Our God Reigns — Part Two

Well, let’s turn to Daniel chapter 6, and we’ll just read the briefest of sections. It’s a long chapter, and we read it through in its entirety this morning.

We’ll just read from verse 19:

“Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, ‘O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?’ Then Daniel said to the king, ‘O king, live forever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they[’ve] not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.’ Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions—they, their children, and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.

“Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: ‘Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.’

“So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”

Amen.

Father, help us now, as we look together to the Bible. We want to understand it. We want to believe it. We want to live in the light of it. And we are entirely dependent upon you to achieve any of this. So we look away from ourselves to you. Grant to us clarity of thought, and receptiveness of spirit, and focus and understanding. For Jesus’ sake we pray. Amen.

Well, we have identified the fact that Daniel has been framed. He’s been framed by his colleagues, and there’s no question that he understands that that has actually taken place. Daniel was able to identify a setup when he saw one. He was hated and he was plotted against not because he was a bad chap, because, as we’ve seen, he wasn’t. He was exemplary in the workplace and in the service of the king. But he was plotted against because he stood for truth.

And as we said this morning, we have here, many, many years before Paul writes about this to the Thessalonians, an inkling of what he refers to there as “the mystery of lawlessness.”[1] And when you read Daniel, you find yourself again and again with your thoughts being catapulted forward. And I would think that here you would find yourself immediately, almost inevitably, thinking about Jesus. For here we have, six centuries before the coming of Jesus, the condemnation of an innocent man who is sentenced to death, and the reason for it is because of charges that are trumped up against him. So, in this instance, the presidents and the satraps bring these charges against Daniel. In the case of Jesus, it is the chief priests and the council looking for testimony against him, and without success, they tried to find reason for accusation. And eventually, both Daniel and Jesus were convicted by trickery. Daniel was found guilty of transgressing this arbitrary law of the Medes and the Persians, and Jesus, you will remember, was condemned for transgressing the law of the Jews. You’ll perhaps remember, in John chapter 19, the Jewish authorities come and say, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die.”[2] And so, if you do find yourself catapulting forward, then I think it’s because you know your Bible, and you should be encouraged.

Daniel Was Disciplined

So, we’ve noticed that Daniel was distinguished and also that he was despised. And now I want you to notice that he was, in his personal life, disciplined. Disciplined. “When Daniel knew,” verse 10, “that the document had been signed, he went to his house,” and he continued what he’d been doing.

Now, it’s not hard to imagine him—as I think I said in one of the services this morning—

beginning to rationalize the challenge that is represented in this edict. He could have said to himself, “You know, what is thirty days out of an entire lifetime? I mean, I’m only being asked not to pray for thirty days, and I’ve prayed a lot in my life.” And perhaps he might even have said, “I’ve built up quite a lot of credit when it comes to prayer time, and I’m sure the Lord would be quite happy if he gave me a little respite, you know—just a wee while off.” Or he might have said, “It doesn’t really matter where you pray. We can pray anywhere and at any time.” Therefore, he might have said, “So I’ll just change my location, and I’ll change the time frame, and that way, nobody will be able to entrap me.” But in actual fact, he doesn’t do any of that. It is entirely conjecture on my part to suggest that he might even have considered such a rationalization.

No, you see, Daniel’s commitment, if it had been spasmodic, if it had been patchy, if his prayer life had been the effulgence simply of an emotional response to what was going on around him, then his colleagues could never have counted on catching him. It was the very regularity and faithfulness of Daniel that made it possible for these fellows to catch him, if you like, in the act.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I find this very, very challenging, first of all on a personal level, and then, I have to say honestly, on a corporate level. Here is the dreadful question; let me pose it for us. We’re not going to try and answer it, but we do want it to register in our hearts and minds. Here’s the question: Would it make any substantial difference in our lives, individually or corporately, if prayer were to be banned for the next thirty days? Would it make any substantial difference in my life if prayer were to be banned for the next thirty days, and the punishment death? What possibility is there of the authorities coming and catching Parkside Church at prayer? What possibility is there of them coming to my home or to my study, or to my place of business and, on the strength of my regularity and my faithfulness, being able to do to me what they were able to do to Daniel? Quite challenging, isn’t it? I find it so.

