Daniel’s Prayer

I prayed to the Lord and confessed and said, “Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land. Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You. Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.”  (Daniel 9:4-8, NASB)

The Prophet Daniel was among the exiles taken from Judah to Babylon.  He was among the Jews who were appointed to King Nebuchadnezzar’s staff.  Daniel discovered early on that he had a gift from God of interpreting dreams, and he interpreted one of the king’s dreams when no one else could.  The king appointed Daniel to a high position in his court.  Daniel was later framed by jealous Babylonians, and sentenced to the lion’s den, from which he emerged unscathed.  Through it all, Daniel was faithful to the Lord his God, and gave credit to Him for all his success.

 In the Bible passage above, Daniel had referenced the book of the Prophet Jeremiah, and discovered that Jeremiah had written that the exile would last for 70 years.  That time was almost done.  As you can see, he gave a great prayer for his nation.  This is a wonderful model for us as we pray for our Nation. 

In his prayer, Daniel acknowledges the sins of the people, and identifies with those sins.  He acknowledges that God is great, and that He has laid out His covenant, which the people have broken.  Daniel says that the people, and their kings, have ignored the voices of the prophets, God’s representatives.  Daniel agrees that those in exile have not learned their lessons, because they still have sinned against their God.  Lastly, Daniel acknowledges that everyone is at fault, kings, their fathers, everyone. 

This is a great template to use as we pray for our Nation.  We have sinned against God.  There’s enough blame to go around.  We’re all complicit in our Nation’s transgressions.  While we have fallen far, God is not done with us yet.  There’s still time for those of us who love Jesus to come together and pray for God to forgive us!