Now that I have your attention, let me talk about corporate prayer.
Our Sunday evening prayer meetings have, for decades, been a part of BBC’s congregational life. We have grown from a small handful to a couple of hundred. Our venue moved from what was a small classroom, where the kitchen now is, to the area behind the balcony. For many years now, we have corporately prayed in the main church hall. Prayer shifted from a few minutes before the evening church service, to thirty minutes before the service, to, now, a regular part of evening worship service. Clearly, there have been a lot of changes, encouraging growth, and ongoing reformation in this vital aspect our church life. But, as we should well know, there is always room for improvement.
Last Sunday evening, I encouraged us to use plural pronouns—“we” and “us” and “our”—as we corporately pray. When it comes to corporate prayer, these are our preferred pronouns. At the risk of sounding pedantic or petty, I want to make the argument that giving attention to these pronouns when we pray is not only practically helpful but, more to the point, theologically significant.
On a practical level, using plural pronouns reminds us that we are praying together about the same matter. With the words, “We pray for,” the congregation is reminded that we are petitioning God together and ourattention levels are therefore sharpened. After all, if we are praying for something, we should want to know what it is we are praying for!
Again, praying with a commitment beyond merely “Jesus and me” is a means of instruction. Plural pronouns help us to pay attention to the words being prayed, which leads to meaningful understanding and learning. For example, as a member prays about Proverbs 13:20 (“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm”), we are reminded of the importance of associating with those who are wise and godly rather than choosing companions who are foolhardy because ungodly. So, when we pray through this verse, the message comes home more forcefully to us as individuals. In other words, the plural stimulates the singular.
But there is also a theological aspect to this, and the prayers of Ezra (Ezra 9), the priests in Nehemiah (Nehemiah 9), and Daniel (Daniel 9) (I love the symmetry!) are helpfully instructive in this matter.
These men prayed to Yahweh, burdened for the condition of his people and about their place of worship, Jerusalem. Corporate Israel, having been chastened by God through the Babylonian captivity, needed God’s pardon, provision, and, among other alliterated needs, protection.
But as you read these prayers, you will notice the almost exclusive use of plural pronouns. The lone exception is Ezra, who begins with “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to life my face to you, my God” (v. 6). But then immediately he switches to the plural: “for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted to the heavens.” This pluralistic unity then dominates the rest of the prayer and chapter.
Note that, even Daniel, who in prayed in his private capacity (Ezra and the priests in Nehemiah were praying publicly), did so using “we” and “our.” But especially in a corporate setting, we see that Ezra and the priests in Nehemiah prayed with a sense of corporate identity. They were appropriately inclusive as they asked God to hear their prayers on behalf of the people of God. I am aware of the heated arguments about “corporate guilt” in our day, especially when it comes to how former generations sinned against their fellow man. Nevertheless, as we have seen, these scriptural prayers emphasise corporate identity of God’s people in these very personal prayers.
This “pronoun plurality” is also evident in many, if not most, of the Psalms.
In the Psalms, we notice that sometimes there is a grammatical tug of war between “I” and “us,” or between “me” and “we.” Why? Because even when an individual believer sees his or her need for God’s help, that individual need is not unrelated to the wider people of God. This biblical and theological truth informs us that, in corporate prayer, we are doing so together. Therefore, on Sundays, quite literally, let us pray.
Doug