the spiritual director
What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? (Psalm 8:4)
There is a great deal more to be said about Psalm 8 than space allowed last week. It is a psalm that marvels at the wonders of creation. It praises the Lord who is sovereign over it all. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of it is the recognition that at the centre of the created order, crowned with glory and honour are human beings.
In verse 5 the psalmist asks: ‘ What are human beings that you are mindful of them?’ This is a vital question for every human being to ask. It is one of the ‘meaning of life’ kind of questions. It is a question that has huge implications for the Christian who is seeking a deeper relationship with God in prayer also.
The personal God who has made himself known in Jesus has drawn us into a relationship where God has taken the initiative. The simplest definition of prayer is ‘conversation with God.’ But a conversation is always two-sided. A conversation has to be started by one of those involved and most of us imagine that we are the ones who have to get the conversation going.
We frequently struggle with prayer and I have met so many people who feel guilty about their prayer lives, or lack of them. Prayer often seems beset with ‘ shoulds’ and ‘oughts’. I should pray more frequently/fervently/faithful- ly or whatever. An alarming number of Christians stop praying because it seems too hard. They seem to be getting nowhere. If God has drawn us to himself and has placed the Holy Spirit in our hearts so that we can cry Abba Father, then it must be God who initiates prayer (Rom 8: 15,16).
If he is ‘mindful’ of us, as it says in Psalm 8, that means we are on his mind and in his heart and he wants us to respond to the conversation he has initiated with us through prayer. God always makes the first move. Prayer is his gift to us so that we may come into his presence and commune with him. Communion, not just communication lies at the heart of this prayer relationship.
Does it feel too amazing to grasp? Does God seem remote? Do you look at the heavens full of myriads and myriads of stars and feel small and insignificant? So did the psalmist, but he went on to marvel that at the heart of it all is the God who knows each one of us and cares for us.
How we pray flows directly from who we think we are. The psalm prayer last week directed us to look at Jesus, Son of Man and our Saviour as the fulfilment of creation. He is the one who has opened the way for us to God the Father who loves us, woos us and seeks us out. This puts a very different perspective on prayer, not as one more thing we should be doing, but as the key to intimacy with this amazing God.