Can We Make God Sad in Prayer and Worship
The concept of God experiencing sadness, particularly in response to human prayer and worship, is a complex theological question. While the Bible describes God as having emotions, theologians often qualify these anthropomorphic descriptions to maintain God's immutability and perfection [3].
The Bible contains passages where God expresses regret or sorrow. For instance, Genesis 6:6 states, "The Lord regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart." However, John Calvin explains that such "repentance which is here ascribed to God does not properly belong to him, but has reference to our understanding of him" [3]. Since humans cannot fully comprehend God as He is, God "should, in a certain sense, transform himself" for human understanding. Calvin argues that true repentance, implying an unexpected or unforeseen event, cannot occur in God because nothing happens that is unforeseen by Him [3]. This perspective suggests that while the language describes God as sad, it is an accommodation to human perception rather than a literal change in God's emotional state.
Regarding prayer and worship, the Bible indicates that certain forms of human interaction with God can be displeasing to Him. Matthew Henry, commenting on Proverbs 28:9, states that if God's word is not regarded, prayers "shall not only not be accepted of God, but they shall be an abomination to him" [6]. This implies that prayer offered without reverence or obedience to God's law is offensive, rather than sorrow-inducing, to God [6]. Similarly, Charles Hodge notes that using "formulas of thanksgiving without gratitude" or "those of humility and confession without any due sense of our unworthiness" are evils that can attend even the prayers of sincere Christians [7]. For those who repeat devotional forms "without any corresponding emotions," such actions are clearly problematic [7].
Prayer is defined as "converse with God; the intercourse of the soul with God, not in contemplation or meditation, but in direct address to him" [2]. It involves expressing reverence, love, gratitude, penitence, hope, submission, confidence, and desires to God [8]. When this interaction is insincere or lacks genuine feeling, it deviates from its intended purpose. Calvin emphasizes that a crucial rule of prayer is to "always truly feel our wants, and seriously considering that we need all the things which we ask, accompany the prayer with a sincere, nay, ardent desire of obtaining them" [4]. He criticizes those who "repeat prayers in a perfunctory manner from a set form, as if they were performing a task to God" [4]. Such perfunctory prayer, while not explicitly stated to make God "sad," certainly falls short of the earnest and heartfelt communication God desires.
The Bible also raises questions about God's willingness to hear prayers under certain conditions. Job 27:9 asks, "Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him?" [1]. This suggests that there are circumstances where God might not listen, implying a negative response to certain prayers. Augustine, in his Exposition on Psalms, describes a man who had grown "dull and cold in fervour of prayer" and only called on God when "troubled" [5]. This illustrates that tribulation can sometimes be a catalyst for renewed fervor in prayer, suggesting that a lack of fervor might be a state from which God desires to draw people out [5].
Sources
- Job “Job 27:9 (BSB) — Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him?”
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Prayer — Is converse with God; the intercourse of the soul with God, not in contemplation or meditation, but in direct address to him. Prayer may be oral or mental, occasional or constant, ejaculatory or formal. It is a "beseeching the Lord" (Ex. 32:11); "pouring out the soul before the Lord" (1 Sam. 1:15); "praying and crying to heaven" (2 Chr. 32:20); "seeking unto God and making supplication" (Job 8:5); "drawing near to God" (Ps. 73:28); "bowing the knees" (Eph. 3:14). Prayer presupposes a belief in the personality of God, his ability and willingness to hold inter”
- CCEL (Reformed) “Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1 (Gen 1-23), section 10.15: grace of the Spirit, is clearly exhibited. 6. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth The repentance which is here ascribed to God does not properly belong to him, but has reference to our understanding of him. For since we cannot comprehend him as he is, it is necessary that, for our sakes he should, in a certain sense, transform himself. That repentance cannot take place in God, easily appears from this single considerations that nothing happens which is by him unexpected or unforeseen. The same reasoning, an”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 75: God is pleased to try how efficiently faith influences our hearts. 6. Another rule of prayer is, that in asking we must always truly feel our wants, and seriously considering that we need all the things which we ask, accompany the prayer with a sincere, nay, ardent desire of obtaining them. Many repeat prayers in a perfunctory manner from a set form, as if they were performing a task to God, and though they confess that this is a necessary remedy for the evils of their condition, because it were fatal to be left without the divine ”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 8: Augustine — Exposition on Psalms — PSALM L.[10] (part 21): come to thee: because perchance if thou wast not troubled, thou wouldest not call on Me: but when thou art troubled, thou callest on Me; when thou callest upon Me, I will draw thee forth; when I shah draw thee forth, thou shalt glorify Me, that thou mayest no more depart from Me. A certain man had grown dull and cold in fervour of prayer, and said, "Tribulation and grief I found, and on the Name of the Lord I called."[1] He found tribulation as it were some profitable thing; he had rotted in the slough of his sins; now he ”
- Proverbs (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Proverbs 28:9: Note, 1. It is by the word and prayer that our communion with God is kept up. God speaks to us by his law, and expects we should hear him and heed him; we speak to him by prayer, to which we wait for an answer of peace. How reverent and serious should we be, whenever we are hearing from and speaking to the Lord of glory! 2. If God's word be not regarded by us, our prayers shall not only not be accepted of God, but they shall be an abomination to him, not only our sacrifices, which were ceremonial appointments, but even our prayers, which are moral duties, and wh”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 73: faces, with no corresponding feelings of reverence; or use the formulas of thanksgiving without gratitude; or those of humility and confession without any due sense of our unworthiness; or those of petition without desire for the blessings we ask. Every one must acknowledge 702 that this is an evil often attending the prayers of sincere Christians; and with regard to the multitudes who, in places of public worship, repeat the solemn forms of devotion or profess to unite with those who utter them, without any corresponding emotions, the se”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 73: § 20. Prayer. Prayer is the converse of the soul with God. Therein we manifest or express to Him our reverence, and love for his divine perfection, our gratitude for all his mercies, our penitence for our sins, our hope in his forgiving love, our submission to his authority, our confidence in his care, our desires for his favour, and for the providential and spiritual blessings needed for ourselves and others. As religion, in the subjective sense of the word, is the state of mind induced by the due apprehension of the character of God and”