How to Praise God for His Actions in the Past (Nehemiah 9:6-15)

What this episode covers

Learning how to praise God is not the same as actually doing so. Teaching through this chapter—which contains one long prayer—is almost counter-intuitive. We run the risk of analyzing the passage as a model for prayer, and failing to actually pray it. What do you really want from this sermon? Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com My guess is that you don’t need another tip or technique on prayer. If you do, you can watch this video I gave on “How to Pray to God” a few years ago. We have helpful devices such as the acronym ACTS to help us to pray, but what we’re really after is a more vibrant prayer life. If you intend to pray more, you have to stop relying on yourself! That’s why we don’t pray as often as we should. We are too self-reliant, or others-reliant, or anything-but-God-reliant. We think we can handle things on our own. Then we show up here each Sunday, overwhelmed by our lives again. When you recognize your need for God, it is much easier to turn to him in prayer. A Prayer of Adoration and Praise That’s how it was for all the Israelites who had gathered for a day of solemn repentance. They were burdened with a desire to change their lives. They had become obsessed with God’s Word. That is why they read it and studied it constantly because they wanted to know God’s will. Once they understood God’s will, they sought to align their hearts with it. But the Levites did something unexpected. They didn’t launch right into their confession of sin, but their profession of faith. They start by giving praise to the God they had offended. Specifically, they praise God’s name and worship him as Creator of heaven and its hosts, the earth, and everything on it, the seas and everything in them. This is not a strategy for endearing God to them. Rather, they recognize that a proper understanding of God—including an apprehension of his mercy—is crucial to true repentance. Sin leads to unrelenting guilt for those who do not join their confession of sin to their profession of faith. A right understanding of God prepares us for true repentance. That is why Israel began their corporate confession with corporate adoration. Adoration involves praising God for who he is as well as what he has done. Read Nehemiah 9:5-15. Praise God for His Sovereign Work of Salvation This section traces the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. The Levites will get to the failures of that generation, which complained and lost faith multiple times. However, the focus of verses 7-15 is on God’s kind provision. He remains the subject of every sentence in this passage. Something else to note is the structure of this larger section, concluding at the end of chapter ten. Covenants were not unique to Israel. The form of the covenant in Scripture follows a pattern familiar to the Ancient Near East context. So, the general structure is familiar. God Ratifies His Covenant With Abram However, there was a significant difference between the ratification of a typical ANE treaty, and the form of ratification recorded in Scripture. One of the clearest pictures of God’s sovereignty in salvation is the way in which he confirms his covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15. God selected one man who was no different from any other man, among a nation that was like every other nation. He called Abram and promised to make him a great nation who would be a blessing to all nations (Gen 12:1-3). The problem was that Abram was 75 years old when God promised that he would become a great nation. His wife was beyond childbearing age. And, up to this point, they had no children. But Abram was faithful to go. At some point over the next several years, God ratifies his covenant with Abram. Genesis 15 opens with an illustration of God’s promise. Abram says, “I’m still childless.” God says, “Number the stars.” But, the crux of this passage takes place in vv.9-21. God says, “I’m giving you this land!” Abram says, “How am I to know that I sh

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