THE KING’S BUSINESS
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in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cup-bearer (now I was cupbearer of the king).’’ We have given the entire prayer of Nehemiah in one section because it is desirable to comment upon it as a whole. The prayer is worthy of a careful study. It is a model prayer. Note the fol lowing joints : (1) The prayer begins with worship, that is, with adoring contempla tion of the character, majesty and faithful ness of God. All true prayer should begin with worship : in which we do not so much contemplate our needs as contemplate Him to whom we are going in our need, and strengthen our faith by an earnest contem plation of Who and what God is, of His character, majesty and faithfulness. Nehemiah encouraged his faith by dwelling upon Who and what God is as revealed in His Word (cf. Deut. 7 :21 ; Ex. 20 :6 ; see also Deut. 4:9; cf. with Dan. 9:4; 1 Kings 8:23). With Nehemiah there was no mere idle, thoughtless taking of the name of Deity upon his lips, such as is so common in much of the prayer that is offered today. Note carefully thé character of God as it is here set forth in Nehemiah’s prayer, and note also for whom it is He “keepeth cov enant.” Many are complaining that God does not keep covenant with them, but do they belong to the class for whom God has agreed to keep covenant, that is to say, do they "love” God, and do they “keep his commandments?” (cf. John 14:21-23; 15:14; 1 John 3:22). (2) The prayer was persistent. Nehemiah prayed “day and night.” The reason so many of our prayers fail to bring the thing for which we pray is because we do hot persist in prayer, we do not pray through (cf. Luke 18:7; 2:37; 1 Tim. 5:15; 2 Tim. 1:3). (3) The prayer was accompanied by confession of sin, (vs. 6 , 7 cf. Ezra 9:6, 7; Psa. 32:5; Dan. 9:4, 20 ff ; 1 John 1 :9). There Is no power in prayer if there is unconfessed sin. Nehemi ah’s confession was definite, and he included himself among the sinners against God, (cf. Isa. 6:5; Dan. 9:5, 6 ). Much of so-called confession of sin leaves out self, and instead of being confession of
sin it is really an exaltation of self by con fessing the sins of others. Nehemiah’s con fession was thorough going. There was no attempt to gloss over the iniquities of himself and his people. He said, “We have dealt very corruptly against thee.” Nehe miah went into detail in his confession and so should we in ours. When any of us see the real character of our conduct before God, we will regard it as “very corrupt.” The average man today is willing to admit that he' has sinned, but he is not willing to admit that he is “ very corrupt.” (4) Nehemiah’s prayer was built upon God’s own sure word of promise (vs. 8 , 9; cf. Lev. 26:39-43; Deut. 4:29-31; 30:2-5; Jer. 31:10-12, 37; Ezk. 36:24). If one *would pray that prayer, he should study the prom ises of God and build his prayers upon those promises. There is no more effective way to pray than to plead the promises of God in our prayers (John 15:7). The word which God had spoken concerning the scattering of Israel in case they trans gressed ‘had been fulfilled to the letter (Lev. 26:33; Deut. 4:25-27), and so Nehe miah could well be sure that the promises of God concerning the restoration of Israel, if they returned, would also be fulfilled to the very letter. Nehemiah called upon God to "remember” His Word. God always does remember His word; even though He may seem to forget, he never does forget: but, nevertheless, He is delighted to have us call upon Him to remember His word and by so doing we show our faith in His word. (5) Nehemiah’s prayer appealed to the fact that those for whom he was praying were Jehovah’s servants and Jehovah’s people whom he had redeemed by his great power and his strong hand (v. 10) cf. Ex. 33:11). Note that it was not only the fact that they were his servants and his people that Nehemiah appealed, but that he also •appealed to what God had already done for them, viz., “redeemed” them. In our prayers to God, we have a right to plead our relationship to Him, namely, that we are His children, and also a right to plead our position as “redeemed” in Christ. This
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