Why Pray in Your Room?

By Dr. Nicholas J. Schaser

May 01, 2024

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In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:6). Though Jesus prescribes private prayer and models the practice in his own life (cf. Matt 14:23; 26:36-44), he also affirms public worship when he calls the Jerusalem temple a “house of prayer” (21:13) and encourages children to come to him that “he might lay his hands on them and pray” (19:13). Scripture records several prayers spoken outdoors (e.g., Numbers 11:2; 1 Kings 8:22; Luke 1:10) but where does Jesus get the idea that one should pray in a closed room?

First, Jesus takes his cue from Moses, who would meet with God privately in the tent of meeting: “When Moses went into the tent (אל-אהל; el-ohel) to speak with [the Lord], he would hear the voice speaking to him from above the cover that was on the ark of the covenant from between the two cherubim, and he spoke to him” (Numbers 7:89). Daniel follows Moses when he engages in private prayer in an upper room: “He went into his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem, and he knelt down and prayed (ומצלא; u’metsale), and made confession to his God” (Dan 6:10 [Heb. 6:11]). Based on this verse, the Talmud concludes that “a person should always pray (יתפלל; yitppalel) in a room that has windows” (b. Berakhot 31a), and thereby echoes Jesus’ directive to daven indoors.

There is an even closer precedent to Jesus’ instruction in the book of Tobit. After Tobias and Sarah are married, newly wedded couple pray together in their bedroom: “When they were shut in together (συνεκλείσθησαν, sunekleīsthesan), Tobias got out of bed and said, ‘Sister, rise and let us pray (προσευξώμεθα, proseuxōmetha) and implore our Lord that he grant us mercy upon us’” (Tobit 8:4). This scenario mirrors the language of Matthew 6:6, which clarifies that one should “shut” (κλείσας, kleīsas) the door before beginning to “pray” (προσεύχῃ, proseūche). Yeshua stands upon an established biblical tradition when he tells his disciples that they should address God in a private room and that a heavenly reward will come to those who follow this Jewish pattern of prayer.