Hear God call you to worship through his word:

One thing have I asked of the Lord,
    that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
    and to inquire in his temple.
                                                      –Psalm 27:4

Song 1 – Be Still for the Presence of the Lord

Song 2 – O the Deep Deep Love of Jesus

Song 3 – Lord I Need You

(introduction based on Psalm 139:23-24, NRSV)

We will continue with the theme of confession which we entered into already through song, and as we continue, we look to the psalmist who, in Psalm 139, models a transparent faith with these words:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Let us join our voices now as one body, and express our longing for God’s leading by our own transparent confession based on the words of Daniel 9:4-19:
                                                
Daniel 9

O Lord, great God,
all holy, Father most gracious,
filled with mercy and steadfast love,
we are not worthy to come before you,
for we have preferred the ways of this world to your ways,
for we have rebelled against your wisdom
and we have gotten into trouble,
for we have rejected your fatherly guidance
and have gotten lost altogether.
To you belongs righteousness, O Lord,
and to us confusion of face.
O Lord, great God,
all holy, filled with awe,
Father, most gracious,
filled with mercy and steadfast love,
incline your ear to our troubles.
Hear us when we pour out our sorrows before you.
Forgive us,
not on the ground of our own righteousness,
but on the ground of your great mercy.
On the ground of your great mercy
in the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ.
It is in his name that we pray,
for he is our Savior and the mediator of the covenant of grace. Amen.
—based on Daniel 9:4-19

Let’s pray.

Song 4 – Before the Throne of God Above

Our welcome team members will pass an offering basket during this song.

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Praise God, from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him, all creatures here below
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Praise God for all that he has done
Praise Him for Jesus’ reign begun!
He came with love to make us one;
He will return, His kingdom come!

Amen. 

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Daniel’s Prayer for His People

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— 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.

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 against you. ⁹ To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him ¹⁰ and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. 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. ¹² He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. ¹³ As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. ¹⁴ Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. ¹⁵ And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

¹⁶ “O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. 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.”

Gabriel Brings an Answer

²⁰ While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, ²¹ while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. ²² He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. ²³ At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.

The Seventy Weeks

²⁴ “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. ²⁵ Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. ²⁶ And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. ²⁷ And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week,^[g] and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

Praying in Light of God’s Rule
          – Daniel 9

1. The Stimulus for Daniel’s Prayer

2. The Content for Daniel’s Prayer

3. The Answer to Daniel’s Prayer

Song 5 – Good and Gracious King

Song 6 – God the Uncreated One

Our Father in heaven, 
hallowed be your name;
your kingdom come;
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread. 
And forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. 
For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.

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Daniel 9

I. Introduce the issues 

1. This is one of the great prayers of the Bible. In terms of first impressions, what are some of the striking features of Daniel’s prayer? 

 II. Into the Text

1. What is the significance of the timing of Daniel’s prayer (9:1) in the context of the book as a whole (think in particular of Chs. 5 and 6 and Cyrus’ decree to end the Exile)? 
2. Daniel prays according to the Word of God (v. 2). What is the content / significance of the Scripture passage he has been reading (Jer. 25:8-14; also Jer. 29:10)? 
3. What is conveyed about Daniel’s attitude / seriousness in the way that he prays (vv. 2-3)? 
4. Daniel’s prayer is grounded in God’s covenant with His people (v. 4b). What is the nature of that covenant
5. Daniel begins with confession of sin (vv. 4-6). What is the content / scope of that confession? 
6. Next, Daniel expresses in his prayer the fairness of God’s judgement (vv. 7-14). Why is God’s judgement on His people fair? 
7. On what grounds does Daniel appeal to God’s mercy (vv. 15-16)? 
8. Daniel concludes his prayer by boldly appealing to God’s own glory (vv. 17-19)? What does this tell us about Daniel’s understanding about who God is? 
9. When is Daniel’s prayer heard (v. 23)? Can we take that as a general principle? What about the timing of God’s answer to our prayers? 
10. What is the meaning of the vision of seventy weeks (‘sevens’) (vv. 24-27)? (We suggest you work carefully through the detailed explanation in the notes.) 
11. What do we learn from this vision about the cross (vv. 24, 26, 27)?  

III. Application

1. What can we learn and apply to our prayer life from Daniel as an example? 
2. What does it mean for us to pray according to the Word of God? 

3. What is the nature of God’s covenant with us and what does it mean for us to pray in light of this covenant? 

4. In light of Daniel’s prayer, what should we be praying for the Church in our day? More specifically:
         (a) What does it mean for us to pray, confessing the sins of God’s people?
         (b) What does it mean for us to pray, acknowledging the fairness (justice) of God’s judgement? 
         (c) What does it mean for us to pray with thanksgiving recalling God’s merciful interventions in the past? 
         (d) What does it mean for us to pray, appealing to God’s zeal for the glory of His own name? 

5. In summary, what does it mean to pray in light of God’s rule? 

Close in Prayer.