Daniel 9:1-19 — Learning to Pray Like Daniel

Introduction

In the passage today we come to a lengthy prayer of Daniel’s. All through the book of Daniel we have learned that Daniel is a man of prayer. But we’ve never really heard what his prayers sounded like. Today we read his prayer. Chapter 9 begins

Daniel 9:1 “1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans—”

This means it was right around the time Daniel was thrown in the Lion’s Den. He’s in his 80’s at this point. He has lived nearly 70 years in captivity in Babylon away from his home. For 70 years nearly he has longed to return to Jerusalem his homeland. Then we read in verse 2:

Daniel 9:2 “2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.”

This is fascinating. Daniel was reading the scroll of the prophet Jeremiah (that’s the two books back in your Bible). And as he’s studying his Bible he realizes that Jeremiah had prophesied what was going to happen. Jeremiah had seen all the sins of Israel and had warned that Babylong was going to come and conquer them. The people didn’t listen to Jeremiah. But then Daniel read this verse:

Jeremiah 25:11 “11 This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”

70 years! That 70 years was nearly over. Suddenly Daniel begins to get hope that he and his people might return to Jerusalem just as Jeremiah had promised. And he gets down on his knees and he prays this prayer. Today, as we look at Daniel’s prayer I want us to reflect on our own prayer lives. I want us to ask if the qualities that made Daniel’s prayer so powerful are true of our own prayers. What is interesting about this prayer of Daniel’s is that this prayer is the only place in the book of Daniel where God’s name ‘yahweh’ is used in the entire book of Daniel. Yahwheh is the personal name of God that was given to Moses in the Old Testament. In this prayer it is used seven times. This is a personal prayer of a man who loves God to that God. I would like to look at three aspects of Daniel’s prayer

Daniel 9:3-19 “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 agains…”

Daniel’s Prayer is Covenantal

First, let’s look at the Covenantal Nature of Daniel’s Prayer. Daniel actually brings this up at the start of his prayer. He says:

Daniel 9:4 “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,”

He’s going back in his prayer, and he’s saying, “God — I know this quality about you. You have revealed it to us. You keep your covenants. And so on that basis, I’m now going to pray.” Before we go much further, it might help to have a very brief sketch of what I mean by Covenant. All through Scripture God relates to people, and when He relates to people He does so on the terms of a Covenant. A covenant is like a Holy Contrac that God makes that stipulates the responsibilities of both parties in the contract. God says, “God says — this is who I will be to you and what I expect from you.” And in the covenant is always the penalties if the people of God break the covenant. So, for example when God made a covenant with Moses. He gave the people His law, the Old Testament law, and he said

Deuteronomy 28:1 “1 “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.”

Deuteronomy 28:15 “15 “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.”

These were the conditions of the covenant that the people of God in the Old Testament made with God.

How Was Daniel’s Prayer Covenantal

How is Daniel’s prayer covental? All through the prayer Daniel is appealing to the terms of the covenant and to the promises that God had made them.

Daniel 9:11 “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.”

Here Daniel is acknowledging that the reason they are in exile is because of the rules of the covenant. He says, “We broke the covenant, and then you upheld the punishment for breaking the covenenant.” In other words — nothing unjust is happening to the people of Israel as they have been taken captive in Babylon and suffered as they have. Their suffering is proper penalty for breaking the covenant. And so, in prayer Daniel is acknowledging that reality.

Calls on God’s Character

Did you notice all through this passage, Daniel continues to come back and remind himself of the character of God. These are not just any old statements about God, they are descriptions of God’s character that has been revealed to God’s people through the Scriptures.

Daniel 9:4 “4… “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love...”

Daniel 9:7 “7 To you, O Lord, belongs righteousnes...

Daniel 9:9 “9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness...”

This too is covenantal because God has promised who He will be to His people. That’s part of the beauty of being in relationship with God is knowing God’s character, what he’s like. So Daniel prays, “God — you are righteous.” “God — you are merciful, I know this about you.” This is covenantal prayer.

