Continuing on from my last posts (here and here) about extraordinary prayer based on John Calvin's commentary on Joel...

Here's Calvin introducing the second chapter of Joel:

     This chapter contains serious exhortations, mixed with threatening; but the Prophet threatens for the purpose of correcting the indifference of the people, whom we have seen to have been very tardy to consider God's judgments. Now the reason why I wished to join together these eleven verses was, because the design of the Prophet in them is no other than to stir up by fear the minds of the people. The object of the narrative then is, to make the people sensible, that it was now no time for taking rest; for the Lord, having long tolerated their wickedness, was now resolved to pour upon them in full torrent his whole fiery. This is the sum of the whole. Let us now come to the words.

Source: John Calvin's Commentary on Joel, Part 4, Lecture Forty-first, on Joel 2:1-11, found at http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/m.sion/cvjoe-04.htm, boldface mine.

Matthew Henry begins his commentary on Joel 2 with these words (italics mine):

Here we have God contending with his own professing people...

It's far too tempting for us as Christians to shut our ears to God's call to us to repent. We look at the world, and we see their sins, but all the while we remain hardened and blinded to our own sins and to our own sinfulness. Amos 3:1 Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt...

O LORD our God, forgive us our indifference, our stupidity, and our tardiness in considering Your extraordinary judgments upon us. Forgive us for turning our backs upon You, and spurning You and Your ways. Be kind to us, soften our hearts, and give us ears to hear Your warning trumpet being blown before us – Your people who are part of Your Church. At this time, our wickedness is extraordinary; therefore Your call to us to repent is extraordinary.

By the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have been delivered from slavery to sin, self, the flesh, the world, and the devil. We have been united with Christ in His death and in His resurrection, so we might walk in newness of life, to be separated unto You, to offer ourselves as slaves of righteousness, and to bear fruit to holiness (~ Romans 6:1-7:6) – and yet so often we do not walk as we have learned so in Christ. We have been redeemed in order to be a holy and peculiar people, and yet we walk according to the lusts of our flesh, rather than in Your Spirit. We continue to think and act and speak as if we have never been redeemed. All too often we go back to "Egypt":  we yoke ourselves with the world and imbibe the spirit of this age; we follow the prince of the power of the air, rather than coming out and being separate and showing ourselves to be Your sons and daughters (~ II Corinthians 6:11-7:1). "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" ~ Amos 3:3, KJV.

May we not be deceived by a false sense of  security and assurance. May we not be lulled into a deadly sleep of presumption. May Your Holy Spirit make us sensible that now is not the time for us to take rest, but to prostrate ourselves before You in confession and repentance for our wickedness. Give us eyes to see and hearts to know and to acknowledge our transgressions, that we might confess our sin as evil, and justify Your judgments against us (Psalm 51). Grant us a godly sorrow like the Corinthians exhibited (II Corinthians 7), so we might prove that we have not received Your grace in vain. Work in us a godly sorrow that produces repentance unto salvation. May our repentance be deep and not superficial. Turn us and we will turn to You with all our hearts. May we rend our hearts and not our garments. May we tremble at Your Word. May our hearts be broken and our spirits contrite.

Your trumpet is not being blown among the nations – but among Your holy nation. Your trumpet is not being blown in the world – but in Zion, in Your holy mountain. We are Your people called by Your name, and because we have turned away from You, You are pleading with us to turn to You and to rend our hearts and return to You. You are gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love! Though we are unworthy, though we have engaged in extraordinary wickedness, for the sake of Your Son Jesus Christ, for the sake of Your holy name among the nations, because of Your great mercies, we are fleeing to You! Holy Father, may You be zealous for us, pity us, and relent and leave a blessing behind You, for Your mercies in Jesus Christ are extraordinary!

Psalm 103
8  The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9  He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
10  He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11  For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12  as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13  As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.
14  For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.

* * *

* Please add your PRAYERS below as God's Holy Spirit leads you. *

Earlier this year, as I read "John Elias: Life, Letters and Essays" by Edward Morgan (revised & republished by Banner of Truth, 1973), I found my heart resonated with the heart of the publishers, whose words were written 40 years ago this month:

Without doubt the following pages contain much information which has long been in accessible and practically unknown. If it not, however, a concern merely for the recovery of historical knowledge which is responsible for this reprint. Speaking once of how the Welsh fathers of the eighteenth century had prevailed with God in prayer, and been remarkable for their spiritual usefulness, Elias said, 'It is a consolation to us that the sword and arms they so skilfully used, are in our hands:  may the Lord enable us to handle them!' The supreme value of this volume we judge to be the way in which it reminds us what are the 'sword and arms' of the Church. May God use these pages to further a recovery of the light and power of the gospel at a time when contentment with small things has blighted us all!

