Word of Salvation – Vol.50 No.29 – August 2005
Secrets of True Prayer
Sermon by Rev. J. De Hoog on Daniel 9:1-19 (part 2)
Scripture Reading: Psalm 106
Suggested Hymns: BoW 91; 37; 170; 424; 454
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We come to this magnificent passage a second time today. Remember the picture that it evokes. An old man, an important official in the empire of the Medes and the Persians, is bowed to the ground. Daniel has put off the fine robes of his position and is wearing sackcloth. He has poked around in the fireplace and drawn out handfuls of ash and has poured the ash over his head. Daniel is in sackcloth and ashes. He is a figure of the greatest sorrow and anguish. But as we saw last time, he is also a figure of unshakeable hope.
Think about where this chapter comes in the Book of Daniel. The Book of Daniel comes in two halves. The first half is filled with stories of the faith and courage of Daniel and his friends. Here is Daniel, a model Israelite in the difficult context of exile in Babylon. He is faithful to God, and so he is supremely successful in the most onerous circumstances.
And then the second half of the book is filled with visions and explanations of visions, and also this prayer in Daniel 9:1-19. The second half of the book takes us behind the scenes of Daniel’s public life and tells us something of the spiritual life that enabled Daniel to have such a powerful public life. In this context then, Chapter 9 presents the model prayer of a model Israelite. Here is the kind of prayer that avails much with God. It is a prayer that teaches us much about how we should pray.
John Owen, the great seventeenth century Puritan, put it like this: What a man is in secret, on his knees before God, that he is and no more. Here is the key to Daniel’s effectiveness. It is what he was in secret, on his knees before God.
According to this standard, how do you measure up? It is easy to disguise the truth about yourself in the public realm, but it is impossible to disguise yourself before God. And what you are in secret, on your knees before God, that you are, and no more. What a challenge that principle is! But please don’t be discouraged. This Chapter holds out much teaching on how to grow in your prayer life before God. And as a result, it can teach us much about how we can grow in stature as people before God.
Last time, we focussed on the theme of repentance, which is so central to this prayer. Today, I would like to outline four principles about true prayer that we can find in this model prayer of the model Israelite, Daniel.
1. True prayer is based on what God has already spoken
We saw this last week when we looked at the covenant background to this prayer. Why does Daniel pray? Because he’s been reading the Scriptures in the Book of Jeremiah, and because he understands the words of Jeremiah with a mind and a heart that is soaked in God’s Word, soaked in the writings of Moses and the prophets. With his Scripture-saturated mind and heart he understands a number of things about God and his people:
1. God’s people are in exile in Babylon because of their sin and the sin of their fathers.
2. The exile does not mean that God has finally annulled his covenant with his people. God is always faithful to his covenant. If they will acknowledge their sin and repent and turn to the Lord, he will bring them back to their land.
3. The exile is to last for seventy years; then God, according to his covenant promises, will punish Babylon and restore his repentant people.
Conclusion: The seventy years are almost over. What God is looking for is a deeply repentant people, so that his purpose of saving them from exile and returning them to the land can be fulfilled.
So then, as Daniel commits himself to extended, specific, directed, serious, repentant, humble and sacrificial prayer, he is doing so profoundly conscious of God’s judgment and God’s mercy as they are revealed in what God has already spoken through Moses and the prophets. Daniel prays on the basis of what God has already said about himself, about his people, and about the promises and conditions of the covenant relationship that he has established between himself and his people. Daniel prays on the basis of what God has already said.
And so he can be a figure of profound sorrow and anguish and at the same time a figure of unshakeable hope. Sorrow and anguish over the sin that has sent the people into exile, and also great hope in what God has promised to do in the lives of those who truly repent and turn to him in faith.
First then, true prayer is based on what God has already spoken. Our prayers must be soaked in what God has said in his Word. Our prayers must seek out and plead for what God has promised to his people in his Word.
Many times you will hear people speaking about the “prayer of faith”. They will describe it as a method of prayer in which you look inside yourself to see how much you are capable of requesting from God. Look into your own heart and see how much you really believe you can ask from God and really expect to get it. Work yourself up to asking bigger and bigger things from God, and seriously and sincerely believe that you will receive what you have asked – that’s the “prayer of faith”. If you don’t get what you have asked for, then your faith wasn’t really up to it, it wasn’t capable of handling the largeness of what you asked for.
