Praying the Proverbs

In my personal devotions, I'm currently doing an in-depth study of the book of Proverbs. Slowing down has helped me really meditate on the text and work through difficult passages to understand. During this time, I have also found a great opportunity to pray the Proverbs. Before we dig into an example of how one might pray the Proverbs, let’s get a little background on the book.

 

Proverbs chapter 1 speaks about the purpose in verses 1-6:

 

               1      The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:

               2      To know wisdom and instruction,

         To discern the sayings of understanding,

               3      To receive instruction in wise behavior,

         Righteousness, justice and equity;

               4      To give prudence to the naive,

         To the youth knowledge and discretion,

               5      A wise man will hear and increase in learning,

         And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,

               6      To understand a proverb and a figure,

         The words of the wise and their riddles.

 

In verse 7, we see the launch point for the remainder of the book: the wise and the foolish. Verse 7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Before I started into studying Proverbs, I referenced the MacArthur Study Bible’s “The Book of Proverbs”, the BKC’s “Proverbs by Sid S. Buzzell” and Dr. Abner Chou’s OT Survey lecture on The Book of Proverbs to try and wrap my arms around this rich book. For further study, I also recommend looking into Prof. Bruce Waltke’s works here: https://www.biblicaltraining.org/proverbs/bruce-waltke.

 

Proverbs 1 and 4 tells us the value of wisdom. 4:7 says, “The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom (Or the primary thing is wisdom); and with all your acquiring, get understanding.”

 

We must remember Who the source of wisdom is. 2:6: “For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

 

It is my prayer that you will know God deeper as you study His wisdom in Proverbs. And may praying the Proverbs bring you to an even more intimate place of worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ!

 

I am currently in the first 5 verses of chapter 13, so let’s read them, and then I’ll give a sample prayer for verse 1a:

 

               1      A wise son accepts his father’s discipline,

         But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.

               2      From the fruit of a man’s mouth he enjoys good,

         But the desire of the treacherous is violence.

               3      The one who guards his mouth preserves his life;

         The one who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.

               4      The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,

         But the soul of the diligent is made fat.

               5      A righteous man hates falsehood,

         But a wicked man acts disgustingly and shamefully.

 

A wise son accepts his father’s discipline, Heavenly Father, I pray that as Your children, by the grace of Christ, we would readily accept Your discipline (Pr. 3:11-12; Heb. 12:4-11); knowing that such discipline is “… for our good, so that we may share [Your] holiness.” (Heb. 12) And “… to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” (Heb. 12) May we also respect our earthly fathers, who “disciplined [discipline] us … as seemed best to them ….” (Heb. 12). We ask in faith for wisdom (Jas. 1:5-8), and we thank You that You graciously grant this! Thank You for the grace we have in Christ, who is the ultimate wise Son (Matt. 3:17; Col. 2:3). Thank You for being our perfect Father, who disciplines us. Thank You for Your Word, which gives us wisdom. We pray all these things in Jesus’ precious name, amen.

 

Your prayers may not be this intricate for each line. With reference to verse 1b, it may be something more like, Father, I pray that You would have mercy on the scoffer. May we abhor his way. And so on and so forth.

 

On a final note, as you are studying and praying, remember to always use proper hermeneutics! You don’t ever want to add or take away from the text (Pr. 30:5-6; Rev. 22:18-19). Rather, may your time in the word be a time of worshipping the Word, Jesus Christ!

New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (Pr 1:1-7, 2:6, 4:7, 13:1–5; Heb 12:4-11). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.