The Publishers

June, 1973

As I read through the book, I discovered the words attributed to Elias were an incorrect citation on the part of the publishers –– though indeed it is true that Elias looked back to the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist fathers of the previous century. Those words were actually part of a letter some of Elias' brothers in Christ had written to him to express their appreciation to him, as they met at Montgomeryshire for an Association Meeting of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Connexion. At that time, in April 1841, Elias was at home under great physical affliction (it was just over a month before he would pass into the Glory everlasting). In their "letter of condolence" to Elias, these men requested Elias' prayers on their behalf as they desired to be equipped with God's power to skillfully use the "sword and arms" as did the fathers... (p. 179-180):

April 30, 1841...

Dear brother, we entreat your prayers for ourselves, that the God of Israel may abide with us. Our fathers prevailed with God in prayer, and were remarkable for spiritual gifts; we are no more grasshoppers in comparison to them. But it is a consolation to us that the sword and arms they so skillfully used, are in our hands:  may the Lord enable us to handle them.

John Elias (1774 -1841) and the other Welsh Calvinistic ministers looked back to the fathers (including William Williams (Pantycelyn), Daniel Rowland, Thomas Charles, Griffith Jones, etc.) because of their remarkable "spiritual usefulness." The 18th century fathers had "skillfully used" the "sword and arms," and these 19th century men men were diligently seeking the Lord for the power He alone could provide, knowing the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. They longed to walk in the ways of the fathers –– to be workers approved and unashamed, and to prove they had not received the grace of God in vain.

I suspect by "sword and arms" these men were referring to Aaron and Hur holding up Moses' arms during the battle against Amalek, while Joshua and his chosen men fought and defeated Amalek with the sword (Exodus 17:8-16). My friends, we are in need not only a return to Word of God but also a return to prayer to God –– not only a return to the sword but to the arms! We have been experiencing some resurgence of Reformed preaching for which I am thankful –– but my question is this:  where is the resurgence in importunate prayer... where are the raised arms?

"What influence the rod of Moses had upon the battle (11): When Moses held up his hand in prayer (so the Chaldee explains it) Israel prevailed, but, when he let down his hand from prayer, Amalek prevailed. To convince Israel that the hand of Moses (with whom they had just now been chiding) contributed more to their safety than their own hands, his rod than their sword, the success rises and falls as Moses lifts up or lets down his hands. It seems, the scale wavered for some time, before it turned on Israel's side. Even the best cause must expect disappointments as an alloy to its successes; though the battle be the Lord's, Amalek may prevail for a time. The reason was, Moses let down his hands. Note, The church's cause is, commonly, more or less successful according as the church's friends are more or less strong in faith and fervent in prayer."

~ Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Exodus 17

Many of you may be familiar with the following verses in Malachi 4 –– the concluding words of the Old Testament –– after which there was silence for 400 years...

5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.  6  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. (ESV)

5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: 6  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (KJV)

In his message "Chief Cause for Decay in the Church" on Malachi 4:1-6, Iain Murray explains that though on first reading we might interpret these verses as a prophecy and a promise of "Gospel unity restored to families –– yet the Gospel often divides families." He went on to clarify that the Biblical meaning of the word "fathers" goes beyond that of the parents of the previous generation to "more remote ancestors" (see Romans 9:5). Murray explained that turning of hearts in this way:

The hearts which the fathers of the Old Testament possessed in the best and the brightest days of Israel, the hearts of the fathers, piety, would be found again in another generation. The piety and the devotion of the fathers –– this would be rekindled and it would reappear in the children. That is the meaning of the verse. He shall turn, he shall restore, He shall bring back the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.

So it is expounded in Luke 1:17 –– the Holy Spirit renders it: "He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." That is to say, hearts which are by nature disobedient – for these hearts will be restored the wisdom, the piety, the grace which was in the fathers. This then was the promise of the verse.