Brothers and sisters, let me say that this is not the prayer of faith of the Bible. It is not a matter of looking inside yourself to see how big a thing you feel you are capable of asking God for and really believing in. It is not a matter of looking inside at all; rather, it searches the Scriptures and asks for what God has already promised he will do. The prayer of faith does not depend on the strength of our faith, it depends on the faithfulness of the God in whom we believe.
In our practical prayer life, then, we should seek to saturate our thinking and our prayers in God’s Word. William Gurnall put it like this: “When people do not mind what God speaks to them in his Word, God does as little mind what they say to him in prayer.” [Repeat]
Here is the first secret of prayer that arises from this passage: True prayer is based on what God has already spoken in his Word.
The second great secret of prayer is this: True prayer recognises and pleads on the righteousness of God.
We are used to saying that God is righteous. But what do we really mean by saying that? What does the Bible mean by the righteousness of God?
Well, this is a huge topic, but our passage today gives us insight into two very important aspects of God’s righteousness. Daniel sees God’s righteousness as the basis for his punishment of his people, and also as the basis for his own plea for forgiveness.
First of all, Daniel sees God’s righteousness as the basis for his punishment of his people. Verse 7, “Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame – the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you.” Verse 14, “The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.”
Do you see? Daniel confesses that the Lord is righteous, he is in the right, to bring the disaster upon his people and so to punish them. Here is God’s righteousness expressed – in his hatred of sin, and in his punishment of those who reject him and rebel flagrantly against him.
Sometimes, this is all that some Christians express of the righteousness of God. So the preacher who is explaining the righteousness of God does so with a clenched fist that comes down with a smash upon the pulpit – God’s righteousness means that he hates sin and so he punishes rebellious people. But that is not all there is to God’s righteousness in this prayer of Daniel’s. There is more. Secondly, Daniel also sees God’s righteousness as the basis for his own plea for forgiveness and mercy.
We see that in verse 16. “O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill.” Daniel is saying, “O Lord, in your righteousness, hear this prayer of repentance and confession, and forgive our sins and restore your people.”
How can God’s righteousness be both the basis of his judgment and the basis of his forgiveness at the same time? Are not judgment and forgiveness contradictory?
Sinclair Ferguson, a professor at Westminster, explains. The word righteousness has as its fundamental meaning the idea of “conformity to a norm”. In the case of God, he conforms to his own being and character. He is true to himself. His righteousness is God acting in complete conformity to his own character.
God has expressed his character in his relationship to his people by means of the covenant of love that he has made with his people. God’s righteousness is his faithfulness to that covenant relationship. So God’s righteousness includes the covenant curse to punish his people with exile when they break his covenant. But at the same time, God’s righteousness holds out the promise of his forgiveness, if only his people will repent of their sin and return to the Lord.
The covenant contains blessings and curses. God is righteous, and so he enacts the curses of the covenant against unfaithful, covenant-breaking people. At the same time, God is righteous, and so he pours out the blessings of the covenant upon those who believe him and trust him and return to him and plead with him for forgiveness.
God is righteous; he is always faithful to himself, he is always faithful to his covenant. And so he righteously executes either the blessings or the curses of the covenant upon those who either believe and embrace the Lord or those who reject him and go their own way.
The righteousness of God has come to its sharpest and clearest expression in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who embrace him and entrust their lives to him receive the blessings of the covenant eternally. Those who reject him and go their own way receive the curses of the covenant eternally. And it is also true that even in the space of our own lifetime we will begin to experience either the blessings or the curses of the covenant depending on our attitude to Jesus Christ.
What does this mean for our prayer? Remember the second secret of prayer from this passage: True prayer recognises and pleads on the righteousness of God. What does it mean in practice to recognise the righteousness of God? It means that we will always acknowledge our sinfulness, we will always be quick to confess and repent of our own rebellion against God. We will not only hold in theory the doctrine of the sinfulness of all human beings, we will be very aware of our own personal shortcomings and our own daily, hourly, need of the saving work of Jesus Christ. We will have personal experience of sin and forgiveness, not just doctrinally and theologically, but in the everyday tenor of our lives. We are ever humble before the Lord, knowing how quickly we can fail. And we will be ever afraid of and vigilant against any trace of self-righteousness and pride, for the Lord is far from the proud, but near to the broken and contrite in spirit.
