Monday: Beginning of Prayer
The response of the people to the Bible reading was a long prayer that recounted the goodness of God in contrast to the history of the Israel’s faithlessness. One can observe that the reply is more like a sermon than a prayer, because almost every verse has a parallel somewhere in the Bible.
Read Nehemiah 9:4-8. What are the main topics the prayer focused on in these beginning verses, and why?
Nehemiah’s Prayer
In the first part of the prayer, the people bless God, and specifically His name. In the Hebrew culture, a name was not just what people called someone, but it gave a person his/her identity. Thus, the praise of God’s name is significant because it demonstrates to the world that this is a name worthy of praise and honor. This is the name of the Creator of the Universe. The prayer begins with worship to God as the Creator and as the One who “preserves” everything (Neh. 9:6 see also Col. 1:16-17). The word “preserves” comes from a Hebrew verb that means to “keep alive”.
The One who created everything is the One who chose Abraham, a human being, who was not in any way special other than that “his heart” was “faithful”. Abraham may seem to have lacked faith on many occasions, but when asked to give up his son, he didn’t falter (see Genesis 22:1-24). He learned to be faithful — not overnight, but over his long walk with God. In Hebrew thinking, the “heart” refers to the mind. In other words, Abraham developed faithfulness in thought and action and was acknowledged for it by God.
The first few phrases of the prayer focus on God as 1. Creator, 2. Preserver, and 3. Promise Keeper. The people first remind themselves of who God is: He is the faithful One who has created us, preserves us, and always keeps His promises to us. Having that in mind helps us to keep our own lives in perspective and to learn to trust Him even in the most difficult of situations, when it might seem that He is distant from us and unconcerned with our challenges.
| Why is the doctrine of God as our Creator so central to our faith? After all, what other teaching is so important compared to this one, in which we are commanded by God to spend one-seventh of our lives every week in remembering Him as our Creator? |
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It is fitting that after having read the Torah for a week that the prayer of the people reflects its big themes.
The Creator God
Our relationship to God
His promises
His leading and deliverance
I like to remind myself that some of the very best music/art/poetry/literature have taken these themes and expressed them so well. In some of our churches I hear the call, "God is good!" and the congregational response, "All the time!" and while I have nothing against the call and response as such, I sometimes wonder why for some of us that is the limit of our expressiveness of the the greatness of our God and his dealings with us.
The prayer of Nehemiah 9 was expressive enough for someone to record it and write it down so that we, some 2500 years later can read it as literature and be inspired by it. Are we capable of leaving a legacy of expression of our belief in God. Maybe our belief is as ephemeral as our expression.
I am touched by some of the music of our young people. My music expression is zilch. I have a voice that has all the appeal of a bull frog. So, I have a great appreciation for the enthusiastic singing of our young people about the power and majesty of God. Their singing is a prayer of praise. True, they are loud and boisterous, but when you think about it, the Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah is pretty loud and boisterous too.
So much of our spiritual life is cerebral - thinking about doctrine, arguing about issues, rather than artistic and creative expression. Perhaps it is time to write our prayers down and craft them so they are something that is more than just a passing mist.
Time to write/sing/pray a psalm of praise!
I have been writing a prayer in my daily devotional time over the past year. It is encouraging to see how my prayers and His answers have been changing me.
What a really great idea Connie. Thank you for sharing.
To be faithful to our God it help us to be hopeful in our daily life even if in the hardest time.
But could we be faithful like Ibrahim?
1) The prayer begins with adoration.
a) What is in a name? Names can have power.
Abraham Lincoln, John F Kennedy, Michael Jordan, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawkins
I don't have to describe these people to most of you because their name stands for who they are.
Do you believe the name of God when you pray?
There is something about that name.
2) You alone are the Lord
This also is how it is that it is "impossible for God to lie." It is not impossible for God to lie only because He will not, but also because He cannot. And He cannot lie, just because He cannot. It is impossible. And it is impossible, because when He speaks, the creative energy is in the word spoken, so that "the word only" causes the thing to be so. Man may speak a word and it not be so. Thus man can lie, for to speak what is not so is to lie. And man can lie, can speak what is not so, because there is no power in his word itself to cause the thing to be. With God this is impossible; He cannot lie, for "he spake, and it was"; He speaks, and it is so.
Lessons on Faith (page 10)
http://www.adventbeliefs.com/assets/BBR/23/Lessons-on-Faith-E-J-Waggoner-A-T-Jones-1890.pdf
His creative energy is in the word spoken.
Isaiah chapter 44 compares and contrasts the living God vs the graven image.
He alone is distinguished to be worshiped.
Thank you for those thoughts Newbegin. Am contemplating God cannot lie statement and depth of it.
Being filled with the Holy Spirit.
The best word in the English language that everyone/everybody use to express themselves about anything is 'greatest' or "excellent". So humans have limited the expression of our creator and almighty as "great", or "he is great", or "excellent". We are all lost for words to address God. He is greatest about all gods. I like to listen to the song entitled O Lord how excellent is thy name. If his name is so excellent, what about who he is? The creator and sustainer of the universe.
There are some religious songs that moves us when we sing from the hymnals or from out of the hymnals. Those hymns truly expresses our inward self and how we are feeling toward God.
Rev 15:3 talks about singing the song of Moses, but what song is that? Is it the song found in Deuter 32:1-52. Or is it Exod 15:1-27. Which one of those song will be sang by those who are saved? Do we need to start singing it now?
After crossing the red sea, Miriam and the other ladies took timbrel and went out with singing and dancing. What a joyous site that must have been. The Israelites were alive while the Egyptians were all dead, those who were in the red sea. Isn't that something to rejoice about? Pharaoh and his army thought the had more power than the Creator. Miriam said to the ladies, sing to the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. Music does lift our spirit up to God.
David dance our of his clothing and his dance and singing was accepted by God, his wife disdained him and a curse fell on her. Many times some people sing and tears run down their cheeks but we do not know what sin they were struggling with and the Lord gave them the breakthrough.
There are singing up in heaven.
Spending time with Jesus is spending time with his Holy Spirit.
Creator- how are we supposed to live when we recognize Jesus and the Godhead as our Creator. Ecclesiastes 12:1-14 tells us. But understanding what it meant is another.
Those evil days- the dementia and Alzheimer’s and all the other diseases that destroy our short term memories. While that happens we have our long term memories intact to call on the name of Jesus because we remembered him in our youth.
Preserver- He preserved the children of Israel for 40yrs, their shoes never worn out, feet never swell.
Promise keeper- he kept his promise by returning them to their land.
Has he been all this and more to us?
Has he been all this and more to us?
Oh yes Lyn, He continues to be, but sometimes we lament & complain so much that we forget what we had asked for & miss what He delivers.