In his commentary on Malachi (included in "The Prophets of the Restoration, or Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: a New Translation with Notes"), Thomas V. Moore (1818-1871) expounds the passage similarly (see pp. 405-407, or pp. 176-178 in Banner of Truth's "A Commentary on Haggai and Malachi," reprinted 1960 & 1968):

The expression, "return the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to the fathers," has usually been explained to mean the restoration of domestic harmony among the people. But this is a very meagre sense of words that close up the utterances of God to his people for twelve generations. Want of domestic concord was not one of the sins charged upon the people, and its removal would hardly be the great work assigned to the Elijah messenger. The meaning is suggested in the words of the angel to Zacharias, in Luke 1:16, 17; where, instead of the clause, "the heart of the sons to the fathers," is put, "the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." This paraphrase indicates that the hearts of the devoted ancestors were to live again in the obedience of their repentant posterity, and that the backslidden sons were to be restored to the piety of their fathers. The piety of the fathers had been referred to repeatedly before, (see 1:2; 2:5, 6; 3:4,) and the promise is, that this piety should live again in the children, under the Elijah call to repentance; and it is threatened, that if this is not the result, the land shall be laid under the terrible herem. This was  a devotion to destruction, such as was done to the Canaanites by the judicial act of God. As these guilty nations were cut off because of their sins, so should the people who had taken their place on the soil of the land of promise, or those who in turn would take their place on the covenants of promise, if they imitated their sinful example. This was fulfilled five hundred years afterward, when the chosen people were finally rejected, and the awful blood was upon them and their children, according to their own imprecation. And to this hour, the soil that was wet with that blood lies under the terrible herem, and will so continue, until that Elijah call that shall bring back the heart of David, of Isaiah, and of Nathaniel to their exiled posterity, enabling them to see him whom they have pierced, and to cry, "My Lord and my God." And by the same principle of interpretation that we have applied to the previous verse, do we extend this warning to every age of the Church, and find in it the germ of the solemn admonition of Paul in discussing the same subject, (Rom. 11:20, 21,)  "Be not high-minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee." (HT: http://archive.org/stream/prophetsofrestor00moor/prophetsofrestor00moor_djvu.txt for the text.)

I wasn't familiar with the Hebrew word herem or cherem, so I looked it up in Strong's Concordance... "physical (as shutting in) a net (either literally or figuratively); usually a doomed object; abstr. extermination:--(ac-)curse(-d, -d thing), dedicated thing, things which should have been utterly destroyed, (appointed to) utter destruction, devoted (thing)."

May God turn the hearts of the fathers to us, and give us ears to hear, and impart to us a holy fear, that we might tremble at His Word and be shaken out of our sinful presumption, and repent and humble ourselves, that we might take heed to this grave warning, so we might cast off any and all fleshly means and scatter them as unclean things! ("There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.... In the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge. The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death." ~ Prov. 14:12, 25-26)... so we might zealously embrace, jealously guard, and skillfully use God's own supernatural provision for His Church:  the sword and arms!

And by the same principle of interpretation that we have applied to the previous verse, do we extend this warning to every age of the Church, and find in it the germ of the solemn admonition of Paul in discussing the same subject, (Rom. 11:20, 21,)  "Be not high-minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee."

Just over four years ago, in March 2009, I began this website. In the years prior to that time, I'd begun to see things seemed awry and amiss in some way in the Church, and that somehow we were falling short of what God intended, but it was all pretty vague to me... At first I began to look into emergent/missional theology as a solution. But then, all glory to God, I was set right, as I purchased Martyn Lloyd-Jones' (the Doctor's) commentary on First John ("Life in Christ"). Through reading the Doctor's words there and elsewhere, I was enabled to begin to go back to the Word of God (to Whom can we go?!) to see God's diagnosis and God's solution for God's Church, which is found in Acts 6:4:  But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Or, as the 19th century Welsh Calvinistic fathers put it:  "the sword and arms" of the Church. (Please see my posts here and here for more on that.)

In regard to myself, over the past few years, God has given me a burden to pray for the Church to be reformed and revived, and He has continued to increase that burden. I recently wrote that "I am ten thousand times more convinced, if possible, or I would say I am ten thousand times ten thousand times more convinced of the vital necessity for us to be praying for revival than I was when I first started this blog four years ago." Part of my journey has been chronicled on this site. And, along with that burden, in spite of many temptations to despair and to quit, God has been faithful to sustain me and to work in me both the desire and the ability to pray for the Church to be reformed and revived ~ Phil. 2:12-14; Heb. 13:20-21. I still feel I am a tyro in prayer (that word "tyro" one ML-J used quite often). I don't believe I have really prayed through the power of the Holy Spirit and prevailed in prayer like Jacob more than a dozen times in my life –– but like Elijah, I have sometimes been surprised to find that in praying, the Holy Dove has descended, and I have prayed! Isaiah 26:12; Psalm 118:23; Psalm 115:1!

