Scripture Prayers
Praying Scripture means using the Bible's own words as your prayer. It is the oldest Christian practice there is, and it helps enormously when you do not know what to say.
This collection gathers prayers taken directly from the biblical text — the Lord's Prayer, the canticles, and the prayers of prophets, apostles and ordinary people in Scripture.
57 prayers
- Abraham's Intercession for Sodom
Abraham bargains with God for a city that deserves nothing, going down from fifty righteous men to ten. It is the Bible's first sustained…
- Benedicite — The Song of the Three Young Men
The canticle sung by Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace, calling on every creature in heaven and earth to bless the Lord.…
- Benediction of Hebrews
A benediction from Hebrews 13:20-21 asking God to complete His good work in those He blesses.
- Benediction of Jude
The closing doxology of the Letter of Jude, prayed as a benediction of preservation and praise.
- Daniel's Prayer of Confession
Daniel, reading Jeremiah in exile, sets his face to seek God with fasting and confesses on behalf of his nation: 'we do not present our…
- David's Prayer: Who Am I, O Lord God
David sits before the Lord after being told his house will endure, and can only ask, 'Who am I, O Lord GOD? and what is my house?' It is…
- Elijah's Prayer on Mount Carmel
Two verses against four hundred and fifty prophets: 'Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God.' A…
- Ezra's Confession
Ezra kneels at the evening sacrifice, ashamed to lift his face, and confesses the sins of the whole people as his own. It is the model of…
- Gaze, Consider, Contemplate (St. Clare of Assisi)
From St. Clare of Assisi's Second Letter to Agnes of Prague (thirteenth century). Clare's counsel — gaze, consider, contemplate, imitate —…
- Gideon's Prayer of the Fleece
Gideon asks twice for a sign in the fleece, and God is patient with him both times. Christian tradition has read the dew on the fleece as…
- Habakkuk's Prayer — Yet I Will Rejoice
The closing lines of Habakkuk (3:17–19), written as Judah faced invasion. The prophet spends the book arguing with God about injustice and…
- Hannah's Prayer
Prayed by Hannah after years of infertility and the birth of Samuel (1 Samuel 2:1–8). Its themes of reversal — the lowly lifted, the…
- Hezekiah's Prayer in Sickness
The writing of Hezekiah after his recovery: 'I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.' Used as an Old Testament…
- Jacob's Prayer at Peniel
On the night before meeting the brother he cheated, Jacob prays that he is 'not worthy of the least of all the mercies', then wrestles…
- Jeremiah's Lament: His Mercies Are New Every Morning
From the middle of the book of tears comes the line the Church sings every morning: 'They are new every morning: great is thy…
- Job's Final Answer
After the whirlwind, Job stops arguing: 'I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.' Six verses of…
- Jonah's Prayer from the Depths
Prayed from inside the great fish (Jonah 2:2–9), this is Scripture's clearest prayer of someone who ran from God and was rescued anyway.…
- Joshua's Plea After Defeat
After the rout at Ai, Joshua tears his clothes and lies before the ark until evening, asking why God brought Israel over Jordan at all. A…
- Mary's Fiat: Be It Unto Me According to Thy Word
The shortest and most consequential prayer of consent in scripture. Read at the Annunciation and prayed daily at the Angelus, it is the…
- Moses: Show Me Thy Glory
Moses asks to see the glory of God and is hidden in the cleft of the rock while the Lord passes by. Gregory of Nyssa built his whole…
- Nehemiah's Prayer
News of a ruined city sends Nehemiah into days of fasting and prayer before he asks a single practical question. It joins honest confession…
- Nunc Dimittis (The Song of Simeon)
These are the words of the aged Simeon in the Temple as he took the infant Jesus in his arms (Luke 2:29-32), having been promised he would…
- Paul's Prayer for Inner Strength (Ephesians 3)
From Ephesians 3:14–21, written from prison. Unlike most petitions it asks for nothing external — only interior strength, indwelling, and…
- Paul's Prayer for Wisdom and Endurance (Colossians 1)
From Colossians 1:9–12. Paul prays for a young church he had never visited, asking not for ease but for endurance "with joy." The prayer is…
- Prayer Before the Study of Scripture (John Calvin)
John Calvin closed each of his lectures on scripture with a short extempore prayer, and the prayers were taken down by his hearers and…
- Prayer for Freedom from Bondage
A prayer woven from three New Testament passages that together form the scriptural basis of Christian deliverance: Colossians 1:13-14 on…
- Prayer for the Holy Spirit (Charles Spurgeon)
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892) opened his sermons at the Metropolitan Tabernacle with short prayers like this, taken down by…
- Prayer of a Penitent Heart (Psalm 103)
Drawn from Psalm 103, the great psalm of David on the mercy of God. Where Psalm 51 is the cry of the sinner, Psalm 103 is the answer:…
- Prayer to Overcome Our Spiritual Enemies
