Obama at the Western Wall

As the Obama juggernaut rolls on, criticism or adulation mounts depending on one’s politics or preference. To his enemies, Barack Obama can do nothing right. To his friends, he can do nothing wrong. Hopefully, there is a center position where all can simply accept at face value what he does or says as sincere.

The latest point of contention is over the written prayer he had folded and stuck between the massive stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. In a bold violation of supplicational privacy, a young seminarian watching nearby retrieved the handwritten prayer after Obama left, and its text found its way into a major daily newspaper. Now, the whole world can read Obama’s prayer:

"Lord — Protect my family and me. Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will."

If it weren’t that it was Barack Obama who had left this prayer, no one would care since untold thousands from around the world visit the Western Wall and leave similar prayers. I have stood there myself 10 times and watched the steady flow of Jewish and Gentile people visit this place known as the center of the world as Ezekiel 5:5 tells, "Thus says the Lord God, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her.’" Ezekiel 38:12 speaks of restored Israel as "people…gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land." "Midst" means summit or the place of piling up of the earth.

For long centuries, the Western Wall was called the Wailing Wall. Muslims dominated the area and allowed Jews only periodic visits. At the Wall, they could come as close as possible to the revered site of the Temple platform and weep for the ruined Temple and pray for its restoration. Obama stood at the place where hardened Israeli soldiers stood in 1967 and wept in their victory in the Six Day War because Israel had gained control of this sacred real estate for the first time in 2,500 years.

Obama stood in a special place of national prayer. If he had invoked the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ instead of just "Lord," it would have eased the fears of those who suspect him of an incorrect Christian view or even Muslim association. His generic prayer deserves no textual criticism, for he went farther than most politicians would risk. Who can fault prayer for family protection, wisdom and pleading for God’s will?

However, focusing special prayer at the Western Wall confuses Old Testament Temple supplication with the New Testament pattern. Until Christ died on the cross of Calvary, national prayers were channeled from the Temple Mount (II Chronicles 7:14–16). New Testament Christians, which Obama has claimed himself to be, are to pray "in Jesus’ Name" (John 14:13 & 14). Christ clearly stated in John 14: 6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

There is only one prayer by an unsaved person that God promises He will always answer. It is the sinner’s prayer of Luke 18:13: "‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified…"

General "civil religion," as it is called, is a soothing and commendation exercise. But personal regeneration is available only through the repentant sinner’s prayer. We hope the private lives of all high-level office-seekers would include this suppliant’s prayer. At the least, any ordinary citizen can richly contribute to the public good by praying the personal sinner’s prayer.

Dave Virkler