NOVEMBER 2026 CONTENTS
Editorial — The Christian’s Three-fold Prayer
Sermon — “They Need Not Depart” (Matthew 14:16-18)
Best Behaviour — The Ministry
Gracious Counsel — Marks of a Call to the Ministry
What to Pray for
Living Exercises
“Thy People shall be My People”
Attractive Conversation
Book Reviews
Matters of the Moment — A sense of Awe and Reverence
Poetry — A Morning Prayer
Cover image: Double Rainbow over Todd Crag, Ambleside. Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash.
The Christian’s Three-fold Prayer
The prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple is one of the longest prayers recorded in the Bible. Compared with Solomon’s prayer, David’s short petition offered when the ark of the covenant entered into Jerusalem is often overlooked. At the end of a glorious psalm of praise, David simply asks: “save us,” “gather us” and “deliver us” (1 Chron. 16:35). Yet we venture that those three petitions gather up all the spiritual needs of the Lord’s people in every time and place, and are as replete as Solomon’s long prayer.
“
Save us” comes first and is the initial cry of the newborn soul that knows its sin, feels the curse, and sees a lost eternity in hell as its just deserts. Has this ever been your cry? Can you remember when general providential requests or formal prayers gave way to this brief, but urgent, plea?
While we may ask others to help deliver us from our enemies, here is a petition that can only be made to “God our Saviour.” Nobody else is able to save us from death. The very God we so much dread — “a just God” — is also “a Saviour” (Isa. 45:21). To Him we must go, as drawn by the Father. But we must go through the Mediator He has graciously given, His own dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ; Jesus in and by whom God’s justice and His mercy meet (Psa. 85:10) on behalf of the sinner; Jesus who so lovingly says, “Come unto me.” “Look unto me and be ye saved,” says God our Saviour. So the poor sinner has to come with that cry, “Save me.”
But then John tells us, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” So the next petition follows closely on the answer to the first, “
gather us.” We now want to be found amongst the Lord’s people. Our emphasis is on the “together” of grace. We have a shared life through Christ with all His people and this prayer is a cry to know and enjoy that life (Psa. 119:25). This is a prayer for separation from sin and the world. We are now concerned about the divisions in the church, and long for unity. We are concerned for the gathering in of precious souls to the church. This is a truly evangelical prayer — a cry for the gathering of the dead elect, that there might be “one fold, and one shepherd.” There is now a prospect to look forward to when gathered with the ransomed throng in heaven, and so we cry “gather us” — “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
But then, what lies between our
now and that eternal day! How many “dangers, toils and snares.” We know well our enemies — the four great “S’s”: self, sin, society and Satan. We feel our need of deliverance and keeping and so cry, “
Deliver us.” A prayer for sufficient grace and strength. A prayer to be led in a “plain path, because of our enemies.”
So, once we live and begin to pray, this becomes our three-fold petition, offered repeatedly, almost momently, “Save, gather and deliver
me.” When in your right mind, do not expect to have to pray less than this prayer, but this prayer is broad enough to encompass all our need.
What keeps the Lord’s people praying this three-fold cry? The answer is the deep desire in a renewed soul to worship “God our Saviour.” The saved sinner is a soul formed to glorify God for ever. The saved soul is entirely reconciled to God, and made willing, with pure desires and knowledge, to glorify God day by day. We want to give thanks to God’s holy name and to glory in His praise. To be called to praise God in the sanctuary is our highest honour and our chief desire. But the urgency of that desire exposes again our need, and so brings us to pray, “
Save us, O God of our salvation, and
gather us together, and
deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise.”
David teaches this prayer to the people: “And say ye …” It is a prayer for us to learn too. It displays our complete need. It reminds us in the fulness of its brief petitions, “there is nothing that cannot be taken to the Lord in prayer” — a reminder we daily need!
But how often our heart is straightened and feels it cannot pray. Our sins, our unworthiness, our unbelief, all keep us silent. What enlarged David’s heart to make this prayer? The answer lies in the psalm that precedes it. A consideration of God: His greatness, His faithful mercy and His goodness towards His people. It brings David to conclude, “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.” Such a view of God gives ground for the vilest sinner to cry, “Save, gather and deliver me” — and to keep praying that prayer. God’s mercy and goodness will always be greater than our sin. When we find ourselves shut up at the throne of grace, this is often the key to opening the heart and mouth in prayer — consider God. Think on Him and all He has done for His people. It is perhaps why it is best to come to prayer after reading the Word of God or singing God’s praise. We often think we should pray more, but do we realise we need to read the Word more and praise God more, that we might say to our soul out of an enlarged heart, “Say ye,
Save us, O God of our salvation, and
gather us together, and
deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise”?
Is this three-fold prayer your desire? (O that it might be!) Have you ever had an answer to it? If so, may your cry also be, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for ever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praised the Lord.”