George Herbert on Prayer (21)

When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sang a new song… Revelation 5.8, 9

Prayer the church’s banquet, angel’s age,
   God’s breath in man returning to his birth,
   The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth
Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tow’r,
   Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
   The six-days world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
   Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
   Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
   Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood,
   The land of spices; something understood.
                                            - George Herbert

Church bells began to be common throughout Christian lands during the Middle Ages. Their purpose was to call the saints to worship and prayer. On the Lord’s Day bells would chime an hour before the service of worship was to begin and then again at the hour of convening. During the week bells would be struck at various times, sometimes following the hours of prayer to call believers away, if only for a few moments, to commune with the Lord in prayer.

Herbert saw prayer as a kind of church bell. When we bow our heads to pray, it invites others to join us and to set their hearts to commune with the Lord. We get a picture of this in Acts 4.23-30. When the Apostles finished their report, someone began to lead in prayer, using Psalms 146 and 2. Because the people present had been taught how to pray the psalm, all that was needed was for someone to begin, then they all “lifted their voices to God with one accord” and joined the prayer leader in prayer.

We have seen this effect at work even among unbelievers. Whether it is in the halls of Congress, at some large public meeting or gathering, or even to begin some sporting event, let the person in leadership say, “Let us pray,” and hats come off, heads are bowed, and silence settles in as all, believers and unbelievers alike, heed to summons and respect the request (cf. Ps. 81.15).

So the more we pray the more we encourage others to prayer, and the more they pray, the more we are encouraged in our prayers. So that our prayers continue as mutual summons and invitations to prayer, as well as sweet times of communing with the Lord together.

But Herbert saw these church bells of prayer being heard even beyond the stars. We recall that he understood prayer to reach to far borders of the material world – the Milky Way – and to penetrate the veil separating the seen and unseen realms. In the book of Revelation the saints who have already arrived in glory, in that “in-between” state of heaven, are not idle. We see them carrying vessels of incense to fill the halls of heaven with those fragrances most agreeable to the Lord. This incense, we are told, is the prayers which the saints on earth offer, and which are, in some way (here is a mystery!), intercepted and blended together by the saints in glory to make a sweet and fragrant offering to the Lord.

Our prayers on earth thus resound like church bells to the saints in glory, summoning them to action as they ready our prayers to make them pleasing to the Lord of glory. In this they – and we – are aided by the Spirit of God and our great High Priest Himself. But having our prayers presented by the saints who have finished their race signifies, at least, that our prayers are in line with the convictions of those who have already achieved heaven, and who offer our prayers to God as though they were their own.

Prayer is thus truly a means of moving earth and heaven on behalf of the will, purposes, and glory of God. Our prayers are like church bells, and the more we are seen to be a people of prayer, the more the glory of prayer and the mystery of prayer will fill the atmosphere of our secular age with the ancient tolling of a higher reality and hope.

Next step: Whom will your prayers summon to join you in prayer today?

T. M.’s books on prayer include God’s Prayer Program, a guide to learning how to pray the psalms; The Psalms for Prayer, in which all the psalms are set up to guide you in how to pray them; and If Men Will Pray, a serious attempt to call men of faith to greater diligence in prayer. Follow the links provided here to purchase these from our online store.