The Best Model Prayer
The Prayer of the Psalms
It is prayer through the Psalms. The Psalms are suitable for prayer in every generation:
Through the Psalms, David speaks with God while he is in the depth of spiritual communion, and the Psalms were inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Before they were the words of David, they were the words of God. The Lord Christ said concerning them: “David said by the Spirit” (Matt. 22:43).
Therefore, when we pray the Psalms, we address God with the words of God, and thus our prayers accord with the will of God.
The Psalms were used in prayer in the Old Testament.
Among their examples are the Songs of Ascents, which the people chanted as they went up to the Temple on the holy mountain.
The Psalms were also prayed by the people from the Apostolic Age, at the beginning of Christianity, in the New Testament, under divine guidance.
In this regard, the Apostle Paul says in his First Epistle to the Corinthians: “…whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm” (1 Cor. 14:26).
And he says in his Epistle to the Ephesians: “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5:19).
In both Epistles, he placed the Psalms first.
Hence, all churches, in every generation, have used the Psalms.
Even Protestant churches that do not use the Psalms in prayer have many of their hymns taken from the Psalms.
Therefore, prayer through the Psalms agrees with biblical truth and evangelical truth.
It agrees with divine truth, biblical teaching, the Word of God, and all these expressions that some people use, as though the Church were—according to their view—far removed from all of this!
Who among people could be so presumptuous as to imagine that he is deeper than David?
The enemy of goodness can portray even to some young people, at the beginning of their relationship with God, that they are deeper than David in his prayer,
deeper than him in his spirituality, understanding, and sensitivity, and in what he ought to say to God…!! He may make them imagine that they can compose better prayers!
Nevertheless, we benefit from the Psalms, and we may add whatever we wish.
Our personal prayers, which we say in our own language, style, and feelings, and in which the Spirit helps us, do not prevent us from praying the Psalms.
And our prayer through the Psalms does not prevent our personal prayers. Here is the moderate view: Do this and do not leave that.
Not everyone is in a strong spiritual state, with fervent prayers…!
Not everyone’s life proceeds in the Spirit at all times, with the Spirit speaking through their lips. They need spiritual means that propel them forward and give them warmth. Among these means are the Psalms.
No one can—however much pride may make him imagine it—be spiritually stronger than the Apostles who prayed the Psalms, and each one had his psalm.
We cannot call people to abandon the Psalms in the hope of spiritual levels beyond their ability that they have not reached. In this way, you leave them in emptiness.
The Psalms, in fact, encompass all the various human emotions.
They encompass everything that may come to the heart of the person praying, from spiritual requests and communion with God. They also encompass all spiritual levels.
Whoever contemplates the depths of the Psalms finds not only spiritual satisfaction in them, but also learns from them how to address God.
This brings us to another beautiful point concerning the Agpeya:
The Agpeya Teaches Prayer:
How profound is the humility of the Apostles when they said to the Lord, “Teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).
The Apostles asked to learn how to pray. Yet in our days, a young person may come and say that he, and no one else, needs to learn how to pray,
because the Holy Spirit within him “makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered,” and therefore he is satisfied with the groanings of the Spirit. Through this supposed sufficiency, he criticizes all the prayers of the Church.
The Agpeya truly teaches us prayer in many ways.
1. First, it teaches us the kinds of prayer according to their purposes:
It shows us that there is the element of petition, which has many forms. There are many petitions for oneself, in all one’s relationships with the Kingdom, and there are other petitions for the Church and for others.
Besides petition, there is another element: thanksgiving. We offer thanksgiving for many different reasons. A special prayer has been established for this purpose, called the Prayer of Thanksgiving, filled with details.
And so that the Church may teach us the etiquette of addressing God, it placed the Prayer of Thanksgiving first, before the prayers of petition.
Besides thanksgiving and petition, the Agpeya also includes the element of contrition, confession of sin, and asking for forgiveness, so that the person praying may always remember that no one is good but God alone,
and that he—the person praying—continually needs forgiveness, and therefore humbles himself. Humility is the foundation of all virtues, and without it no spiritual life can be sound.
The Agpeya offers us another element of prayer: praise, prayers of glorification, and meditation on God’s beautiful attributes, which are many. The Agpeya has introduced us to many examples of them.
Who, when praying alone without the Agpeya, can or will remember to include all these elements in his prayer?
2. The Agpeya also teaches us the etiquette of addressing God:
Whether in the prayers of the Psalms or in the other sections of the Agpeya, how do we speak to God? In what manner? How did the saints address Him? What are the depths of the emotions of the soul toward God? We learn these things.
Many people do not know how to speak to God and may make mistakes in expression. Not everyone is at a high spiritual level.
The Agpeya teaches believers how to pray—or at least those who are humble enough to say with the Apostles, “Teach us, O Lord, to pray.”
The Agpeya reminds us of holy occasions:
The Agpeya places the Lord Christ before us on many occasions.
It reminds us of the eternal birth of Christ in the Gospel of the Morning Prayer. It reminds us of His coming into our world to enlighten every person in the sections of the Morning Prayer.
The Agpeya reminds us of Christ’s crucifixion and His redemption of humanity in the Sixth Hour Prayer, and of His death on the cross and His salvation of the thief in the Ninth Hour Prayer.
It reminds us of the acceptance of sinners in the Evening Prayer (the Eleventh Hour) and in the Midnight Prayer.
The Agpeya prayers remind us of the Second Coming of the Lord Christ, remind us of His command to us to watch, and place before us the parable of the faithful steward as an example of repentance.
The Agpeya also reminds us of the descent of the Holy Spirit in the Third Hour Prayer, which is a blessed divine occasion.
Who, when praying alone without the Agpeya, can remember all these holy occasions and their effectiveness in our lives?
The Agpeya is a school. Just as it teaches us prayer in its purposes and kinds, and teaches us the manner of addressing God,
it also teaches us how to benefit spiritually from certain holy occasions, so that we never forget them, but remember them and benefit from the useful memories they carry for our lives.
Without the Agpeya, perhaps we would not remember these occasions, or at least we would not remember them daily.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in El-Keraza Magazine, Year Ten, Issue Fifteen, April 13, 1979.
For better translation support, please contact the center.
