3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7 To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. 8 To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him 10 and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. 12 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. 13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. 14 Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
16 “O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. 17 Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.” Daniel 9: 3-19
Daniel 9: 3-19
1One day in a place where Jesus had just finished praying, one of His disciples requested, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2So Jesus told them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.… Luke 11: 1-2
Whitcomb rightly comments that...
This is one of the truly great models for prayer in the Bible. It may even have set the pattern for the great prayers of Ezra (Ezra 9:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15) and Nehemiah (Neh 9:5-38). Its greatness is not due to eloquence or length. We are not heard in heaven through "much speaking" or through "persuasive words of wisdom," but through a childlike faith-response to God's self-revelation in Scripture as we agree with His evaluation of us (i.e., confession) and lay claim upon His precious promises (Heb. 10:19-22; James 1:6; 1 John 1:9). (Whitcomb, J. Daniel Everyman's Bible Commentary) - Precept Austin
Made confession - We are instructed in Scripture to study Scripture, to know God's word, meditate upon it, and not just check off boxes that we have read through, but to hold our souls up to the mirror of God's word. This will also instruct our prayers, for in the Bible we find that "all have sinned, all fall short", that "the wages of sin is death", and that at the fall we died spiritually, and everyone is still born in Adam to this day. We have no right within ourselves to enter the presence of God, my very breath was purchased for me, and when I confess my sins, I confess that I don't belong here, I confess that God is just, and so if He has not killed me and He bids me welcome then this is by His grace, and I come before Him based upon the merit of another.
…8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us.… 1 John 1: 8-10
…9So then, this is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us this day our daily bread.…
12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.… Matthew 6: 9-12
We have sinned...turning aside from your commandments and rules - Again, the Scriptures inform us of our sins, what is sin, and therefore informs us on how to pray. Notice, Daniel is a great intercessor, for he says, "we", and this is acknowledgment not only of his sins, but identifying with the sins of his people. He does not pray asking for God to change His word, to say that what He has called sin is no longer sin, nor does Daniel separate himself from more robust violators. I don't know so many in the so called evangelical church today that would vocalize a claim of being sinless, yet many carry themselves as superior to those whose sins they see as worse than their own, even excusing their own, as if Christ need only prick His finger on their behalf, since they live such holy and noble lives all on their own.
1And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.… Ephesians 2:1-2
…46When they sin against You—for there is no one who does not sin—and You become angry with them and deliver them to an enemy who takes them as captives to his own land, whether far or near, 47and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’ 1 Kings 8: 46-47
We have not listened to Your servants the prophets - This began with Moses, and the people grumbled against him, were angry truly at a God Who would not bow to their every whim, a God Who was opposed to sin, which they loved. The false prophets offered a god the people could placate by sacrifices, schedule fasting to move Him on behalf of greed or any number of fancies. They offered a god who would overlook sin for a system of works, so that by their measure and weight the good outweighed the bad. They even did away with God's commandments that He gave through His true prophets, leading the people into all sorts of sexual immorality, excusing the disrespect of parents, forsaking the poor, not keeping the Sabbath. They prayed in order to be heard of men, to be orators, considered spiritual when they in fact walked in darkness. God's true prophets spoke in accordance with God's law, and they didn't come off as rock stars, people hated them, and they prayed for a people that hated them, spoke to a people that hated them, and many died for the word of God.
…8Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, 9“This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Administer TRUE justice. Show loving devotion and compassion to one another. 10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’…
…11But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing. 12They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts. 13And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts.… Zechariah 7: 8-13
…51You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did. 52Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers— 53you who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it.”… Acts 7: 51-53
To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness - God is just in His punishment of sin. I remember my early days of questioning, and echoing the voices of those around me, how can there be a God and yet be so much injustice in the world? Because every breath is paid for, even my arrogant and uninformed notions of God.
’ 13After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this), 14shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not become so angry with us as to wipe us out, leaving no remnant or survivor?… Ezra 9: 13-14
But to us open shame - Not all who are circumcised were true Jews, just like not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, but those who do the will of the Father. They seek to know that through study of the word, where God reveals Himself, prayer and meditation. They come to see sin, to admit sin, to hate sin, to repent of sin; it becomes much of their prayer. The shame is that they were called the people of God, and the hurt is that some may have associated them too much with God, that God's name was blasphemed among the nations because of their disregard for His law. Those that come to such conviction realize that whom the Lord loveth, He chaseneth.
…14You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. 15All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face, 16at the voice of the scorner and reviler, because of the enemy, bent on revenge.… Psalm 44: 14-16
To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness - He is not the One at fault, has the right of justice, and therefore mercy belongs to Him as well. It is beautiful in Christ that you see both attributes of God fulfilled, His Justice and His mercy.
…4Bring joy to Your servant, for to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. 5For You, O Lord, are kind and forgiving, rich in loving devotion to all who call on You. 6Hear my prayer, O LORD, and attend to my plea for mercy.… Psalm 86: 4-6
And the curse and oath, written in the law of Moses -
14 “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. 18 And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, 19 and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
21 “Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. 22 And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted.
23 “And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, 24 then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 When I break your supply[b] of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
27 “But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, 28 then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. 31 And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas. 32 And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it. 33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
34 “Then the land shall enjoy[c] its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it. 36 And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. 37 They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies' lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.
40 “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, 41 so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, 42 then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. 43 But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 45 But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.”
46 These are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai. Leviticus 26: 14-46
Turning from our iniquities or gaining insight from Your truth - The call to repentance, the call to God's word and reverence for it.
14Remind the believers of these things, charging them before God to avoid quarreling over words, which succeeds only in leading the listeners to ruin. 15Make every effort to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman who accurately handles the word of truth. 16But avoid irreverent, empty chatter, which will only lead to more ungodliness,… 2 Timothy 2: 14-16
…12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. 13Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.… Romans 6: 12-14
For Your own sake - For Your name's sake, Your honor, Your glory.
…5Will You be angry with us forever? Will You draw out Your anger to all generations? 6Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You? 7Show us Your loving devotion, O LORD, and grant us Your salvation.… Psalm 85: 5-7
1Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your name be the glory, because of Your loving devotion, because of Your faithfulness. 2Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”… Psalm 115: 1-2
Because of our righteousness - None
9What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin. 10As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. 11There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.… Romans 3: 9-11
Because of Your great mercy - Salvation is of the Lord, unmerited favor.
7Although our iniquities testify against us, O LORD, act for the sake of Your name. Indeed, our rebellions are many; we have sinned against You. 8O Hope of Israel, its Savior in times of distress, why are You like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who stays but a night?… Jeremiah 14: 7-8
…31Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and abominations. 32It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD— let it be known to you. Be ashamed and disgraced for your ways, O house of Israel! 33This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be resettled and the ruins to be rebuilt.… Ezekiel 36: 31-33
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