Prayer - תְּפִלָּה - Interceding for us

תְּפִלָּה - tĕphillah
There are at least a dozen Hebrew words for pray and prayer. But easily the most common word for "prayer" is tepillâ and the related verb, pâlal. This word can mean just “pray” or it can mean “intervene” or judge.

1KI 8:27 "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! 28 Yet give attention to your servant's prayer (t@phillah) and his plea for mercy (t@chinnah), O LORD my God. Hear the cry (rinnah) and the prayer (t@phillah) that your servant is praying (palal) in your presence this day. 29 May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, `My Name shall be there,' so that you will hear the prayer (t@phillah)your servant prays (palal) toward this place. 30 Hear the supplication (t@chinnah) of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray (palal) toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

1KI 8:44 "When your people go to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and when they pray (palal) to the LORD toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name, 45 then hear from heaven their prayer (t@phillah) and their plea (t@chinnah), and uphold their cause.
This word for prayer asks God to act as a judge and intervene. See Psalm 17:1-15
On the television there are multitudes of programs about lawyers and police (who attempt to be lawyers). As they lay out their case before the judge, they want the judge to take their side. (That is true for both the prosecution and the defense). Which side is right? Well, it is always my desire for the side I am on to be found right.

On television the lawyers do anything to attempt to sway the judge: more evidence; better witnesses; bringing witnesses who are friends of the judge; or friends of the other side – but we know we can force them to take our side; practiced reasoning; bargaining with the judge or the other side; switching judges to a more “reasonable” judge; selecting the “right” jury; filling the court room with those who will “cheer” for us (and impress the judge); try to show the judge that public sentiment is on our side (my favorite is in Miracle on 34th Street when the letters to Santa Claus are placed on the judge’s desk); quoting the law; quoting obscure sections of the law; telling the judge what those who wrote the law meant (when the law does not take our side); trying to get someone on the other side to crack through pressure; persuasive opening and closing arguments; getting a renowned lawyer.

After all this, you might ask the question, “How does this relate to prayer?” It is because we are asking God to intercede or intervene for us in a particular case. Like, let’s say, Aunt Sally is sick; or our good friend Joe needs a job. Maybe its that a little more cash would come in handy and I would really like to win the lottery. I ask God to intervene for my side.

Have you ever looked at the idea that maybe it would be better if Aunt Sally did not get better? Think about this verse – 2 Kings 20:4-5: Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: "Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, `This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer (t@phillah) and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the LORD.

It was in the 15 years following the healing that Manasseh was born, one of Judah’s most wicked kings.

In the case of one out of work, maybe it is a ministry the person is doing – or the person who must lose a job to open the position.
תְּפִלָּה - tĕphillah = intervention, an act of God.
Now, this type of prayer is used particularly in the areas of confession, intercession and supplication. It is not as much used in Praise, Adoration or Thanksgiving.
Confession – 2 Chr 33:18-19; Neh 1:6-7; Ps 39:8-13; Ps 65:2-3.
Intercession (Supplication) – Ge 20:7; 1 Sam 1:10-12; Job 42:8; Ps 54:1-4; Ps 61:1-3; Ps 66:16-20; Ps 80:3-7; Ps 86:1-4; Ps 141:1-2.

There is another word that goes with this study – it is ‏תּפִלָּה‎, tephillāh, "prayer," or "prayer-band" (plural tephillīn). There were two kinds: (1) one to be bound to the inner side of the left arm, and near the elbow, so that with the bending of the arm it would rest over the heart, (2) Another was to be bound in the center of the forehead, "between thine eyes" (Deut. 6:8). The boxes contain four biblical passages (Exodus 13:1-10, 11-16; Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:13-21). There is one overt reference to phylacteries in the New Testament – Mt 23:5 – “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long.” Another reference is found in Rev. 13:16.

DT 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

The lesson of the Phylactery Tephillin is that we ware to keep God ever on our minds and in our hearts. We are to “pray without ceasing.” It could be said that we should be interceding and intervening for people and about events in this world every time they are presented to us … and then on a continual basis – as is found in this New Testament passage:
LK 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, `Grant me justice against my adversary.'
LK 18:4 "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, `Even though I don't fear God or care about men, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' "
LK 18:6 And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
This prayer, this tĕphillah we are to constantly remember to pray in our hearts, and we are to remember the needs of others and ourselves.