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For those who are entrusted to us, for what should we pray?  That was the concern in the last group of exercises.  We proceeded with the needs and concerns of our fellow human beings.  In this section we will pursue this question further from another perspective: the content of prayer can be found in the words of Scripture.

Again and again I meet people who are in the same situation or level that I am.  This point was made clear in the beginning in first set of exercises.  This also applies to the encounter with others in prayer.  Therefore, it is not a "detour" but a prerequisite for prayer to continually come to prayer in silence and depth.

For many good music is a genuine help in the transition to meditative silence.  Those who understand this (and here I think especially of the ill) "tune in" to meditation by creating an image within on which to contemplate and then letting it go again.

In this section we will begin with another exercise which can lead us into the depths of silence!

• Make yourself fully present:

• become aware of your own existence...
• the place where you find yourself on the globe...
• the space of the room surrounding you...
• the contact of your body with the floor (chair, bed)...
• loosen up all that is tense (forehead, jaw, neck, shoulders, arms)... .
• Let the thoughts and images that come to you come:

 
• set them about 30 inches in front of you (figuratively) ... .
• contemplate each image that comes to you and then set it aside...
• do not be judgmental...
• allow whatever comes to come...
• then set them aside...
Place a small ball (figuratively) about twelve inches in front of you:
 
• Concentrate on it...
• let everything go...
• maintain a deep silence within...
• and let yourself sink deeper into the silence ... .

 
(Take about eight minutes.)

Let the words of Psalm 95 sink deeply into you.  Let one of the images come and calmly meditate on it ...then let it go to free yourself for the next image.
 
The Lord is a great God,
and a king above all gods.
In his hands are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his and his made it;
for his hands formed the dry land.

O come let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.

This text is filled with images which you can use as transparent symbols for human life.
Write down the symbols that come to you...
Wait for the "wisdom" (Cf. exercise in the fifth set) this text conveys to you and write that down...

The word of God with its symbols and truths is like a searchlight which illumines your life in a new way.  We experienced this already in an earlier exercise.  You can direct this searchlight on the life of those near you and meditate on them under this light.  Let you meditation grow into prayer.

Place the people who are in your prayers today(Cf. eleventh set of exercises) or on some person in your immediate neighbourhood under the searchlight of the images and truths of Psalm 95 and meditate on them...

The meditation might go something like this:
 

1. Look attentively into the "depth" of this person's life ... . .(Insert here other symbols such as that person's "king", "heights", "sea", "dry land", "pasture").  Apply the truths that come to you from this text to the person you are praying for... . .
2. Look at Jesus.  "How did You (Jesus) endure such situations, how did You react to them?"... .
3. ay for what can make this person become more like Jesus ... . . .


(Remain silent as long as you have strength within for meditation.  Then pursue what touched you most intimately knowing that a full understanding will never be achieved!)

• Such a "word-connected prayer" is distinguished from a prayer produced by a person only during the first step.  The Word removes the prayer from your personal judgement and places it into a more objective space.  "We don't know how to pray as we should" (Rom. 8:26).  That is demonstrated precisely when you are not under pressure to pray for a special need but when you have carried a person in prayer for a long time.

• Since ancient times Psalm 95 has been a part of the church's daily office.  A prayer that is repeated so often is protected from being misused and becoming merely a "chattered" formula through the light shed on it in meditation .  The new experiences and expectations of each day fill the words, the "vessels", of this prayer with fresh content.  Today there are new "depths and heights", "seas" and "dry lands" to place before the ultimate judgement of God.  Today you need to experience the "leading of the shepherd" differently than yesterday, than last week, than tomorrow or the next day!  The same goes for all the prayer possibilities such a text offers.

 
• All that you have meditated on, all that you have allowed to penetrate your deeper self, makes it possible for you to also meet other human beings at this level not only in your prayers for them but in your conversations with them.  In this way meditation helps us to come out of isolation and loneliness.

• Drawing from your experiences in the above exercises
• pray for a specific person for a week using the verses from Psalm 95 to shed light     on your meditation.
• place one group of people after another under the light of this text... . .
• Explore for yourself how you can fruitfully use the verses not only of this psalm but also of other biblical texts (I would venture to say all biblical texts) in a similar way in prayer.  By all means take whatever you discovered on your own in the fifth set of exercises - additional exercises) the "truths" you found in meditation on Ex. 14, Mt. 14 and Lk. 24, as the starting point in praying for a specific person in the way done in this section.

"The Lord is a great King above all gods."
 
• whoever belongs to God lives in the kingdom of the greatest of all Lords...
• whoever serves the greatest Lord receives part of this glory...
• God sends you protection from the enemy within and from the enemy without...
"In his hands are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.  The sea is his, for he made it; and his hands formed the dry land."
 
• in every life there are depths and heights... .
• in every life there are times of abundance and times of drought... .
• every situation in your life is in the hand of God... .
• seek God in every situation... . .
• every valley, every high ground of your heart lies exposed to God's light .
• the home of humankind is not the sea but the dry land... . .
"For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand."
 
• protection!  I am led by the Shepherd! ... . .
• nothing goes on without meaning... someone is leading!... .