’Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy!’ (Ps 86:1). God’s people, past and present, know that the Lord of all creation listens to their prayers for mercy, help, forgiveness, and justice. God’s people cry out to the heart of their God, sometimes through intense struggle and perplexity, and they expect an answer. There can be no less in a true relationship. They also celebrate their experiences of God’s faithfulness. There is no area of life outside the bounds of prayer. The essays in this collection, written by biblical scholars, explore Old Testament prayers in order to enrich our understanding of Israel’s beliefs about and relationship with God. Equally important for each of the authors is the following question: Why do these prayers matter for the life of the church today?
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Elaine A. Phillips is the Harold John Ockenga Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies (emerita) at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. She is the author of With God Nothing is Impossible: In Step with Women of the Bible (2014) and An Introduction to Reading Biblical Wisdom Texts (2017).