The blessing of Melchizedek - a blessing also for you!

In collecting prayers for ^the Book of Bible Prayers, I focused on actual prayers prayed by real people who lived in Bible times – people who pleaded, whined, praised, asked, expressed thanks, cried real tears, complained to God, and interceded for others – just as we do today!

According to early chapters of Genesis, people began to call on the Lord a couple of generations after Adam and Eve, but (maybe because they couldn’t write yet!) we don’t know what the actual words were. (Probably, “God, help!") Those references to prayer have generally been omitted, and so have most of the many, many blessings that laud God but don’t talk directly with or to the Lord.

A few blessed exceptions have been paraphrased as blessings that speak to God rather than about Him (for example, the high priestly prayer of Aaron.) However, in the case of Melchizedek, the king-priest’s words to Abraham remain as the first recorded blessing, appropriately beginning ^the Book of Bible Prayers.

Genesis 14:19-20 – the blessing of Melchizedek

May you be blessed by God most High,

maker of heaven and earth.

May you be blessed by God most High,

Who has delivered you from the hands

of those who wish you harm.

Prayerfully paraphrased by Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019, for the Book of Bible Prayers – a single volume for you to pray with “prayer partners” among God’s people, regardless of the hour, day, or year! If the book blesses you, please say so in an Amazon review. If not, please write me personally and tell me! Either way, thank you. God bless.

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NEW! the Book of Bible Prayers

After decades of researching what the Bible has to say about prayer and buying a bunch of prayer books that weren’t quite what I wanted, I felt led to collect the actual prayers in the Bible then prayer-a-phrase (prayerfully paraphrase) them into THE prayer book I personally want and need. If you do, too, you’ll be happy to know the Book of Bible Prayers is now available on Amazon.

With the gathering of these prayers, I saw things I’d never before noticed. As the Foreword notes, for example, “The prayers in the Hebrew scriptures (aka Old Testament) are frequently pleas, praise, thanksgiving, complaints, and petitions, but in the New Testament such requests or responses are less likely to occur. Instead, Paul and other apostles typically ask believers in Christ to pray for them. Or, more often, they offer parental blessings over the Christian communities they’re addressing. Similar to the priestly blessing of Aaron in Numbers 6, these New Testament blessings are directed toward the people rather than God, but I felt I would be remiss to exclude all of them, so a few of those blessings have been prayer-a-phrased as prayers."

An exception is the prayer of Melchizedek, which remains the blessing given over Abraham and now over us!

“May you be blessed by God most High,

maker of heaven and earth.

May you be blessed by God most High,

Who has delivered you from the hands

of those who wish you harm,”

Genesis 14:19-20.

That blessing also brought another surprise: i.e., It’s the first prayer-blessing recorded. Prior to that, we had God’s blessings over all creation in Genesis, and by the time of Adam and Eve’s grandson, we hear how “All people began to call on the Name of the Lord.” But it’s the actual prayers spoken to God that bring us this prayer book.

Lord willing, I’ll post a prayer from the book with some regularity on this site with the hope and prayer the Book of Bible Prayers will bring unity to the Body of Christ and more power to your prayer life and mine.

MaryHarwell Sayler, ©2019

…

Jesus prayed for Himself too

Here on earth, Jesus
prayed to God for help.

The Only Son prayed
with a shout and tears
to the Only One
Who could save Him
from fears of death,
and God heard
this prayer of trust.

Even Jesus,
the Son of God
knew
obedience
through misery.

And because He obeyed –

completely,
perfectly –

Jesus became
our High Priest
like Melchizedek,
and in this way
Christ gave
eternal salvation
to all who obey.

© 2013, Mary Harwell Sayler, prayer-a-phrase poem, Hebrews 5:7-10

Melchizedek: A priest prays for Abraham

Background: When Abram heard that his nephew Lot had been captured by the joint forces of four kings, he rounded up 318 men from his servants and set out to rescue his brother’s son. Abram not only accomplished this military feat, he also freed the people and possessions taken from their homes in Sodom and Gomorrah. Afterward, the king of Sodom came out to greet the returning hero in the Kings’ Valley and told him to keep the things belonging to the people of his town, but Abram refused. As he explained, he did not want anyone thinking the king of Sodom had made him rich!

At some point during this conversation, the Bible reports that the priest-king of Salem also came out to meet Abram, bringing bread and wine. No one knows anything about the ancestry of this priest-king to whom the fifth chapter of Hebrews later refers as “a priest forever.” Regardless, the man came from an area whose name stems from the Hebrew word “Shalom,” meaning “peace.”

“Melchizedek, the king of Salem and priest of God Most High, brought bread and wine to Abram and said: ‘May you be blessed, Abram, by God Most High, who owns heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, Who has given your enemies into your hand.” And Abram gave Melchizedek a tithe of all he had,” Genesis 14:18-20.

After this prayer blessing, which also praised God, Abram gave the first biblically recorded tithe of ten percent to the Priest Melchizedek, who was also King of Salem – the place now known as Jerusalem.

Question: What gift do you have for God? What blessing does God have for you?

Prayer: O, Most High God, I thank and praise You for the countless successes, triumphs, and blessings that You bring. Help me to use Your good gifts to Your great glory.

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© 2012, Mary Sayler, all rights reserved.
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