And what does it mean in practice to plead on the righteousness of God? It means we will be ever praising God for the gift of his One and Only Son, in whom we have redemption, in whom we can find rest and peace with God. And again, this will not only be doctrinally and theologically, but also a deeply personal matter of experience. We will be ever aware that in Jesus Christ alone we find the foundation of our lives. God is righteous, God is faithful to his covenant, he has made Jesus Christ the guarantor of a better covenant, and all who embrace Jesus Christ will be saved. So God’s righteousness is the great guarantee of our salvation.
Here then are the first two secrets of true prayer that we find here in this passage:
1. True prayer is based on what God has already spoken in his Word; and
2. True prayer recognises and pleads on the righteousness of God.
The third great secret of true prayer is this: True prayer seeks the glory of God.
Jesus taught us that the first petition of prayer is “Hallowed be your name” – “O Lord God, may your name be great, may you be glorified in the world.” Listen to the way Daniel expresses exactly this same concern. Verse 17, “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favour on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name.” Verse 19, “O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”
“What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” Daniel’s chief concern is to glorify God. It is God’s honour and reputation in the world that is Daniel’s chief concern.
True prayer seeks the glory of God. This is not a difficult point to understand, but how difficult it is to truly take in and make a part of our everyday motivation for prayer and life! When you pray, is your chief end in your prayer that God be praised and glorified? Do you consciously and deliberately praise and glorify God in your prayers as Daniel does? “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love…” “Lord you are righteous…” “The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving…” Do you ask for things in your prayer that will, if granted, bring glory to God? When you make your requests, are they aimed, first of all, at receiving things from God that will bring glory to him?
This third secret of true prayer is very much tied up with the fourth secret of prayer, which is that true prayer appeals to the mercy of God.
Let me give you a personal example. I am committed to praying for the salvation of my own family. I want to pray every day for the members of my own family. How do I pray? I might say something like this: “O Lord, glorify yourself in Joshua’s life. O Lord, I know that ultimately you will be glorified in his life. You will be glorified if he turns to you and walks in your ways. You will be glorified even if he rejects you, for you will receive glory even in his final punishment. You will receive glory in his life. But dear Lord, be pleased to be merciful to him. Be pleased to be glorified in his life through his salvation, through the powerful work of your Holy Spirit drawing him to yourself and making him new and leading him into a life of praising you. Please be merciful in this way.”
Do you see the point? We have a wonderful, loving, gracious heavenly Father. Yes it is true that he will receive glory through the endless punishment of those who finally reject him. But in the covenant relationship that he has established between himself and his people, he longs to show mercy.
Listen to the way Micah 8:18 expresses this. “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.” Our God is a God who delights in showing mercy.
Listen to the way Isaiah 30:18 expresses it. “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion… O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.”
The picture is of God standing on tiptoe, eager, ready to extend his mercy to rebels. It’s like the man in the parable of the Prodigal Son, waiting to be extravagant in his welcome, if only his rebellious son will come home.
Brothers and sisters, this is how God reveals himself. This is why God the Father sent his Son into the world. Jesus Christ is the great revelation of God’s righteousness, his covenant faithfulness, and part of his righteousness is his commitment and faithfulness to his own character. “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbour his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.”
When true prayer appeals to the mercy of God, it does so because it knows the character of God and the delight our loving heavenly Father takes in showing mercy. As you appeal to God for his mercy in the lives of your family members and in the lives of those you love, you are touching upon the very heart of God. Be sure to persevere in such prayer, for it is prayer that is to God’s glory.
Here then are four principles of prayer that we can readily apply to our own praying lives.
1. True prayer is based on what God has already spoken.
2. True prayer recognises and pleads on the righteousness of God.
3. True prayer seeks the glory of God.
4. True prayer appeals to the mercy of God.
Amen.