Both the Bible and Church history provide us with a plumb line by which we ought to judge ourselves. Studying the Bible as well as studying Church history are wholly necessary to the Church's spiritual health and welfare. It's far too easy for us to discard the Bible, and it's also far too easy for us to discard the rich heritage of Church history. It's too easy for us to engage in what C.S. Lewis called "chronological snobbery," –– to think that we in the 21st century are so far advanced that the Bible and our God-fearing fathers have nothing at all to teach us. Scripture has some very strong words for people with such attitudes:

Hosea 5
10  The princes of Judah have become
like those who move the landmark;
upon them I will pour out
my wrath like water.
11  Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
because he was determined to go after filth.
12  But I am like a moth to Ephraim,
and like dry rot to the house of Judah.

My friends, are we but grasshoppers compared with the fathers? Are we not in a day of small things? Has not our contentment with small things blighted us?

Along with the publishers of the Elias book, my prayer is that God may be pleased to use the pages of my blog (as well as my prayers) to remind us of the vital necessity of using the "sword and arms of the Church'"; "to further a recovery of the light and power of the gospel at a time when contentment with small things has blighted us all!;" and to strengthen us in faith and stir us up in fervent prayer...

Or, in the words of Malachi:  may God be gracious to us and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children!

Or, as Iain Murray put it:  may God restore to us "the wisdom, the piety and the grace that was in the fathers," that the hearts of the fathers for the sword and arms would appear in us, that our hearts here in the 21st century would be rekindled to treasure and to skillfully use the sword and arms, and prevail with God in prayer as the fathers did, that the Word of the Lord might speed ahead and be glorified throughout all the nations to the praise, honor, and glory of God!

"Prayers and pains through faith in Christ will do anything." ~ John Eliot

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At this point, I'm not expecting to do much of anything on my WP site until closer to the July 15 date. If Xanga does end up shutting down, Lord willing, I'm hoping to open up another site on WP devoted to carrying over this site there, but the name "tentofmeeting" was already taken there (Grr!), so I'm waiting on that. My naphtalideer.wordpress.com site will be a place of contact no matter what, because even if Xanga does continue, there will be some downtime to get things ported over to the new system here, so I'll be providing updates through my WordPress site. I'll be periodically repeating this announcement on my blog here in the coming month.

As I've considered this time of transition, there have been times I've sinned as I've taken my eyes off Jesus, and I've become distressed and worried; and I've continued to be tempted to feel the same way... but as I look back over my blogging years here at Xanga, and look ahead not knowing how things will look in just a month, all I can say is that I'm thankful to God for the opportunity He has given me here, and that it has been a privilege and blessing be able to blog here –– but first and foremost I am thankful that God unconditionally set His love upon me in Christ and chose me to be His child before time began, and has written my name in heaven! ~ Luke 10:20.

I usually devote the comments section below to prayer; so as God leads you, please feel free to add a prayer there. However, if you have any questions or there's any way I can assist you, I welcome your questions and comments below as well.

Yours in Christ, seeking your joy, for the reviving of Christ's Church, for the joy of the nations, for the joy and glory and renown of God Himself,

Karen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VictoryOLord.JPG
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albrecht_Dürer_-_Bearded_Saint_in_a_Forest,_c._1516_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Since February of this year I've been posting prayers based on the book of Nehemiah. As I've also been reading through the book of Daniel, I couldn't help but be grabbed by Daniel's prayer in Daniel 9. (If you read this prayer along with Nehemiah's (Neh. 1) and the prayer of Israel in Neh. 10, you can't help but see some similarities. I'd encourage you to read and reflect on those three prayers.)

At the time of Daniel's prayer, the seventy years' captivity was about to be completed. In about 539 BC we find Daniel being filled with faith and being led of the Spirit of God to confess and repent of the sins of Israel and intercede for her, all in anticipation of the fulfillment of God's promise to show His steadfast love, mercy and grace on Israel again, to deliver them from exile and return them to the promised land.

Please note that this prayer was prayed a year before the first wave of exiles return in 538BC (Ezra 1), eighty-one years before the Ezra returned with the second wave of exiles (Ezra 7), and ninety-three years before Nehemiah returned with the third wave of exiles (Nehemiah 2).

In other words: Daniel was praying before even one Israelite began the journey back to the promised land. Even one! Even before the commandment was given by Cyrus King of Persia for the first wave of exiles to return.

I know full well that many of us can be discouraged as we pray for revival. We've seen the ruins in the Church.

We've seen doctrine discounted. We've seen grace cheapened. We've seen the Christian life misrepresented as an arduous legalism. We've seen dead doctrine without life. Etc.

And so it is that we too are in exile, in a sense. It sometimes seems that we've not even seen one Israelite on that road back to Jerusalem.

