Daniel 9:17-19 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of your servant, and his supplications… 1.. What God is here entreated to behold. "Our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name." However the developments may vary, the principles of God's administration are, like His nature, immutable. Desolations are still the punishment of iniquity, deliverance is still vouchsafed in answer to prayer. The. desolations of Jerusalem, as we are expressly told, were the direct consequence of her sin. Who can deny that the prophet pourtrayed but too faithfully our own metropolis when he said concerning the doomed and devoted city, no longer holy to the Lord — "In thee, have they set light by father and mother; in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger; in thee have they vexed the fatherless and widow; thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my Sabbaths." Happily for us, the correspondence is not complete. In Jerusalem the degeneracy was total, the delinquency was universal. But it is not so among ourselves. And if the "effectual fervent prayer of even a single "righteous man availeth much," how can we doubt that the combined and concurrent supplications of the Church will find entrance into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth? 2. The manner in which we should entreat the Lord. Our special entreaty this day, whether in the house of prayer, in the domestic circle, or in the solitude of the inner chamber, should not only be that of contrite and lowly supplication, but of earnest intercession also. (T. Dale, M.A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. |
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