We Are Under Different Covenants

Christian, just like Daniel, you too are in a Covenant with God. And that covenant, and the terms of that covenant ought to shape your prayer life. The covenant you are in is the New Covenant made by the blood of Christ. The prophet Jeremiah spoke of the day when God’s messiah would make this new covenant. He said:

Jeremiah 31:31 “31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,”

Jesus then claimed to initiate that new covenant.What are the terms of this relationship with God, this covenant with God? The terms are a bit different than the terms of Daniel’s covenant. Daniel’s covenant was one of works. Their exile was the just penalty for the breaking of their covenant they had made with God. But this new covenant is utterly unique, because under the terms of the new covenant, we don’t pay the debt for our sin (like Daniel had to). Rather Christ pays our debt for us. God’s messiah enters under the judgment of God on our behalf, and we receive grace upon grace when we receive it by faith in God’s Christ. This covenant is so strong that it can never broken.

Romans 8:35-39 “35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Application

Christian — learn to pray covenantally. Call upon the terms of the covenant in your prayers. “God — I’m doubting my faith right now, but yous said that “He who began a good work in me will bring it to completion!” Learn to call upon the character of God. Learn to rejoice in his omnipotence. Learn to rest in His sovereignty. Learn to appeal to His compassion. Learn how to fear his wrath. Learn how to embrace his rest.

Daniel’s Prayer is Confessional

Next, Daniel’s prayer is confessional. Confession is the primary vain of Daniel’s prayer. We’ll notice that he does not complete the prayer without moving beyond confession. But certainly the bulk of this prayer is confessional in nature. Consider just a few of these verses:

Daniel 9:5-6 “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.”

Daniel 9:8 “8 To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.”

Daniel 9:11 “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.”

What is Confession

Confession is the acknowledgement of the depth of sin in your life and in the life of your community. Daniel lingers in confession. The bulk of this prayer is confessional.

Illustration: Preparing the Land (Lucado)

How then should we confess? Pastor Max Lucado has a wonderful picture of what Confession does for the soul in prayer. He says that confession does for the soul what preparing the land does for the field. Before the farmer sows the seed, he works the acreage, removing the rocks and pulling the stumps. He knows that seed grows better if the land is prepared.

“Confession is the act of inviting God to walk the acreage of our hearts. “There is a rock of greed over here, Father. I can’t budge it. And that tree of guilt near the fence? Its roots are long and deep. And may I show you some dry soil, too crusty for seed?” God’s seed grows better if the soil of the heart is cleared.” — Max Lucado

Keep in mind when we take time to confess sin to God, we are not telling God something he does not already know. It’s not like you say to God, “God, I’m so sorry, I had such a jealousy in me this morning about the way that other person was being celebrated.” And God’s looking down going, “Whoah — I did not see that coming. That’s bad!” God already knows the depth of your sin with far greater detail than you. That’s what the cross was for! Confession is far less about revealing to God the sin that exists in your heart, and it is far more about learning how to be honest with God.

Lack of Confession is Symptomatic

In a sense, confession ought to be one of the most obvious joyful expressions of the heart of a Christian, because we know how much we need a savior. I do fear that our lack of confession in prayer is symptomatic of a much deeper issue. A lack of regular confession in prayer demonstrates that you feel you kind of have life together and all the problems are mostly other people’s fault. But what an negation of the message of Christ. In Luke 18 Jesus tells a parable of two men who prayed, one a Pharisee, and one a sinner.

Luke 18:10-14 “10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.””

Here is the problem, many of us can easily spot what Jesus is teaching, but based on the lack of regular confession to God, we actually behave more like the Pharisee in this parable than the tax collector.

