Theological Journal – May 25 Reflections on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Prayerbook of the Bible (1)

We’ll be using Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Prayerbook of the Bible (Kindle edition) on the Psalms in this Monday spot replacing Moltmann Mondays for a while. Bonhoeffer has a distinctive take on the Psalms and their role in Christian prayer so I hope you will find the material here provocative and helpful.

We often hear that prayer is simply talking to God. Whatever is on our hearts, we should just let him know. Bonhoeffer disagrees. “Praying certainly does not mean simply pouring out one’s heart. It means, rather, finding the way to and speaking with God, whether the heart is full or empty. No one can do that on one’s own. For that one needs Jesus Christ.” (3405-3407) On our own, we have no true prayer.

However, “If Christ takes us along in the prayer which Christ prays, if we are allowed to pray this prayer with Christ, on whose way to God we too are led and by whom we are taught to pray, then we are freed from the torment of being without prayer . . . that is what Jesus Christ wants; he wants to pray with us. We pray along with Christ’s prayer and therefore may be certain and glad that God hears us. When our will, our whole heart, enters into the prayer of Christ, then we are truly praying. We can pray only in Jesus Christ, with whom we shall also be heard.” (3413-3417)

Therefore, we must learn to speak to God by following and learning the way God has spoken to us (Scripture). And to learn to pray we turn to the only portion of scripture that is wholly prayer – the Psalms.

And if we want to learn to pray the Psalter we must ask first what its prayers have to do with Jesus Christ, not with us.

-Do you agree that praying is not simply pouring out our hearts to God?

-What do you think of DB’s claim that we must ask first what the Psalms have to do with Jesus to learn to pray them.