And now, our God, hearken to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
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Incline thine ear, O my God, and hear; open thine eyes and behold our desolations, and the city that is called by thy name for we do not present our supplications before thee because of our righteousnesses, but because of thy manifold mercies.
Daniel has spent a lifetime in exile. He has just confessed his nation's sin. Now he asks God to look at the ruined city and the ruined sanctuary. The striking thing is the reason he gives God for hearing him — and the reason he refuses to give.
Verses 16 to 19 are the request part of Daniel's prayer. The order of his pleas matters. He starts with God's righteousness, and only later comes to God's mercy:
Daniel has confessed the sin and failure of God's people. He has also justified God in all His ways. Now he prays in the form of a request. Surprisingly, as we might think, his first plea is the righteousness of God, and only later the "great mercy" of God. He realises that mercy must be based on righteousness. He had already owned the "righteousness" of God in bringing all this sorrow on this people (verse 14). Now he pleads that in righteousness God would turn His anger and fury away from Jerusalem.
Daniel will not ask on the ground of what his people deserve. His confession makes no excuses either:
The marks of true confession come to light here. Daniel admits the evil with no attempt to excuse it or play it down. He owns that God's judgments and discipline are right. Then he asks God to grant deliverance, according to His word, "not … because of our righteousness, but because of Your great mercy." Let us cultivate these excellent features in our day. We too can ask for nothing on the ground of merit, but only on the ground of mercy.
What gives the words their weight is the man saying them. He had the least to answer for and said the most:
Daniel's confession is touching in the extreme. In it he owns the sin of his people as his own sin, even sins committed long before he was born. Since a youth he had been captive, though put at times in high office and standing in great favour. He had seen the Babylonian Empire crumble in a night. Now an old man, at the very end of his career, he shines never brighter than when on his knees in this chapter.
Each request names a different ruin and gives its own reason why God should act. Verse 17 asked for the sanctuary. Verse 18 widens the view:
Next he brings up the sanctuary in all its ruin. He asks God to cause His face to shine on His sanctuary, and the ground of that request is "for the Lord's sake" — an appeal that could not be refused. In the next verse (18) the subject of his petition is "our desolations, and the city that is called by Your name." For this he urges yet another plea: "We do not present our pleas before You because of our righteousness, but because of Your great mercy."
Notice the pronoun Daniel chooses for the city. It is not the one you would expect from a Jew mourning his homeland:
It is striking that when he pleads for the city, the mountain, the sanctuary and the people, he does not see them in relation to himself or the nation. He sees them as belonging to God. He does not say our city, or our sanctuary, or our people, but "Your city," "Your holy mountain," "Your sanctuary," and "Your people." Rising above all the failure, he turns to God and pleads, "We are Yours."
Daniel has set merit aside. So he needs another reason why God should act, and he finds it in God Himself:
"O my God, incline Your ear and hear … for we do not present our pleas before You because of our righteousness, but because of Your great mercy" (v. 18). "Delay not, for Your own sake, O my God, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name" (v. 19). Daniel makes God Himself the motive. The glory of God identifies itself with such a people. So faith that sees the sins of the people can still claim deliverance from the results of those sins. That very glory makes the forgiveness necessary, since God has identified Himself in goodness with the people… But if God is to act for His name, He must deliver Jerusalem. There was no other place on earth that bore His name.
Read the whole request and one absence stands out. Daniel, a captive far from home, never mentions his own case:
These are the three pleas Daniel urges before the Lord — His righteousness, His own sake, and His mercies… Here was the secret of his strength. He cared most of all for the name of his God, and for God's interests in His sanctuary, His city, and His people. He has not one single thing to ask for himself, or even for his fellow captives… So this is a prayer worth studying often, by anyone who wants, in any measure, to share God's heart about the sad state of His church in the world.
- Righteousness first. Daniel pleads God's righteousness before he pleads His mercy, because mercy must rest on righteousness. The God who was right to send the ruin is the God he asks to turn His anger away.
- Merit disowned. The one thing he refuses to bring is his own record; we can ask for nothing on the ground of merit, only on the ground of mercy.
- Yours, not ours. He says "Your city," "Your sanctuary," "Your people." He rises above the failure and pleads the one thing still true: we belong to You.
- The name as the argument. With merit gone, God Himself becomes the motive. The city bears His name, so acting for His name means delivering it.
- Nothing for himself. Not one request in this prayer is personal. That was the secret of its strength, and it is the pattern for anyone who carries God's people on their heart today.