2 Maccabees 1:24-29: a reflection

24The prayer was like this: “O Lord, Lord God, the Creator of all things, you are awesome, strong, righteous, and merciful, you alone are King and gracious, 25you alone supply every need, you alone are righteous, almighty, and eternal, you who save Israel out of all evil, who chose the ancestors and sanctified them, 26accept the sacrifice for all your people Israel, and preserve your own portion, and consecrate it. 27Gather together our scattered people, set at liberty those who are in bondage among the heathen, look upon those who are despised and abhorred, and let the heathen know that you are our God. 28Punish those who oppress us and in arrogance shamefully entreat us. 29Plant your people in your holy place, even as Moses said.”

This passage records a prayer that begins by dwelling on who God is. O Lord, Lord God, Creator of all things, the prayer says, you are awesome and strong, righteous and merciful, the only King, gracious, the one who supplies every need. Before asking for anything, the prayer spends itself in naming God's character, his creative power, his justice and mercy, his kingship, his provision. It grounds its requests in the greatness and goodness of the God being addressed.

Then, from that foundation, the requests come: accept your people's offering, gather our scattered people, set free those in bondage, look upon the despised, and plant your people in your holy place. The prayer longs for the restoration of a scattered, oppressed people, and it asks God to gather them home. But notice the order: it praises God for who he is first, and then asks him to act in keeping with his character. The requests flow naturally from the God who has just been described.

This prayer models something worth imitating. When you pray, begin where this prayer begins, with who God is: the Creator, the merciful King, the one who supplies every need. Grounding your requests in God's character steadies and enlarges your faith, so that you ask in keeping with the greatness of the One you address. And bring to him, as this prayer does, your longing for restoration, for the scattered to be gathered and the oppressed to be freed. Praise God for who he is, and then ask him to act accordingly.

Lord, Creator of all things, awesome and strong, righteous and merciful, the only King who supplies every need, I praise you for who you are. Grounded in your greatness and goodness, I bring my longings to you: gather what is scattered, free what is bound, restore what is broken. Act in keeping with your character, and plant your people in your holy place. To you belong the praise and the power. Amen.