Well, they came, of course, and they caught him, just as they expected. And he didn’t disappoint them. And so in verse 12, they go back, and having caught Daniel, they now need to go back and make sure that they catch the king. And they come to him, and they get his verbal concurrence with the edict. “They came near and said before the king,” verse 12: “Didn’t you sign an injunction that anyone who does this and so on will be cast into the den of lions?” “Oh yes!” said the king. “That stands absolutely fast and certain according to the laws of the Medes and the Persians.” And then, of course, they drop the boom on him in verse 13: “And then they said before the king, ‘Daniel is guilty of doing just what you said must not happen.’”

In fact, they tell lies, don’t they? They say that “Daniel … pays no attention to you, O king.” That actually isn’t true. It was Daniel’s loyalty and his attentiveness to the duties of the state that found him in line for the top job. He had paid tremendous attention to the king. There’s no reason for the king to have decided that out of the three fellows in the top position in the land, that Daniel was the obvious choice, apart from his loyalty to him. But as we saw this morning, there is a point beyond which he will not go. There is a line that is drawn in the sand.

And so, we recognize that in doing what he did—going to his home and praying again and again, three times a day—it is not a knee-jerk reaction on his part. This is not something that he’s decided to do as a result of the thirty-day edict; that the edict goes out, and he goes, “Well, I’ll show you what I’m going to do with that!” and so he decides, “Not only will I pray one time a day, but I will pray three times a day.” That’s not what he’s doing. It is simply, in his case, business as usual. You will see that in verse 10: “And [he] prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.” And then in verse 13, they said to him, “Daniel, … one of the exiles …, pays no attention to you … but makes his petition three times a day.” In fact, in the NIV, I think quite helpfully, it translates it—and they go to the king, and they say, “And despite your injunction, he still prays.”[3] “He still prays.”

The implication is that he regards his commitment to God of such importance that obedience to this manmade edict is totally unacceptable. As loyal as he was to the duties of the empire, nobody could be in any doubt, in Daniel’s case, about his allegiance to the kingdom of God. And we have described for us there his daily regimen: he turned with his gaze towards Jerusalem. As we said this morning, he wasn’t simply saying in that that he came from Jerusalem, but he was recognizing the fact that in Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God within the geography of the time, was the embodiment of truth and was the embodiment of salvation.

And if we’ve never studied this before, we might have the picture in mind of Daniel sitting in front of a great big picture window and being very ostentatious in his prayer life. Again, nothing could be further from the truth. Any kind of study makes it clear to us that the windows in the East at that time—and, to a certain extent, at this time—were mostly high up in the wall line, so that they often, of course, would have nothing in them except slats, which would be set in certain ways to catch, as you find in places in Europe, the wind, depending on how it’s blowing, so that it might be able to grant the air into the house and to make it a livable place.

So the picture, then, is not of Daniel in a public display of devotion, but it is a picture of his colleagues in a personal intrusion into his life—that they have to spy on him. They spy on him. And they are pretty sure that if they’re able to look in, they will find him doing what he was always doing.

When crisis comes to our lives—when challenge comes, as it inevitably will, to our faith—then it will reveal what is there.

I find it challenging as well that it wasn’t that the time of crisis created his disciplined lifestyle. The time of crisis revealed his disciplined lifestyle. And when crisis comes to our lives—when challenge comes, as it inevitably will, to our faith—then it will reveal what is there. Oh, it may become the impetus for us taking it up a notch. That’s without saying. But nevertheless, it will show what we have. When the wheels fall off, when the tide gets high, when the challenge is strong, then it will reveal what is, if you like, behind the walls of our home.

So, I want us to make sure that we don’t think in terms of Daniel, both in posture and in every other way, as giving us some kind of framework. Every so often, you’ll come across people expounding this passage and using it as an opportunity to explain that you should always pray three times a day, you should always pray with the windows open, and you should also make sure that you’re kneeling when you’re praying. Well, of course, we could make a good case for praying with the windows open so you don’t fall asleep, I suppose, if it isn’t raining and so on. But really, it’s such a shame when passages like this become the fodder for things like that.

