Prayer Of Faith Of St. Patrick

Who then was St. Patrick? He was the second bishop and Patron Saint of Ireland. History records and estimates this prayer, later given a hymn tune, to be penned around the eighth century.

This Old Irish prayer, penned by St. Patrick, is entitled, I Bind Unto Myself. It is a prayer of protection, which, the literature tells us, Saint Patrick chanted, when an ambush was laid against him. The ambushers were trying to deter him from going, to sow the faith. This is what is written about the ambushers. And it appeared before those lying in ambush that they, Saint Patrick and his monks, were wild deer with a fawn following them. 

The story is that the chanting of the prayer, when Sovereign, Almighty God, in Trinity, was invoked, with all His known attributes, Saint Patrick and the monks were saved. Hence this prayer, recited for their immediate protection, is also intimately referred to as, St. Patrick’s Breastplate or Lorica. 

Although there are several translations of this Gaelic, monastic prayer, edited in 1888, I have chosen to stay with the version which was shared with us at our fellowship meeting.

What I shall be sharing with you throughout this week, has come from personal meditation, contemplation and learning, through the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth and teaches us all truth. This is truth that builds and strengthens faith, trust and belief in God’s Immutable Word. It is also solid, unconquerable and undefeated assurance that our God is faithful to His Word and every promise made by Jesus of the Holy Spirit, the Helper and Comforter, is to be trusted, without a semblance of doubt.

Most markedly, I personally experienced ambushers, along the way, namely inner thoughts that would just jump out at me and present themselves to have me abandon this different time of learning and unusual praying. I confess without reservation, or contradiction that the enemy came in soft, sweet, self-reflective light, telling me things like these. This is not of God, for what you are doing is all because of wrong motives. You are embarking on this time of disciplined study to your own glory and to feed your voracious pride. I was told that this was not to lift and spread the Gospel of Christ Jesus, to sow His seeds of faith, but it was to sow my seeds of arrogance and haughtiness. It even came into my mind that this prayer was totally outside your experiences and mine, in terms of praying, and that it was all a fanciful waste. O yes indeed! I was sorely tested and tempted, but with chanting, reciting and writing truths received by the Holy Teacher Himself, from this lorica of St Patrick, I was saved by our Triune God.

You too, as a child of Father God, in whatever mission or work you have been called to do, will come upon the enemy’s ambushes. Know the Word of God. Believe the Word of God. Pray the Word of God. You and I will become, to our ambushers, as wild deer with a fawn following us. Is this not the power and promise of Almighty God, to all His servants who call upon Him, day and night?

Have a look at what the image portrays. Wild deer, unlike the domesticated ones, are deer who are as free as the wind, to be blown in all places. They have the history, experience and shrewdness behind them. They are not so easily trapped by predators, who always try to pounce on them. In other words, they experience all kinds of territory, weather and predators. They are more astute and surefooted as they face various and many different situations.

St. Patrick and his friends could easily testify in this ambush, and other attacks also, this bold, loud, testimony of Habakkuk, about his God. The Sovereign LORD is my strength, he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.  Habakkuk 3: 19a. In our times of attack, of the waiting predators, to derail us from keeping on track with Jesus, of the lurking enemy, who is surreptitiously gnawing away at our faith and trust in the Trinity, can we, like Habakkuk, speak thus of Sovereign, Father God, in our present situations?

What is the enemy saying about us? Is the enemy seeing itself as fawns, following wild deer? The fawn, like the kid, is weak, helpless and inexperienced. This is how the enemy sees itself, when God’s servants are not just chanting or praying prayers of protection, but they see that their God is answering their prayers and protecting them. The predators become the ones who are helpless as fawns, to attack.

Does this not remind you of the words of the officials of Aram’s army that went out in full force to capture the army of Israel and failed? Listen, aren’t their words a testimony to God’s unconquerable power? Meanwhile, the officials of the king of Aram advised him. Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them on the plains, surely we will be stronger than they. 1 Kings 20: 23. We all know the end to that. If not, you can read about it in 1 Kings 20. 

One point of meditation here is that God can and will make all whose faith is bound to Him, so protected, so strong, so kept, in the prayer of faith, their enemies will have to retreat like whimpering puppies.