Nehemiah 9
by Pastor David Groendyk
The wall is finished, the attackers are fended off, and the law of God has been read, explained, and preached. About three-and-a-half weeks after this grand reform through Ezra has started, the people offer this corporate prayer of praise, confession, and help. According to the ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible, this is the longest recorded prayer in the Bible, and with that knowledge in mind, it’s particularly interesting to note the content and tone of this prayer.
The largest part of this prayer is verses 5–31 in which the Jews remember and reiterate their own history. Notice that the way these people reflect on their history is profoundly God-centered. God is the one who did the great acts of creation, election, redemption, and preservation. God showed his incredible mercy to the people in the form of forgiving Israel of their rebellion, continuing to provide them with food and clothing despite their sin, and giving them the Holy Spirit to lead and instruct them. And God kept his promises to this faithless people by making them to multiply as the stars of the heavens and giving them all the riches of Canaan. Despite all of his goodness and faithfulness, the people wandered away from him and crucified the prophets who tried to draw them back to God. Yet God spared them and never made an end of them or forsook them.
It’s only by God’s own steadfast love, faithfulness, and covenantal commitment that we can approach him in prayer. The Jews in Nehemiah’s day recognized that. As they were in the midst of their reforms and hearing the law of God read publicly and in full, they recognized their own forfeiture of God’s presence. For as long as this prayer is, the only true request comes in verse 32: “Let not the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us…” This “hardship” is a reference to the exiling done by Assyria and Babylon. They plead to God to notice them and help them, and yet confess that God has only ever done right by them (v. 33). That’s a curious thing to say when your people has been slaughtered and pillaged and attacked. In essence, they’re praying, “Lord, for generations we’ve hated you despite the good things you’ve done for us. We deserve to be in this sorry state. But, please, help us anyway, because we know that you are a loving and merciful God!” What humility this kind of prayer takes!
In the knowledge of their ancestors’ past faithlessness and their own faithlessness, the Jews re-dedicate themselves to the Lord and renew their covenant with him (v. 38). They want to be faithful to the Lord again. This is a model prayer that we can regularly pray with ancient Israel as a confession of our own sins, and it’s instructive for us in how to return to God with humility after we’ve backslidden or wandered away. We’ve never earned a thing in our relationship with God. We’ve only ever contributed sin. The only way to approach God and re-dedicate ourselves to him is through the work of Christ on our behalf. Do you practice regular, specific, personal confession of sin with God? It’s a necessary and soul-cleansing practice. And we do it not in order to beat ourselves up but so that we would experience the fullness of Christ’s grace and mercy and forgiveness on a daily basis. Praise God for the grace he has shown to us in the past, and praise him for his mercies which are new every single morning!