August 23, 2023
Author: Pastor Mark Bauer
August 23, 2023
“As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for
days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I
said, ‘O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps
covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his
commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the
prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the
people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of
Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house
have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept
the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your
servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses,
saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples,
but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though
your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will
gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my
name dwell there. They are your servants and your people, whom you have
redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your
ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of
your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your
servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.’ Now I was
cupbearer to the king.”
Nehemiah 1:4-11
I think throughout God’s word we see a number of excellent examples
of prayer. Certainly the best and clearest example of prayer is the
Lord’s Prayer. I would suggest that this prayer of Nehemiah’s is also an
excellent example for us to go to. It’s a good pattern for us to be
able to find certain elements that are helpful for us to have in our
prayers. As we look closer at Nehemiah’s prayer I would like us to look
at five elements of his prayer that I think we might find helpful as an
example for us when we come to pray. I characterized these five elements
as Praise, Penitence, Promise, Petition, and Persistence, five P words.
1. Praise. Nehemiah begins his prayer, “O Lord, God of heaven,
the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with
those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive
and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant.” In these
opening words of his prayer we see that Nehemiah begins with praise to
God, to a God who is sovereign. He calls him and characterizes him as
the Lord, the God of heaven. He understands and acknowledges that God is
the Lord over all, that he reigns supreme. He has authority, not only
in heaven but over all the earth which is under the heavens. So he
begins with praising God for his sovereignty and then he goes on
praising God for his omnipotence. He refers to him as a “Great and
awesome God,” a God who has great power, who is glorious and awesome in
all of his works. And he knows that God has power and ability to
accomplish all that he designs, all of his decrees. Also in this praise
of Nehemiah he praised God for his faithfulness. He says that “who keeps
covenant.” God has kept it and continues to keep it. God is faithful to
keep his covenant with his people. God is true to his word and we can
be certain that God will uphold his side of the covenant. So Nehemiah
comes praising God for his faithfulness as a covenant keeping God, and
then he goes on praising God for his mercy and how much we can be
thankful for the mercy of God, for his steadfast love. Nehemiah sees
this and understands that God is a God of steadfast love, he is merciful
and gracious and that mercy never ends. It continues, it’s steadfast, it’s
something that never fails. He praises him for his mercy. Then he goes
on and despite the greatness and majesty of his God, he praises God for
his approachability, “that your ear is attentive, that your eyes are
open, that you hear the prayer of your people.” God is ready and willing
to hear our prayers. So in his praise and our prayers we can include an
element of praise.”
2. Penitence. In verse 4 we see that once he
heard the report we see a penitent heart; he wept, he mourned, it was
for days. I believe he was mourning because Nehemiah understood and knew
that the state of the people, their great trouble and sorrow that they
were experiencing, the broken down walls, the burned gates of Jerusalem,
they are consequences of sin. This is breaking his heart, it’s causing
him to have great sorrow and as he reflects on this we also see that it
drives him to confession of sin. In verse 6, “We have sinned against
you,” “The sins of the people of Israel which we have sinned against
you.” He confesses the sins of the people and then he goes on. It’s not
just their sins but he also includes himself in it, “Even I and my
father’s house, we have sinned.” And it’s not just against others but
it’s against God because sin, ultimately all of our sin, is ultimately
against God. He sees it and recognizes that. He goes on to speak about
that sin, their failure to obey God’s Word, the failure to keep his
commandments, statutes and rules. So in our prayers I think we can also
include this element of penitence, confessing our sins.
3.
Promise. Verse 8, “Remember the word that you commanded.” He looks back
to God’s promises. There is a promise of judgment, he begins with that,
“If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you.” God has kept that promise.
But yet in that promise of judgment there is also a promise of
restoration. He goes on and says, “But if you return to me and keep my
commandments,” if they repent, if they turn from their wicked ways, if
they turn from their failure to keep God’s law and God’s statutes, God
promises that no matter how dispersed they might be; and though they may
be dispersed under the farthest of skies, a situation that would seem
almost impossible; yet God is promising, “I will bring them back, I will
restore them.” It’s a good reminder that although this may seem from a
human standpoint to be hopeless, he knows that it is not hopeless for
God and God will keep that promise. So therefore he prays back to God
that promise and prays that God would keep that promise if they would
repent, that God would gather them. So in our prayers we can include an
element of praying the promises of God.
4. Petition. This is not a
general prayer but Nehemiah makes a specific request. We see this in
verse 11, “Give success to your servant today.” He is praying that God
would grant him success in the plans which he is about to undertake. He
is about to go before the king and he is praying to God to give him
success. That success is not just for himself, for his own benefit, but
also so that the people would benefit. He is praying in response to a
need, the need of a people that are in great trouble that are
experiencing shame, that are in a terrible condition where the walls are
broken down and the gates are destroyed and he is praying that God
would grant him success in the eyes and in the sight of the king. So he
makes a specific petition to God. So also in our prayers we can include
this element of making petitions, praying for specific matters that come
to our attention and praying to God for those matters.
5.
Persistence. In Nehemiah’s prayer it appears that this is a prayer that
is made on one particular day. Yet, we are told earlier in this chapter
that it comes after months of prayer and fasting. It’s not like Nehemiah
heard the issue and then he goes to God and prays once and that’s it.
No, he has been mourning for days (vs 4), multiple days, not just
one day, “and I continued fasting and praying before God.” So there is
multiple prayers that he is making before God. I believe it’s a long
period of time that he has been praying here, upward to four months. But
now, this prayer is on a given day because in verse 11 it says, “Give
success to your servant today.” So he’s been praying in the past and
then he comes to this day and he is praying on this specific day perhaps
much more intently because he is about to go before the king because we
read here that the prayer of this day is the prayer that we read back
in verse 6 where it says, “I pray before you day and night.” It’s
continual, throughout the entire day, from morning until evening it
seems he has been praying this prayer. It’s not just these verses that
we read and finished in just a few minutes, no he has been praying this
type of prayer to God with these elements all day throughout that day.
So I think we can see in Nehemiah’s prayer also an element called
persistence, perseverance, continued prayer, coming again and again to
God with the same request.
May these simple reminders of elements
that we see in Nehemiah’s prayer encourage and help each of us as we
pray every day when we hear the needs of God’s people to be emboldened
to come and be ready to come with praise; to come with penitence and
sorrow and mourning when we hear of the consequences of sin, confessing
sin; come pleading and praying in the promises of God; come with
petitions, specific requests; but also come with persistence,
persevering, continuing in prayer.
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