Filling Golden Bowls

“… golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”

Stop for a moment and contemplate with me the wonder of having our prayers presented to God as an act of worship, of having our meditations before God described as “incense” in his sight, a fragrant offering. On my best day, I would never dare put it like that ... but God does. “What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer” indeed!

But would that be ALL our prayers in those golden bowls? I sincerely doubt it.

What’s in the Bowls?

Let me explain that. On one hand, the Lord is exceedingly gracious. I would not put it past him to place some minor value on my less-coherent stammerings, my too-selfish requests or my litany of personal pleas to meet daily needs for myself and others, if only because they demonstrate that I know my own helplessness and understand his compassion for me. Perhaps our loving Father retains for eternity each and every prayer of his children, however faltering, for whatever small pleasure it brings to him, in much the way a mother tucks away a childhood doodle to mark the fond memory of a particular stage of development on the way to maturity. It could be. The Father certainly doesn’t lack the bandwidth to retain it all or the love to care about every exacting detail.

On the other hand, I can’t help but notice that the prayers of the saints in these golden bowls full of incense are held up before the throne of God at the precise moment the Lamb takes the scroll from the right hand of him who is seated upon the throne. It is the Lamb’s initiative in stepping forward, in demonstrating his own infinite worth and his absolute and unique right to judge the world, that impels the four living creatures and twenty-four elders to first fall down before him, then to sing the new song. In this very moment, the elders offer the prayers of the saints to God. The Lamb stepping forward to take the scroll of God’s righteous judgments against sin is desperately needed. The world can not do without it.

It strikes me that the prayers symbolized by the golden bowls full of incense are probably specifically associated with that momentous event.

Rain Upon the Mown Grass

Solomon’s prayer in Psalm 72 may be one of these:

“Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to the royal son!
May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice!
Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness!
May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the children of the needy,
and crush the oppressor!

May they fear you while the sun endures,
and as long as the moon, throughout all generations!
May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,
like showers that water the earth!
In his days may the righteous flourish,
and peace abound, till the moon be no more!

May he have dominion from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth!
May desert tribes bow down before him,
and his enemies lick the dust!”

It goes on longer, but it’s all that grand, focused and relentlessly brilliant. Would that prayer fit the time and place described in Revelation 5? I think it might be very suited to the occasion. To me, that is the perfect golden bowl prayer. And when we take Solomon’s words in our mouths before the Lord, we pray it with him, and it becomes not just his, but ours. That’s one thing the psalms are for: corporate worship and anticipation of the kingdom.

Kingdom Come

Or, might these be prayers analogous to those of the widow in the Lord’s parable, after which he asked rhetorically, “Will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.” Is a request for personal justice selfish? It need not be if it anticipates the glory of God in the process. Such a request is very much in keeping with the spirit of the Lord’s Prayer. It’s all tied together, you see. The dominion of Christ in the world that rejected him automatically implies justice for the oppressed. Christ’s exaltation and righteous rule are all part of the same seamless garment, like grace and truth or the humanity and deity of the God-man.

“Teach us to pray,” asked the disciples. Jesus granted their request. But right there amidst — or really prior to — the daily bread and forgiven trespasses and plea for deliverance from temptation and evil are these words:

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

At very least, when offered sincerely and not as mere template language, that part of your prayers and mine goes straight into the golden bowls where it belongs; I have confidence of that. There is no distinction between the kingdom of the one seated on the throne in heaven and the Lamb’s: “The kingdom of the world,” cry the loud voices in heaven, “has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

Least-Recited Words

Interestingly, I suspect language like “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth” and the desires these words reflect are among the least-prayed elements of the Lord’s Prayer. I know my own prayer patterns. There are plenty of requests for deliverance from temptation, thanks for needs met and prayers for the needs of the day and needs to come. But contemplation of the time in which the Lamb of God will judge the world in righteousness? Not so much. And not so often in our corporate prayer times either. These are frequently too full of sick friends, upcoming programs, missionary dramas and acquaintances who desperately need salvation to squeeze in a few words about the coming kingdom and the glories of Christ.

None of these are bad things to pray for, but neither do they articulate the longing for the return of the Lord to reign on this earth and to be glorified in his people that should be foremost in our thinking at every moment of every day.

I wonder why that is. In the Father’s eyes, it is highly likely the prayers that cry out for the glorification and exaltation of his Son in this world are the most precious of all. And there is literally no help for this world apart from the second coming of Christ.

How about it? Are we filling golden bowls, or just filling time until the Lord returns?

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Golden bowl photo courtesy Gary Todd, CC0