A prayer against the three traditional enemies of the soul — the world, the flesh and the devil — a formula found in the Church's…
- Psalm 100 — Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord
The Jubilate, sung at Anglican Morning Prayer as an alternative to the Te Deum and set countless times by church composers. Six verses of…
- Psalm 121 — I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes
Psalm 121 is one of the Songs of Ascents, sung by pilgrims climbing the road to Jerusalem, watching the hills for both danger and the first…
- Psalm 130 — Out of the Depths (De Profundis)
The De Profundis is one of the seven Penitential Psalms and has been prayed for the dead and by the desperate since the earliest centuries…
- Psalm 139 — Thou Hast Searched Me and Known Me
Psalm 139 is the great prayer against loneliness. It insists that there is no place — height, depth, distance, or darkness — where a person…
- Psalm 23 — The Lord Is My Shepherd
The most beloved of the psalms, attributed to David, who had been a shepherd before he was a king. It is the prayer of the deathbed, the…
- Psalm 42 — Why Art Thou Cast Down, O My Soul
Psalm 42 is the Bible's clearest prayer of depression. Written by the sons of Korah, likely in exile far from the Temple, it describes a…
- Psalm 46 — God Is Our Refuge and Strength
Psalm 46 inspired Martin Luther's hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" (1529) and has been prayed through plagues, wars, and natural…
- Psalm 51 — Have Mercy on Me, O God
Psalm 51, the Miserere, is traditionally ascribed to King David after the prophet Nathan confronted him over Bathsheba and Uriah. It is the…
- Psalm 91 — He Shall Cover Thee
Psalm 91 is the Church's great prayer of protection. Ancient Jewish tradition called it the "song of plagues," and Christians have prayed…
- Solomon's Prayer at the Dedication of the Temple
Kneeling with hands spread to heaven, Solomon admits that the heaven of heavens cannot contain God, let alone the house he has built, and…
- Solomon's Prayer for Wisdom
Solomon's request at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:7–9), offered when God invited him to ask for anything. Because he asked for discernment rather than…
- Stephen's Dying Prayer
The first martyr dies asking that the sin not be laid to the charge of the men stoning him — with Saul of Tarsus standing by. Prayed in…
- The Aaronic Blessing
Given to Moses for Aaron and his sons in Numbers 6:24–26, this is the oldest blessing text in continuous liturgical use. A silver amulet…
- The Armor of God Prayer (Ephesians 6)
A prayer built line by line on Ephesians 6:10-18, the fullest description of spiritual warfare in the New Testament. St. Paul wrote it, by…
- The Benedictus (Song of Zechariah)
The song of Zechariah at the birth of his son John the Baptist (Luke 1:68-79), spoken after nine months of imposed silence. Since at least…
- The Canaanite Woman's Prayer
'Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs.' A mother refuses to be dismissed and is told her faith is great. Prayed by those who feel…
- The Centurion's Prayer: Lord, I Am Not Worthy
'Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only.' The Church has put this soldier's sentence on the…
- The Grace (Apostolic Benediction)
The Trinitarian benediction of 2 Corinthians 13:14, used to close Christian worship across traditions.
- The Hail Mary
The first half of this prayer is drawn straight from Scripture: the greeting of the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation (Luke 1:28) and…
- The High Priestly Prayer of Jesus (John 17)
Prayed by Jesus on the night before his death (John 17), and the longest recorded prayer of Christ in the Gospels. Called the "High…
- The Magnificat (Mary's Song of Praise)
The Magnificat is Mary's song of praise spoken at the Visitation, when she greeted her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:46-55). It echoes the song…
- The Our Father
Given by Jesus himself when the disciples asked him how to pray (Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 11:2-4), the Our Father is often called the perfect…
- The Prayer of Jabez
A two-verse prayer buried in the genealogies of 1 Chronicles 4:9–10, which notes simply that "God granted him that which he requested."…
- The Prayer of the Thief on the Cross
'Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.' The one deathbed conversion in the Gospels, prayed in Orthodox liturgy before…
- The Publican's Prayer
From the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9–14), where Jesus says it was the publican, not the religious man, who…
- The Scriptural Rosary — A Guide to Praying with the Word
The Scriptural Rosary is the practice of reading a short verse of Scripture before each Hail Mary, so that the whole Gospel narrative of a…
- The Song of Hannah (Canticle)
Hannah's thanksgiving after the birth of Samuel, the model on which Mary's Magnificat is built: the bows of the mighty broken, the hungry…
- The Song of Moses (Exodus 15)
Israel's song on the far shore of the Red Sea, the oldest hymn in the Bible and the first canticle of the Easter Vigil, where it is sung…