Yet, can we not each proclaim that we have seen the work of God in our own hearts? Can we not also see those blessed times when God has privileged us to see some of the firstfruits being born of His Spirit in the lives of few souls?

However, it is true that we can too easily lose our vision of God and His mighty, wonder-working power to revive His people, to breathe life into the dead, dry bones. We forget the God who raised Jesus from the dead can sweep into our lives and into our churches at any moment and orchestrate a great work of revival to His glory alone. We focus on the impossibility, rather than our God. We forget that nothing is impossible with Him.

We forget our God is the God who declares His reviving work before it springs forth:

If you are already burdened over the current state of the Church and you have been praying (like Nehemiah and Daniel), God has already given you eyes to see and a heart to weep over the shame, reproach, rebellion, ruins we are in. Yet, there are times when each one of us is tempted to doubt. We begin to wonder what God is doing, but along with Habakkuk, God reminds us that the just shall live by faith. We are to walk by faith and not by sight. If we do not believe, surely we will not be established. May He grant us sufficient grace to trust Him and persevere in prayer before His throne.

We do know God will fulfill all His promises to His Church in His time. We know that His love for us in Jesus Christ will never end, and His good hand will continue to be upon His Church in the same way that our Savior ever lives to intercede for us at the Father's right hand. Let our importunity take us back again and again to His throne of grace, so we might approach Him with boldness and confidence, nothing doubting. Our God is the God who will perform what He has promised. And He has the power to perform what He has promised. We cannot ever expect the Lord God to move any sooner than He ordains, yet we do know that He does want us to continue to intercede on behalf of the Church, so we might be no longer be a shame and reproach in the earth but rather be a praise to His holy and blessed and glorious Name. We may not understand God's timing, but we can always trust His plans for us are good. We can trust the Lord God will continue to faithful to us for Jesus' sake, because of His covenant of grace, not because of anything we have done or we could do...and in spite of what we have done. May we continue to praise and worship God our Father for His continuing covenant mercies poured out on us through His Son Jesus Christ. We can trust that our God waits to move only so He might be more greatly exalted, since all things are about Him and His glory. May we patiently wait on Him to work in His way and in His time and continue fervent in prayer on behalf of His Church.

We also know that the Lord has promised to pour out a spirit of grace and supplications on His Church. We have seen this happen time and again throughout Church history, when the Church is at a low point, it is then that God begins to burden a handful of people to pray. They don't work up the desire to pray, but He sovereignly gives them the desire. I know God gave me such a desire a little over a year ago and He continues to fuel it. I wasn't looking for that, and I know apart from His Spirit continuing to constrain me to pray, I would have given up praying long ago. I confess I have been tempted to give up, and I confess there have been times when I have not be instant in prayer and continuing as I ought. Nevertheless, not because of my own will or my own power, but because of His Spirit, I am still praying today. And I know many of you are also. I thank God for each of you.

If you are reading this and you have not yet received a burden from the Lord to intercede for the Church, but you are only praying because you think you ought to, I ask you to ask Him to give you such a burden. You will know you have received it once you have received it. His love will constrain you in the calling to pray.

If you are reading this and you have already received such a burden from the Lord, I want to encourage you to persevere in prayer. If you have come short in praying as you ought (and we all have at one time or another), please confess that to the Lord, receive His forgiveness and cleansing through the blood of Jesus, and then ask Him to work in You to will and to do of His good pleasure. We can trust Almighty God will equip us with all we need for doing His will, and for some of us, a big part of His will for us is a call to intercessory prayer on behalf of the Church. As we obey Him in this calling, we can trust He will grant us grace and joy beyond what we can imagine.

Let us be encouraged and challenged as we look to the example of Daniel. Our brother had been carried away into exile and dwelt in exile for years and remained faithful to God there, and then, as God moved Him, He zealously approached the throne of grace in full confidence that God would be faithful to keep His covenant promises to Israel for His own sake and the sake of His Name.

I've included Daniel's prayer (KJV) below. I may post more on this Scripture another day, but today I wish to present it as is. It's simply wonderful. May the Holy Spirit encourage you through it as He has me, and, as He leads you, please add your own prayers below.

Co-laboring with you, seeking His face for revival for His sake,
Karen

Daniel 9:1  In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; 2  In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

3  And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: 4  And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; 5  We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: 6  Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7  O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. 8  O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. 9  To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; 10  Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. 11  Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. 12  And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. 13  As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. 14  Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice. 15  And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

16  O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. 17  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. 18  O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. 19  O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.