Prayer Beads

We Protestants don't use "prayer beads" (what many people call the rosary that is used in the Roman Catholic faith tradition). But those "beads" can help us with our prayers! Psalm 119 offers an example of another kind of "prayer beads," one that may be helpful to you.

If I asked you to name your favorite book of the Bible, I doubt if you would say “Psalms.” The gospel of John, and Isaiah, and even Esther are far more popular than the book of Psalms. But I’ll bet that every one of you knows a part of at least one psalm. I’ll bet that you know the 23^rd Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Lots of people know the beginning of Psalm 121: “I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” And when I was in Sunday school, I had to memorize Psalm 100: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands! Serve the Lord with gladness, and come into God’s presence with singing!” The book of Psalms may not be on the Top 10 list of popular Bible books, but some of the psalms are very well known! Even people who don’t go to church on a regular basis know them!

I think that the reason we know verses from so many psalms is because they speak for us. It doesn’t matter what we have to say; somewhere there is a psalm that says it, and says it with eloquence. If you’re discouraged or afraid or just happy to be alive, there is a psalm for you. In fact, the book of psalms is really a book of prayers. Oh, there are a few psalms that were probably used by the priests in Temple worship, and there are some others that talk about how great the King is; but the vast majority of the psalms are prayers: prayers of joy, prayers of lament, prayers of distress, even prayers of complaint. And they’re pretty good prayers, too, because they’re authentic! They say exactly what’s on the mind of whoever it was who wrote them. Some of the psalms ask, “Where are you, God?” Have you ever felt that way? The psalmist did, and he wrote a psalm asking just that. “How long will it be until you fix things, God?” There are a couple of psalms that ask that, too; and in language that is remarkably blunt. And while I don’t think that any of the psalms use the exact words, “Wow, God! You are awesome!”, the thought is certainly there more than once! All of our joys and concerns from A-Z are in the psalms; and if you look hard enough, you’ll probably find a psalm that echoes what you are feeling on any given day.

But here’s the question that’s on my mind right now. Do we pray about as many things as the psalms do – and with as much honesty? Some people don’t want to pray about everything that they are dealing with; because they think that if they do, God will be offended. But the psalms are sacred scripture; and if the prayers of the psalms cover all kinds of human experiences and emotions, why should we be afraid to pray about anything to God? Psalm 119 is a model of how to do just that. This psalm is an acrostic, a poetic masterpiece. Each group of verses begin with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The first group of verses all begin with aleph (the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet), the next group of verses all begin with beth (the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet), the third group of verses all begin with gimmel, and so on through the entire alphabet. It is as though the psalmist is saying that our prayers should run the gamut from aleph to tov (or, in our case, from A to Z).

What if took the wisdom of Psalm 119 to heart? What if we prayed about every single thing that was on our mind? Maybe we could even pattern our prayers after Psalm 119. Oh, I’m not suggesting that we pray using all 26 letters of our alphabet. That would take some time! But maybe we could use the first 5 letters of our own alphabet to remind us that everything is fair game for prayer. Those letters could be like prayer beads to help keep us focused on what we should be saying to God: our own kind of Protestant rosary. A, B, C, D, E. What could we do by using those letters as prayer beads?

Let’s start with A. A is for “Adore.” It’s always good to begin prayer by adoring God, by admitting that we aren’t God and that God is so much bigger than we are; and marveling at the fact that God wants a relationship with us! Adore. That’s a good place to start.

Next is B. B is for “Be honest with God.” How are you feeling today? What would you say to your best friend if you were meeting him or her for lunch? Is it a good day? A bad day? Are you on top of the world or discouraged? Are you mad as the dickens at somebody (and are you feeling guilty because you’re angry)? Talk it over with God, because God is always ready to listen to you.

On to C. C is for “Clap.” That’s a reminder to give God some appreciation! We applaud when we appreciate something; so let’s clap for God! Are there some things in your life that you appreciate? Thank God for them! Whenever you pray, try to identify five things for which you are grateful. It might be your home, your family, your friends, a fulfilling job, or just that you finally had time to relax. Saying “thank you” moves you out of yourself and gets you ready for the next letter, which is…

D! D is for “Distressed.” This is where we pray for other people. We carry a heavy load when people we care about are suffering; so we pray for them. We pray for ourselves, too, because we all have concerns that distress us. We can give our heavy load of distress to God, knowing that God can do things that we can’t begin to do.

Finally, we’ve arrived at E. E is for “Eavesdrop.” E reminds us to listen for what God is saying to us. What do you do when you eavesdrop? When you’re at a table at Bob Evans and the woman at the next table has just dropped a bit of gossip that you want to hear, you stop talking and become very quiet… you focus on what she is saying… and you listen as hard as you can. That’s what we have to do when we listen for God. God doesn’t blare instructions into our ears with an amplifier. God uses a still, small voice that can be very hard to hear sometimes; so we need to listen to God as hard as we do when we’re eavesdropping on somebody at the next table.

Adore God, be honest with God, clap with joy, share your distresses, and eavesdrop. Now, A, B, C, D, and E can be arranged any way you like! Prayers don’t always follow along in a neat pattern. But when you find it difficult to pray, those five letters might be the help that you need to get started. My prayers don’t always come easily; so I’m betting that yours don’t, either. Prayer is the foundation of our lives as Christians! Prayer puts us in contact with the God who created us and who loves us. Prayer reminds us of what Jesus wants us to do, and fills us with the Spirit to help us follow him faithfully. A, B, C, D, E. I invite you to take those prayer beads home with you and use them every day to draw closer to God!