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When Christ was on the cross, he cried out words from a Psalm. The lament comes from Psalm 31.5 and appears as the last words of Christ on the cross, as told by the Luke Gospel:
Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last." (Luke 23.46, ESV)
Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), missionary to South India from 1895 until her passing on in 1951, wrote that “every Jewish mother used to teach her child to say those words as a good-night prayer” (Leonard Allen, Ed., The Contemporaries Meet the Classics on Prayer, 63). Jesus possibly learned the final words he prayed on the cross in the Luke Gospel from his mother and when he was a small child.
Carmichael observes that sometimes we find prayer difficult because of tiredness or dryness. At those times, she says, we can be helped by letting the psalms and hymns we know “say themselves or sing themselves inside us” (Ibid., 62).
This is one reason it is important for children to be brought up to learn by heart hymns and scriptures. Throughout life, the Spirit will surface these rich words, images, and music at the precise time we need them.
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Likewise, learning hymns and scriptures allows us to be better prepared for spontaneous prayer. I was walking out of a care home. I had visited a member who was recovering from a severe stroke and had prayer with her. Just before leaving the building, I noticed that I was walking and praying, inwardly and spontaneously, a three-word prayer “Peace of Christ.” I was surprised that somehow my spirit had connected with the need of those people and Spirit was praying through me, even without my conscious consent. This seems to be what happened to Jesus on the cross. In a time of feeling abandoned by his Father, out of all the scriptures that Jesus knew, one arose to heart and mind to express what he needed to cry to the Father.
Reflections
Have you experienced spontaneous prayer? Explain. How do you employ Scripture or hymns in your prayer?
Spiritual Exercise
1. For one week choose a different hymn daily to read through slowly as a prayer.
2. Do Lectio Divina with an inspirational hymn or poem.
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