Illustration: Be Thou My Vision

Personally I have been using a book called ‘Be Thou Vision’ along with my daily bible reading. And this book is what is called a Daily Liturgy. It’s designed to take you through a number of phases of connecting with God each morning. There is a Call to Worship. There is a reading from an ancient Creed or Confession. There is a reciting of the Lord’s Prayer. One section every day has a prayer that is to prayed to lead you into your own time of confession. And these prayers are so beautiful they get you thinking, “Where was I off? Did I treat them with honesty? Did I really have compassion on that person? Was I too quick with my children? Did I judge them?” The reality is that when you get honest with God, the human heart is pretty ugly. There is moment in confession where what is happening is God is exposing the darkness. But then! When you have done the work of confession, the very next step — every time — is what is called ‘Assurance of Pardon.’ And this is where you recite out loud a passage from Scripture that renews the reality of the gospel, that all of your sins — yes all of them! — have been nailed to the cross.

Psalm 103:9-14 “9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. 10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. 14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”

Reading those verses after honestly letting God reveal the depth of sin is so powerful in my life. There is a moment in confession when you cry out like the Apostle Paul

Romans 7:24 “24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

Then you remember the terms of the covenant, that His grace is full and His mercy is enduring and you say, “That’s right. All my debt was paid.” Church — we must learn how to rejoice in deep confession before the Lord and with each other. To be quick to forgive and quick to grant mercy, because Christ has already forgiven us how much more ought we forgive anyone who asks for it.

The God Centered Nature of Daniel’s Prayer

Lastly, I want to see the God Centered Nature of Daniel’s Prayer. In Daniel’s prayer it is very clear that he has a BIG vision of God. This is a man who is overwhelmed by the reality of God.

Daniel 9:17-19 “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’s Primary Concern is God’s Glory

Many of our prayers are just the opposite of what we see in Daniel. Our prayers can often reveal that we have a very high view of ourselves and the way we speak to God or about God is quite small. Daniel understood something about God, and this drove his prayer. God is primarily interested in God’s glory. That does not mean that God is not deeply interested in the intricacies of your life. He is. He cares deeply. But His concern for you is wrapped up in His great mission to make glory known around the world. God is about His glory, and the heart of a Christian is one who is is increasingly becoming obsessed with God’s glory.

When you pray — who’s glory is underneath your prayers? [develop a bit]

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God

Consider this very well known verse about God’s glory:

Psalm 19:1 “1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”

What does that verse say? As Pastor John Pipe says, it means that God is shouting at us through creation. “See my glory and now how good and how beautiful and how worthy I am.” He shouts at us through sunsets and through storm clouds and through hurricanes and through spring flowers and ocean tides. He shouts at us through a thousands constellations that speckle our night sky. It all proclaims His Glory.

I WAS Made for This

There comes a moment in a person’s life when the glory of God gets very real. Often it is when we have spent so much time looking at our own glory. And God gets a hold of us for just a moment, and for that moment we see God in some new way that strikes us numb and chill to the bone. And we behold his glory. And we say, “I was made for this.” That is what God is calling you to. And that is why Daniel prays, “For your own sake.” “For your glory God.” Daniel is saying, “I don’t want to go back to Jerusalem just because that’s what feels like home to me. I want to go to Jerusalem for the glory of God.

God’s Great Mercy

Look at verse 18 again with me.

Daniel 9:18 “… For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.”

That right there is the heart of the gospel. None of us have any standing before God to present our pleas and burdens before him. Nothing on our own. Our position before God, and the boldness we have with our God, has nothing to do with any merit we have earned. Our boldness comes from th invitation made to us by Christ his savior and the great mercy that God has had upon sinners like us. Let the reality of God’s great mercy sweep over you from time to time. Permit the majesty of what it means to a Christian, forgiven in full, to saturate your prayers.

Closing & Application

God delights in our prayers. One of my fears about preaching on prayer is that if you put too much formula around the right way to pray, then sometimes it can feel like a barrier to prayer, and it can make some people pray less. Know this — God delights when we pray Simple Prayers, just coming before God as a friend and saying, “Jesus here is what is on my heart.” There is nothing wrong with that. But I do want you to know there is power in prayer when we take new steps, learn from the scriptures. We pray covenantally. We pray confessionally. And we pray God Centeredly.

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