What prayer is appropriate for Halloween? I considered a line from a 1909 poem by Alfred Noyes, “From ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord deliver us,” but decided against it. October 31, 1517, was the day Martin Luther (1483-1546) nailed his 95 debate articles to the Wittenburg Church’s door. Martin had been an Augustinian monk, steeped in the tradition of praying at eight intervals through the day, called the Litany of the Hours. Psalm 119 featured prominently in this daily prayer observance, and Martin would have surely known this 176-verse prayer by heart. Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem, meaning its twenty-two sections each begin with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The entirety of the Psalm is based on the merits of God’s Word, from aleph to tav in the Hebrew alphabet or the equivalent of our saying “from A to Z.” Martin identified a threefold cycle for prayer contained in Psalm 119 as he enumerated in the Latin words: oratio, meditatio, and tentatio. The cycle begins with a prayer (oratio) to prepare us to receive the Word. Psalm 119 is replete with requests for God to keep us receptive to the Word—”teach me…direct me…show me…instruct me…strengthen me…sustain me…redeem me…be gracious to me.” The cycle of the Word of God deepens with meditation (meditatio). Martin urged readers to ruminate and chew over Scripture, much as a cow would chew its cud. The third movement in this Word of God cycle (tentatio), translated as struggle or trial, initially caught me by surprise. Shouldn’t the cycle of prayer and meditation lead to peace? Yet the practice of prayer and meditation can also lead us to discord. Meditating on God’s Word exposes our self-serving ambitions and vain pursuits. This is the place where the devil is most active, Martin observed, stirring up confusion and misunderstanding. The struggle causes us to fall back on God’s Word and prayer again, and so the cycle repeats, much to the devil’s dismay. Excerpts from Martin’s writings draw us into prayer:
Martin Luther
O my heavenly Father,God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
God of all comfort,
I thank you for revealing to me
Your dear Son, Jesus Christ,
In whom I believe,
Whom I have preached and confessed,
Whom I have loved and praised.
I pray, my Lord Jesus Christ,
Take my soul into your hands.
Heavenly Father,
I know that
Although I will leave this body
And be taken from this life,
I will live with you forever,
And that no one can pluck me
Out of your hands.
God so loved the world
That he gave his only begotten Son,
That whoever believes in him shall not perish
But have eternal life.
Our God is the God of salvation
And the Lord delivers from death.
Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.
You have redeemed me, O Lord,
the God of truth.
Ernst August Brueggeman, The Life of Dr. Martin Luther.
Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.