As I was thinking about it, I went to my file, because I thought that in the past—and this is long in the past—I had written down a few things about posture in prayer, because I wondered, “How many different ways do you find in the Bible that people are praying?” And actually this, I just see here, it says on the top—it says “Strathclyde Hospital.” So I was speaking to a nurse’s Christian fellowship about prayer, apparently. And anyway… And so, these are the ones that I had noted: standing in prayer, hands spread out and lifted heavenward or not, praying by bowing the head, prayer by lifting the eyes heavenward, prayer in kneeling, prayer by falling down with your face upon the ground, and some other particularly expressive ones—Elijah praying with “his face between his knees,”[4] and Elijah standing at a distance and beating his breast.

So, there’s all kinds of ways you can go at it. But the issue here is “Are you praying?” not “How are you doing?” Which allows me to read my favorite poem on the posture in prayer. And I don’t get many chances to do this, but I think this is legitimate. And it goes like this:

“The proper way for … man to pray,”
 Said Deacon Lemuel Keyes,
“And the only proper attitude,
 Is down upon his knees.”

“No, I should say the way to pray,”
 Said Rev. Dr. Wise,
“Is standing straight with outstretched arms
 [With] rapt and upturned eyes.”

“Oh, no; no, no,” said Elder [Snow],
  “Such posture is too proud:
A man should pray with eyes fast closed
 And head contritely bowed.”

“It seems to me [one’s] hands should be
 Austerely clasped in front,
With both thumbs pointing toward the ground,”
 Said Rev. Dr. Blunt.

“Las’ year I fell in [Higgin]’s well
 Head first,” said [Pastor] Brown,
“With both my heels a-stickin’ up,
 And my head a-[pointing] down;

“An’ I made a prayer right then an’ there—
 Best prayer I ever said,
The prayingest prayer I ever prayed,
  [Was] a-standing on [me] head.”[5]

Isn’t there something wrong with us as a church—I don’t mean small c; big C—in America, that we expended such effort about the absence of prayer in public schools while being unprepared to acknowledge the absence of prayer in our local churches? It’s almost like a smokescreen: “If I can make a fuss about that, then maybe I can forget about the vacuum in my own life, in my own church.” No, Daniel’s challenge is an unavoidable challenge. He still prayed. He did what he did.

Someone has observed, “There were doubtless times when his prayer duty refreshed and inspired him and others when the custom brought no immediate satisfaction and he ended without feeling blessed. However, it is clear that he had established this as a fixed point in his life—that irrespective of his feelings, through it he maintained the reality and strength of his communion with God.” There’s a tremendous lesson in that as well, especially for those of us who are tempted to look for immediate gratification, immediate sense of blessing or fulfillment or affirmation or approbation. If you do that… For example, when you come to sing, when we gather for God’s praise, if you come with that perspective—“Well, what am I going to get out of this?” or you may find yourself walking away, I may find myself walking away, saying, “Well, I got nothing out of that!”—well, was that the issue? Or was it that God would be glorified?

I remember the story, in Scotland, of the brothers Horatio and Andrew Bonar. And they are traveling, and they’re backpacking in Scotland, and they go to a tiny church in the Highlands on one Sunday, and they both attend the service together. And as they walk out, Horatio says to his brother, “Well, I didn’t get much out of that”—to which Andrew replied, “If you’d been hungry enough, you would have got something to eat.”

You see, the exercise of prayer may provide for us a sense of his presence, but it may not. And in Daniel’s life, he was committed, whether up or down.

Daniel Was Dumped

He was distinguished. He was despised. He was disciplined. And he was dumped. And here we finally get him in so that we can spend a moment and get him back out again.

The king had been trapped by his own piece of legislation—which gives me an opportunity to read one of my other favorite poems, because he’s hoisted on his own petard, in the same way that happened to the man who invented radar. He was a Scotsman. His name was Robert Watson-Watt, and he invented radar in the time of the Second World War. He was rewarded $140,000 for it. It was the highest award ever paid for a wartime invention. While he was driving in Canada, he was caught for speeding in a radar trap, and he wrote this verse about it:

Pity Sir Robert Watson-Watt,
Strange target of [his] radar plot
And thus, with others I [could] mention,
[A] victim of his own invention.

And that is exactly what we find in the case of the king: He is now victimized by the way in which he has been cajoled and maneuvered into issuing this edict.

