QUICK WORD STUDY – PRAY פלל

II Chronicles 7:14: “If my people who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked way, then will I hear from the heavens and will forgive their sin, and heal their land.”

The word prayer is palal. It is spell Pei which represents the mouth or speaking and two Lameds. Rabbis teach that the two Lameds are uplifted hands. We speak to God with uplifted hands. Your Lexicons will say it means supplication. We generally consider it as just talking to God. It is all that but the word palal in its Semitic origins means something more, it means a notch in a tent peg. A tent peg holds the tent down to the earth, but without that notch the tent will just slip away from the peg. When that tent attaches to the little notch in the peg it will stand against the storms. Prayer is that notch that attaches us to God so when the storms of life come we will not be blown away. When the people are called to pray they are called to wrap themselves around God.