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For my own part, I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others.
I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hands. – C.S. Lewis, “On the Reading of Old Books,” in Walter Hooper, ed., God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (1970), p. 205
There is something remarkable in that classic 1867 volume of Christology by William S. Plumer titled The Rock of Our Salvation: A Treatise Respecting the Natures, Person, Offices, Work, Sufferings, and Glory of Jesus Christ. It is a stirring study of Christ in all his many glorious facets, and throughout this doctrinal treatise it is as if Plumer, while writing, was filled with prayerful utterances as he delves into the teaching of Christ for his readers. And his prayers are an example of what the study of God ought to lead us to do. For the theologian — or layman — when our minds are focused on Christ in all his glory, “the heart sings unbidden.”
The following prayers are extracted from the chapter on the divinity of Christ:
Lord Jesus, thou God over all, thou Jehovah of hosts, be thou our Friend. Bless and help each one of us. Be unto us a horn of salvation (p. 23).
O thou eternal Son of God, thou Father of eternity, remember that we are of yesterday and are crushed before the moth. Bring us, in the fulness of thy grace, to behold thy glory, which thou hadst with thy Father before the world was (p. 24).
Blessed Saviour, who art everywhere present, preside in all our solemn assemblies, large and small. Walk thou in the midst of the golden candlesticks. Be thou unto us for a little sanctuary (p. 25).
Blessed Saviour, we rejoice that thou art the same as when thou didst weep at the grave of Lazarus; as when thou didst pour salvation on the dying thief; as when, in ascending to glory, thou didst bless thy followers. We rejoice that thy state is changed and thy nature is immutable. Oh pity and bless us. Be unto us a sure foundation, a munition of rocks (p. 27).
O thou which art, and which wast, and which art to come, the Almighty, cover us in the hollow of thy hand. If our hold on thee is feeble, let thy hold on us be the grasp of omnipotence. Go forth conquering and to conquer, till earth owns thee Lord of all (p. 28).
Glorious Redeemer, we all were made by thee and for thee. We own thy perfect and sovereign right to us and over us. All we have and are, in soul or body, belongs to thee. Nor can any thing dissolve the ties that bind us to thee for ever (p. 29).
Lord Jesus, who upholdest all things by the word of thy power, bear us up, bear us on, bear us through, giving us the victory over death, and hell, and all the powers of darkness (p. 30).
Lord Jesus, who hast died the just for the unjust, set thy love on us, wash us from our sins in thy most precious blood, and make us kings and priests unto God (p. 31).
Lord Jesus, spread the skirt of thy bloody garment over our souls, and grant us repentance and remission of sins, and we shall be saved (p. 32).
Kind Redeemer, we cheerfully follow thee into the grave, in hope of a glorious resurrection. We would not live always. In the last day raise us up, and make our vile bodies like unto thy glorious body. Give us part in the first resurrection (p. 33).
Lord Jesus, when thou comest in thy glory, with all thy holy angels, and the heavens shall flee away at thy presence, by thy mercy let us have boldness in the day of judgment (p. 34).
Jesus, our Lord and our God, when thou shalt dissolve the frame of all sublunary things, remember and spare us according to the riches of thy grace in glory (p. 34).
O thou Lamb of God, grant us this one favor — to worship thee with true devotion here below, and after this life to unite with the heavenly throng in ascribing to thee blessing, and honor, and power, and glory, and salvation (p. 37).
In the chapter on the Messiahship of Jesus, Plumer concludes with this prayer:
O God, bring the children of Abraham to embrace Jesus Christ; and to us and to all that dwell in this land give hearts to receive thy Son, to believe on his name, to own him as our Saviour; so that all the blessings of the covenant of grace may come on us and overtake us; that we may be blessed in the city and in the field; that thy blessing may rest on the fruit of our body, and on the fruit of our ground, and the fruit of our cattle, and the increase of our kine, and the flocks of our sheep; that thy blessing may rest on our basket and on our store; that we may be blessed when we come in and blessed when we go out; and that thy who come out against us one way may flee before us seven ways. Oh that all the land and world may soon avouch the Lord Jehovah to be their God, his Son Jesus Christ to be their Saviour; his Holy Spirit to be their Sanctifier, Comforter and Guide; and unto the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only wise God our Saviour, be glory, and honor, dominion and power, now and for ever. Amen (pp. 98-99).
The following is Plumer’s prayer which concludes the chapter on Christ’s Glorious Reward:
Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts! The whole earth is full of thy glory. Blessed be the Lord for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth, and the fulness thereof. Still more would we bless for the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush, and for thy precious loving-kindness, and for the precious seed of gospel truth, and for the precious promises, and for precious faith to believe thy word, and for the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, and for the precious death of thy saints, and for the precious name of Jesus, which is as ointment poured forth, and for the precious blood of the Son of God, through whom we have redemption.
Look in mercy on this dark world. Remember Zion. Make Joseph a fruitful bough, whose branches run over the wall. Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion. Bring back the captivity of thy people, that Jacob may rejoice and Israel be glad. Thou hast set thy Son on thy holy hill of Zion. Righteousness is the girdle of his reins. Hasten the time when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a child shall lead them; and the cow and the bear shall feed, and their young ones lie down together, and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the nations shall learn war no more, and thy ancient people the Jews and the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brough in; when the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ; when the Lord shall call them his people which are not now his people; when the angel shall fly in the midst f heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.
Lord God of hosts, cut short the work in righteousness. Let the ploughman overtake the reaper, and let a nation be born in a day.
“Pity the nations, O our God;
Constrain the earth to come;
Send thy victorious word abroad;
And the strangers home.”
We are indeed asking great things, but we do it at thy command. We ask no more than thou hast promised to thy Son, and no more than he has purchased by his most precious blood, and no more than he himself intercedes for in heaven. Amen (pp. 437-439).
These prayers of Plumer may inspire you, as they do this writer, to give God the glory when we read a doctrinal book such as this. Who can study the doctrines of God and not be moved to praise Him who is marvelously worthy of all glory? May we too learn to pray like Plumer, as we study Biblical doctrine, whose thoughts of Christ led him to prayer and adoration.