And in verse 14, we are told that he was “distressed” when he heard these things, and he “set his mind to deliver Daniel.” That is another indication to us of the relationship that existed between Daniel and this king and the affection that this king had for this Daniel. And he was spending the day, we are told, trying to create a context in which somehow or another Daniel could be saved from this eventuality. But we discover that he was unable to do so, despite his determined efforts—presumably, by means of changing the legal or constitutional structures of the nation. It just couldn’t be done. It was the law of the Medes and the Persians. It should make us think of our studies in Esther and all that happened there.

And so, as a result—verse 16—he has to do what the edict says he must do, and he “commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions.” Lions, if you have looked at old paintings and drawings and things from this era, were part and parcel of the sport of the wealthy and the royal in those days. And so, it would not be uncommon for them to have a pit that had a number of lions in it, and they would then be able to provide the framework for this kind of atrocity. And so it is we’re told that he was thrown in, or he was cast in, as it says right here. The indication is, apparently, that there would have been a ramp down which the animals would have gone to find their way into the pit; and then there would have been, somehow or another, another entryway that would have been the place that they would have thrown down food for the animals. And so, the animals get the ramp, and the people go down the hole for the food.

It’s quite horrendous, this thought, isn’t it? Here’s a man who’s been a faithful servant for all these years. He’s served in the Babylonian Empire. He has gone through a number of these kings. He’s now pushing eighty years of age. He’s doing an outstanding job. His friends hate him. They despise him. They reject him. They come up with a trumped-up charge against him. And now the king has to issue the command to throw him in here.

Let’s remind ourselves what we said, again: that this is no harmless prank on the part of these men. In seeking to obliterate Daniel, they were attempting to do what the Evil One attempts to do at every point—namely, to destroy every trace of the kingdom of God. To destroy the kingdom of God. At the heart of the empires of the world and the ebb and flow of human history, it takes a Bible for us to recognize that in the midst of all of that hatred, in the midst of all of that discord, you need to find yourself back in Genesis 3:15 to explain why things actually are as they are.

Our good friend Sinclair Ferguson, in a sentence, says, “This was the hand of the kingdom of darkness seeking to annihilate the kingdom of God.”[6] “The hand of the kingdom of darkness seeking to annihilate the kingdom of God.”

There’s a faint glimmer of hope when the king asks Daniel, or says to Daniel, “[Well,] may your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” Verse 17. Is your mind jumping forward? “And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel.” This is it! It is over. It’s finished. Similar to another stone and to another sealed tomb.

At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, we read of the exact same thing taking place, don’t we? Matthew 26, towards the end. Let me find it. “Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward.”[7] And into chapter 27:

[And] the next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” And Pilate said to them, “You[’ve] [got] a guard of soldiers. [You] go, [and] make it as secure as you can.” [And] so they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.[8]

And that great hymn comes to mind: “Vainly they watch his bed, Jesus [the] Savior,” and “vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord!” and “up from the grave he arose.”[9] They said, “That’s an end to him right there. Now we’ve finally dealt with this impostor. Now we will be done with this nonsense once and for all.” That’s exactly what the kingdom of darkness was doing in relationship to Daniel: “Now, just seal him away, and we’ll be finished with it. Make sure, doubly sure, that it’s okay.” “Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus my Savior; he tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!”[10]

I remember back on Fairmount… Do you remember, some of you, when we had that wonderful, big, handsome Black man come? He sang at least a couple of Easters for us—sang the same song every time, by request. Do you remember that song? “Go ahead, drive the nails in my hands; laugh at me, where you stand.” And then his voice said, “[But] I’ll rise again.” I can still feel it on my back right now: “[But] I’ll rise again! [There] ain’t no power on earth can tie me down!”[11] That’s the story.

Evening passed, and nobody was eating. The king wasn’t eating. He wasn’t playing Scrabble. He wasn’t watching movies. He was completely wide awake. The lions weren’t eating either. That’s interesting! Nobody was eating! And verse 19: “Then, at break of day…” “[Oh] what a morning, gloriously bright, with the dawning of hope.”[12] Do you see it? He was delivered! Delivered! Picture the scene: “As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish.” He was probably surprised when he heard his voice coming out! You know, his voice was probably like a king’s voice: “And how are you doing?” And it came out like “Oh, Daniel, are you coming out?” He said, “Where did that come from?” And “he cried out with a tone of anguish,” and “the king declared to Daniel…” “Well, listen, he has delivered me. My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they haven’t harmed me. I was blameless. I was innocent of the charge. I trusted God.” What a tremendous testimony! The king is bowled over by it! Daniel was innocent. Daniel was dependent.

