Silent prayer - is it biblical?

Saying prayers, and praying, are two totally different things. A self-righteous Pharisee may excel in the former; none but a converted soul can enjoy the latter. The spirit of prayer is the spirit of the new man; the language of prayer is the distinct utterance of the new life. The moment a spiritual babe is born, into the new creation, it sends up a cry of helpless dependence toward the source of its birth. Who would dare to hush that cry? Let the babe be gently satisfied, not rudely silenced. The very cry which ignorance would seek to stifle, falls like sweetest music on a parent's ear. It is the proof of life. It evidences the existence of a new object around which the affections of a parent's heart may entwine themselves.

(2.) The phrase, "prayed thus with himself," (πρὸς ἑαυτόν,) means that he prayed to this effect, not aloud in the hearing of others, but silently. We can easily see from what follows, that there was neither heart nor conscience in the matter, unlike the broken, humbled, publican; but communion with others was hardly in question in either case. What God wanted and valued was the conscience in His presence, and this the publican evinced, not the Pharisee.

In general our prayers should be articulate, but what is really important is what we are in our spirits. It is quite obvious that Nehemiah was carrying this matter upon his spirit; he could not pray audibly whilst serving the king. In our work, and in places where we cannot be praying audibly, we ought to be carrying these exercises on our spirits, and whilst not claiming the faithfulness which marked Nehemiah, yet we can say that we do feel these things in measure.

What is to be done? Are you obliged to forego the benefits of prayer, and act on your own unaided judgment and resources without reference to God? Not so; even in such a case you are at liberty to lift your heart upward in earnest, though brief and silent, desire for succour and support. Words may fail; but "Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed." Let there be but the upturned eye and the deep yearnings of the spirit, and answers will come.

The king did show him mercy as he had desired, and invited a request from him. This was a challenge, and Nehemiah's response to it is very instructive. The record is, first, 'So I prayed to the God of heaven', and then, 'I said to the king … ' God first, and the king second. This silent prayer must have shot up to heaven in a matter of two or three seconds, quite unknown to the king or anybody else, and it was evidently as speedily answered from heaven, so that the request he made was the right one, and to meet with a favourable answer.

How often one has had a powerful consciousness in the soul that prayer has been heard, when no word, or half a word, has been uttered: one has suddenly felt that the Lord has come in to answer.

Take the worship-meeting: there the spirits of those assembled must be in action; audible words are not essential [ ] though usual. We should all know that there may be true worship without any words at all. Times of silence are not necessarily wasted moments. We should not forget this, and chafe because there is no outward activity.

Some have wondered if this applies only if a woman prays or prophesies audibly, and if therefore she need use a head covering in the assembly because women keep silent in the assembly (1 Cor. 14:34). Yet in the assembly meetings every person in the assembly is to participate fully in all the prayers and ministry and reading of the Scriptures, though most individuals usually participate inaudibly. A woman's spiritual exercise of taking part without speaking is just as important as the man's place in furthering the welfare of the assembly. This is too easily forgotten in our tendency to exaggerate the public place. Those who are behind the scenes have far more effect in the way a meeting progresses than we generally stop to consider. Other Scriptures confirm this lovely fact, such as Acts 1:14 where the disciples “all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.” All were praying but certainly not all were praying audibly. Acts 4:24 says that the company there “lifted up their voice to God with one accord.” Again not every one would pray audibly but all prayed with one accord. This unity is beautiful. The same is found in Acts 12:12: “many were gathered together, praying” for Peter who was in prison. The many were praying but we could not think that all were praying audibly. This instruction then clearly applies to assembly gatherings, though it is not confined to these.

The glad and grateful mother embodies in her son's name God's great goodness to her in answer to her petition for a son. She calls him Samuel — heard, or asked, of God. And the name was not only intended to be commemorative of the fact that God hears and answers the earnest prayer of the righteous, but seems as a prophecy of the place that prayer was to have in the afterlife of this God-given child. (See 1 Sam. 7:5; 8:6; 12:19, 23; 15:1). And, dear fellow-believer, shall not these examples of prayer, both of this mother and her son, stir us up in the same? We excuse ourselves by lack of time, a busy age, so many things requiring attention, so many duties and obligations resting upon us; how shall we find the time to pray as Scripture exhorts us to do? If we were people of leisure, or dwelling in solitude, we might be men and women of prayer, too. So we think, and so most suppose. But it is not so; we can pray best right in the circumstances where God has placed us; there we see and feel and realize the world's, and the church's, and our own individual need, as we could not know them in some secluded monastery or hermitage. It is the sense of need and what we have to meet with in daily life that drives us to the Lord, or draws us to the mercy-seat. As for the necessary time to pray, what time is better employed than in prayer? And it does not always mean to be on our knees, or in our closets, or in the prayer-meeting. Hannah prayed, though "only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard;" yet what saint prayed more earnestly or really? "I have poured out my soul before the Lord," she says. It is prayer such as this that brings down blessing from above, rather than the stated, formal prayers, read or said on regular occasions. May God give us more Hannahs for supplication, and more Samuels for intercession!

In this respect we can also learn from Hannah in I Samuel 1:9-17. This godly woman prayed in the house of the Lord, when worshippers were assembled. Notice it says of her, "she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard" (v. 13). To have audibly prayed in that mixed company would not have been proper, yet she could pray in her heart and God heard and answered. So also today women can likewise pray and praise in their hearts in the gathered Assembly and join in the "Amen" to public prayer and praise.