Recently it occurred to me, though, that certain Psalms may reveal something about Jesus' own prayer life. This struck me one day as I was reading Psalm 16:
Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.
I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord;
I have no good besides You.”
As for the saints who are in the earth,
They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.
The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied;
I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood,
Nor will I take their names upon my lips.
The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You support my lot.
The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.
I will bless the LORD who has counseled me;
Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.
I have set the LORD continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will dwell securely.
For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol;
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.
You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
The wording "Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay" is a known prophetic messianic reference. So I began to wonder, "Did Jesus use this psalm in worship and prayer?" There are other hints to me that He may have. I'm awe-struck, for example, thinking that Jesus may have made this statement in anticipation of His relationship with those who would know Him as Lord:
As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.
The passage below, too, makes me think of what Jesus said more than once, that He did only the things that pleased the Father, and only the things He saw the Father doing. Jesus was and is fully God, but lived as fully man -- no special tricks, just a deep and constant communion with His Father. So this passage takes on special significance:
I will bless the LORD who has counseled me;
Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.
I have set the LORD continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
And unlike David, who frequently says things like "I will not be shaken" to try to convince himself not to be shaken (I can totally relate), Jesus really wasn't shaken. He LIVED in prayer and praise, and He was unflappable -- fixed on His Father's will and purposes.
In John 15, Jesus tells us that we are to depend upon Him as our life source: He is the vine, we are the branches. So just as He, in His life as a man, lived in complete dependence upon and submission to the Father, we are to live in complete dependence upon and submission to Him. Part of the way we do this is to do what He did -- live in deep and constant communion with God.
Prayer is a love song. As we live in prayer and praise, we begin to realize that it's designed to be a duet.
Begin singing, keep singing!