An ancient prayer of praise from First Clement
Background to First Clement
First Clement was a letter written during the generation of church leaders after all the Apostles died. These leaders are often called the Church Fathers. While not inspired or authoritative as the Old and New Testament, they are important for studying how the early church lived out their faith.
This prayer comes from the letter called First Clement. The author does not identify himself: the beginning simply states that the letter is written on behalf of the Roman church to the Corinthian church. The unity of style and grammar, however, suggests a single author. Most manuscripts ascribe the letter to Clement of Rome, and the earliest witnesses affirm the same.1 Some believe this to be the Clement mentioned in the document called Shepherd of Hermas Visions 2.4.3; others have made the unlikely proposition that it is the same Clement mentioned by Paul in Philippians 4.3. New Testaments scholar J.B. Lightfoot suggests that Clement was an imperial freedman from the house of Titus Flavius Clemens. The early church father, Irenaeus, claims that Clement was the third bishop of Rome after Peter.
It was probably written around the middle of the 90s.
Clement’s Prayer
For you through your works have revealed the everlasting structure of the world. You, Lord, created the earth. You are faithful throughout all generations, righteous in your judgments, marvelous in strength and majesty, wise in creating and prudent in establishing what exists, good in all that is observed and faithful to those who trust in you, merciful and compassionate: forgive us our sins and our injustices, transgressions and our shortcoming
This praise prayer comes after a petition for God to help the outcasts of the world, and it precedes a prayer of confession and a request for forgiveness. Clement emphasizes that God is a God of order and structure: he has revealed the “structure of the world.” The concepts of God’s sovereignty draw on language from Deuteronomy.2 The end of this doxology, again, reiterates that God is faithful to those who trust in him.
How to use this prayer from First Clement
It is an excellent example of what we have called praise prayers in the Praying through the Bible project. It focuses on the character of God, not something specific he did for the one offering the prayer.
You can use this as your own prayer when you want to offer a praise prayer. Or rewrite it in your own words, with your own characteristics of what God should be praised for.
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- The earliest witnesses are Dionysius and Hegesippus (Eusebius, Hist Eccl 4.23.11; 3.16; 4.22.1). ↩
- See Deut 6.18, 12.28, 13.18, 21.9. ↩
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