Hilary of Poitiers

"Hear my prayer, O God, give ear to the words of my mouth." The obvious thing for the prophet to say was, "O God, hear me." But because he is speaking as the mouthpiece of him who alone knew how to pray, we are constantly and repeatedly assured that God will hear our prayer. The words of Paul teach us that no one knows how he ought to pray: "For we know not how to pray as we ought." A human being in his weakness, therefore, has no right to demand that his prayer should be heard; for even the teacher of the Gentiles does not know the true purpose and intention of prayer, even after the Lord had provided a model. What we are shown here is the perfect confidence of Jesus, who alone sees the Father, who alone knows the Father, who alone can pray all night long—the Gospel tells us that the Lord continued all night in prayer7—who in the mirror of words has shown us the true image of the deepest of all mysteries in the simple words we use in prayer. And so, in demanding that his prayer be heard and in order to teach us that this was the prerogative of his perfect confidence, David added, "Give ear to the words of my mouth." Now can any person have such confidence that he can desire that the words of his mouth should be heard? It is with words, for instance, that we express emotions and mental instincts, when inflamed by anger, moved by hatred to slander, by flattery to fawn, motivated by hope of gain or fear of shame to lie or by resentment at injury to insult someone? Was there ever a person who was pure and patient throughout his life who was not subject to these human shortcomings? The only person who could have confidently desired this is one who has not sinned, in whose mouth there has been no deceit, who gave his back to the smiters, who did not turn his cheek away from the blow, who did not avoid scorn and spitting, who never resisted the will of him who ordered it all but was always gladly obedient.