I am indebted again to my friend Sinclair Ferguson for this insight here: in this incident, as in the rest of the Old Testament, “the destructive power of lions” is a metaphor for the chaos and disjointedness and disharmony of the universe.[13] The unruly nature of lions. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the Evil One is himself described as “a roaring lion.”[14] So, when you read of these things, indicative of our fallen and broken world; and then you read, in Isaiah chapter 11, of the promised age to come, when the lion will lie down with the lamb;[15] it is an indication of all that God is ultimately going to accomplish. And in this incident, in Daniel’s case, his deliverance is therefore, in some sense, an indication of the promised, ultimate, universal renovation of the universe, whereby lions, whose only objective would be to destroy and to consume, are found in the morning hour, presumably, to be there quite placidly. What is happening? What has happened?

In a moment of crisis, in order to preserve his kingdom, God brings the power of the fulfilled kingdom into the moments of adversity.

Well, what has happened is that in a moment of crisis, in order to preserve his kingdom, God brings the power of the fulfilled kingdom into the moments of adversity. That’s why it is interesting that it says of the fellows that came out of the fiery furnace that they didn’t even smell of smoke.[16] They were absolutely, completely saved! You remember, it says of Jesus that “not one of his bones [was] broken.”[17] And it says of Daniel, here, the same thing: that he was completely unharmed.

But in the deliverance, there was also destruction. Because in a sinful and a fallen world, there is a dark and a somber side to the salvation of the people. And you will notice here that judgment falls on those who had maliciously accused Daniel. They had attempted to destroy God’s kingdom, and they themselves had been destroyed—not only the perpetrators but also their wives and their children. Incidentally, don’t stumble over that, as if somehow or another the charge should be laid at the feet of God or at the feet of Jewish or biblical law. It isn’t. Herodotus records the fact that this was Persian law—that if somebody violated in this way, not only did they pay, but their family members paid. So, this is, if you like, Islam. This is not Judaism. You understand?

But the punishment that falls upon them is representative of the punishment that will fall, one day, on those who have spent their lives opposing the kingdom of God. It is impossible to read the balance of Daniel, as we will do, and not understand that—that he will crush these beasts; that eventually, on that day of judgment, Revelation says that the people will call for the mountains to fall on them and crush them rather than to face the judgment of God.[18] That’s the significance of what is happening here. And it is impossible for us to see the salvation, the deliverance, without seeing the destruction.

Think about it through the whole Bible. God looks on the world and all of its fallenness, and he decides that he will punish and flood it. And in the midst of providing for Noah an ark, he destroys. In the same way, Joseph is liberated from the pit and moved to a position of power, but in the context of punishment and judgment. Moses, in Egypt, is saved in a basket, and as they are going through the Red Sea, the chariots and their wheels and their soldiers and all of their armaments are finally ground into the ocean bed, or the seabed. And the same, of course, is true of Jesus. He was “despised and rejected of men.”[19] And when Jesus finally returns, then he will actually deliver his people from all the brokenness and chaos of this life.

And that was what was there for these first readers to understand. To realize that they could trust God, to realize that they must maintain the law of God, to realize that they mustn’t be absorbed by the culture, it was imperative for them to understand that the God who protected his servant Daniel, even from what appeared to be inevitable death, would bring them safely to the place of his appointing.

There’s a hymn that came to my mind in relationship to this that we do not sing. But I want you just to get a flavor of it, and then we’ll end, and we’ll sing a couple of hymns that we do understand. Some of you might remember this hymn from your past, but it goes like this:

Sing we the king who is coming to reign,
Glory to Jesus, the Lamb that was slain.
[Righteousness, peace, then] his empire shall bring,
[And] joy to the nations when Jesus is King.

All men shall dwell in his marvelous light,
[And] races long severed his love shall unite,
[And] justice and truth from his scepter shall spring,
[And] wrong shall be ended when Jesus is King.

All shall be well in his kingdom of peace,
Freedom shall flourish and wisdom increase,
[And] foe shall be friend when his triumph we sing,
[And] sword will be sickle when Jesus is King.

