercy from God.

“The Most High is a God who hears prayer. Though He is infinitely above all and stands in no need of creatures, yet He is graciously pleased to take a merciful notice of poor worms of the dust… God in His Word has given many promises that He will hear their prayers.” (To All the Saints of God: Addresses to the Church by Jonathan Edwards, Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2003. Page 47)

The Puritans closely engaged God in prayer, especially in private prayer. They did not hesitate to pour out their hearts about deeply spiritual matters and concerns.

“Isaiah 62:6-7: ‘Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest.’ Thus God allowed Jacob to wrestle with Him, yea, to be resolute in it: ‘I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me.’ It is noticed with approbation when men are violent for the kingdom of heaven and take it by force. Thus Christ suffered the blind man to be most importunate and unceasing in his cries to Him… others who were present rebuked him to hold his peace, looking upon it as too great a boldness and an indecent behavior towards Christ… but Christ did not rebuke him, but rather stood and commanded him to be brought unto Him… the freedom of access that God gives appears also in allowing us to come to Him in prayer for everything that we need, both temporal and spiritual.” (To All the Saints of God: Addresses to the Church by Jonathan Edwards, Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2003. Page 50)

Examples of this can be shown throughout Puritan literature, but perhaps best in the collection of Puritan poems titled Valley of Vision. This volume contains beautiful prayers meant to inspire Christians. They are not meant to be hollow models, repeated day after day, but rather inspirations for Christians to encourage them to pray their own prayers in a like manner and pour out their hearts before God.

Here is a small part of one prayer:

“I need to repent of my repentance,
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to cover my sins,
No loom to weave my own righteousness…
I am always going into the far country,
And am always returning home as a prodigal,
Always saying, Father, forgive me,
And Thou are always bringing forth the best robe.”
(The Valley of Vision, Edited by Arthur Bennett, The Banner of Truth Trust, 2005, Page 136-137)

Concisely yet powerfully in the above prayer, the Puritan bemoans the fact that everything he does, even his prayers of repentance, are tainted by sin. He begs God to save him from iniquity, then thanks God for His longsuffering towards him.

To quote small slivers of the prayers from The Valley of Vision hardly does the book justice. Of all Puritan literature out there, this is one of my top recommendations. Those who buy The Valley of Vision should not regret it.

Puritan Poetry:

The Puritans took great care to make their prayers and poetry eloquent and beautiful. While they often stated that the beauty of the prayer is not nearly as important as the content, they also strove to give their best to God and to speak to Him in love and adoration. One way they adored God was through poetry.

One excellent collection of Puritan poetry is the book Worthy is the Lamb. An example:

“I that am drawn out of the depth,
Will sing upon the shore;
I that in hell’s dark suburbs lay,
Pure mercy will adore.
The terrors of the living God
My soul did so affright,
I feared lest I should be condemned
To an eternal night.”
(Worthy is the Lamb, Edited by Maureen Bradley, Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2004, Page 103)

In one stanza of poetry is put all the power and fury of hell and all the beauty and wonderfulness of God’s grace! Whereas sin and hell are like drowning in the depths of the sea, God’s grace is like singing upon a summer beach. Such powerful imagery and meaning are pervasive throughout Puritan poetry.

These two great works, Valley of Vision and Worthy is the Lamb, are fine additions to the library of anyone interested in Puritan literature. To strengthen your own relationship with God it is sometimes necessary to read the writings of those who already have strong relationships with Him; these works are helpful in that way. My spiritual life has been profoundly impacted by those two works.



God bless,
A. Shepherd
The Aspiring Theologian


Post Script: My next couple of posts will probably take a break from the topic of the Puritans and focus on other topics like the Authority of Scripture and Dichotomy and Trichotomy.