Daniel 9:17

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. CAUSE THY FACE TO SHINE UPON THY SANCTUARY - metaphor from the sun, which gladdens all that it beams upon (; )....

His next prayer is, _Do thou who art our God hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine forth _In these words Daniel wrestles with distrust, not for his own sake privately, but for that of the whole Church to whom he set forth the true method of prayer. And experience teaches all the pious how necessary this remedy is in those doubts which break into all our prayers, and make our earnestness and ardor in prayer grow dull and cold within us, or at least we pray without any composed or tranquil confidence, and this trembling vitiates whatever we had formerly conceived. As, therefore, this daily happens to all the pious when they leave off the duty of prayer for even a short period, and some doubt draws them off and shuts the door of familiar access to God, this is the reason why Daniel so often repeats the sentence_, Do thou, O Lord, hear the prayer...

4-19 In every prayer we must make confession, not only of the sins we have been guilty of, but of our faith in God, and dependence upon him, our sorrow for sin, and our resolutions against it. It must be our confession, the language of our convictions. Here is Daniel's humble, serious, devout address to God; in which he gives glory to him as a God to be feared, and as a God to be trusted. We should, in prayer, look both at God's greatness and his goodness, his majesty and mercy. Here is a penitent confession of sin, the cause of the troubles the people for so many years groaned under. All who would find mercy must thus confess their sins. Here is a self-abasing acknowledgment of the righteousness of God; and it is evermore the way of true penitents thus to justify God. Afflictions are sent to bring men to turn from their sins, and to understand God's truth. Here is a believing appeal to...

Verse 17. _AND CAUSE THY FACE TO SHINE_] Give us proof that thou art reconciled to us....

NOW, THEREFORE, O OUR GOD, HEAR THE PRAYER OF THY SERVANT - In behalf of the people. He pleaded for his people and country, and earnestly entreated the Lord to be merciful. His argument is based on the confession of sin; on the character of God; on the condition of the city and temple; on the former Divine interpositions in behalf of the people; and by all these considerations, he pleads with God to have mercy upon his people and land. AND CAUSE THY FACE TO SHINE UPON THY SANCTUARY - Upon the temple. That is, that he would look upon it benignly and favorably. The language is common in the Scriptures, when favor and kindness are denoted by lifting up the light of the countenance, and by similar phrases. The allusion is originally, perhaps, to the sun, which, when it shines brightly, is an emblem of favor and mercy; when it is overclouded, is an emblem of wrath. For

EXPOSITION DANIEL 9:1 THE SEVENTY WEEKS. This is the chapter of Daniel which has occasioned most controversy. It was appealed to by Tertullian and the early Fathers as a demonstration of the correctness of our Lord's claims to Messiahship. It is now received by critical commentators that to our Lord this prophecy cannot refer. Many treatises have been written on the "seventy weeks" of Daniel, and none of them have entirely cleared up the difficulties; indeed, it may be doubted whether all together they have illuminated the subject very much. DANIEL 9:1, DANIEL 9:2 In the first ye

NOW THEREFORE, O OUR GOD,.... This being our miserable case, and the seventy years' captivity being at an end, and thou still our covenant God, whom we profess and worship: HEAR THE PRAYER OF THY SERVANT, AND HIS SUPPLICATIONS; which he had put up in an humble manner, consisting of various petitions for grace and mercy before expressed: AND CAUSE THY FACE TO SHINE UPON THY SANCTUARY THAT IS DESOLATE; the temple; its walls demolished, its altars thrown down, and the whole in ruins; a melancholy scene! the Lord, suffering these things, seemed to frown upon it, and upon his people, that used to serve him there; wherefore it is entreated that he would smile upon it again, and upon them, and cause it to be rebuilt, and his worship restored in it: and this is asked FOR THE LORD'S SAKE: that is, for Christ's sake, who is Lord of all, especially of his chosen people, by creation, redemption,...

Daniel 9:14. 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. 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. 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. 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. O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations,...

CHAPTER 9 THE PROPHECY OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS _ 1. The time and occasion of Daniel's prayer (Daniel 9:1)_ 2. The prayer (Daniel 9:3) 3. The answer and the prophecy of the seventy weeks (Daniel 9:20) Daniel 9:1. It was in the first year of Darius, of the seed of the Medes, that Daniel understood by the sacred writings of his people, especially by the prophecy of Jeremiah, that the end of the years of the captivity was at hand. The promises in the Word of God led him at once to seek the face of the Lord and he poured out a wonderful prayer in His presence....

According to Charles, a later interpolation containing the confession of Daniel. This prayer was evidently written by a Palestinian Jew (see Daniel 9:7 and Daniel 9:16), and does not, therefore, maintain the point of view assumed in the rest of the book, where the writer is supposed to be living at the court of Babylon. There is little originality in the prayer, and many of its phrases are borrowed from other parts of the OT. Daniel 9:11. written in the law of Moses: _ cf._ Deuteronomy 29:20. Daniel 9:13. as it is written: _ cf._...