Knowledge and fear of the Lord then shall be
As the deep waters that cover the sea,
[And] all things shall be in the splendor of spring
And all harmonious when Jesus is King.

[So] kingdom of Christ, for thy coming we pray,
Hasten, O Father, the dawn of the day
When this new song [your] creation shall sing:
Satan is vanquished, and Jesus is King.

Come let us sing praise to our King.
This is our song, who to Jesus belong:
Glory to Jesus, to Jesus our King.[20]

What an amazing finish there is to the chapter, as well. The closing verses find this pagan king declaring of the God of Daniel that this God lives, and this God reigns, and this God rescues. Is it beyond the bounds of possibility that, if not in our generation, in a generation still to come, some proud emperor in our world, some great president or prime minister, would actually stand up and say, “You know, I have been this, and I have been that, but I have encountered the true and living God, and God lives, and God reigns, and God rescues, and he’s rescued me”? Surely there is a reason that we’re supposed to, with Paul, pray for those who are in authority over us, for those who are kings and presidents and rulers of nations.[21] Does my faith extend to the place where I might cry to God to see that kind of amazing transformation? Is the God who transformed Saul of Tarsus powerful enough to change the dictator who rules North Korea? The answer must be yes. It has to be yes.

We’re back with J. B. Phillips, aren’t we? Your God Is Too Small—a God who can just get you through a Sunday, get you through a Monday, help you to feel a little better about yourself, put a little bit and piece together so that all is continuing well. But Daniel could never have understood that mentality. And therefore, he stands as a challenge, but also as an immense encouragement. And when we get into chapter 7—which won’t be next Sunday, ʼcause I have to pluck up the courage; we have another plan for next Sunday morning—but when we get into chapter 7, we’re going to see the way in which the kingdoms of the world just stand opposed to the kingdom of God, and how, again, eventually, “one like [unto] the Son of man”[22] will stand in triumph over it all.

So, do not look over your shoulder and be constantly reflecting on the supposed “good old days.” Don’t look forward with a great sense of dread. But rather, let us say to one another, “Let us lift our eyes and look up.” Because

There is a higher throne
Than all this world has known,
Where faithful ones from ev’ry tongue
Will one day come.
[And] before the [throne they’ll] stand,
Made faultless through the Lamb.[23]

And you think that’s going to be our song. But it isn’t.

So, we’re going to pray, and then we’ll sing:

Father, here we are at this point in our individual lives, and as a church, and as a nation, and we see so many indications of the way in which the arbitrary edicts of an increasingly secular government are confronting us with the dilemma of having obedience to your Word and to your truth set against our obedience and submission to the law of the state. Lord, we do want to pray for those in authority over us tonight. We want to pray that you, the God who transformed lives all the way throughout history, may either renew or quicken, reveal, transform, help us.

And we pray, Lord, that you will forgive us when instead of our recourse being one of prayer, it becomes one of criticism and aggravation. Then we’re giving testimony to the fact that we probably have begun to doubt whether you really are a sovereign God, accomplishing everything according to the eternal counsel of your will.[24] Help us, then, to see our redemption drawing nigh;[25] to see the one who, like unto a Son of Man, comes in power and in great glory.[26] Some of us feel that our lives have been such in recent days that we’ve been thrown into the pit ourselves—not with lions, but perhaps even metaphorically. And we need to learn again that you are the God who may choose to deliver, may choose to keep us there, but you are always the God who accompanies us and fulfills your purposes. So, help us to this end, we pray, and fill our hearts with praise and our lips with song as we end our day together. For Jesus’ sake we ask it. Amen.

[1] 2 Thessalonians 2:7 (ESV).

[2] John 19:7 (ESV).

[3] Daniel 6:13 (paraphrased from the NIV).

[4] 1 Kings 18:42 (ESV).

[5] Sam Walter Foss, “The Prayer of Cyrus Brown,” in Dreams in Homespun (Boston: Lathrop, Lee & Shepard, 1897), 64–65.

[6] Sinclair B. Ferguson, Daniel, The Preacher’s Commentary 21 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2002), 127.

[7] Matthew 26:59–60 (ESV).

[8] Matthew 27:62–66 (ESV).

[9] Robert Lowry, “Low in the Grave He Lay” (1874).

[10] Lowry.

[11] Dallas Holm, “Rise Again” (1977).

[12] Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, “See What a Morning” (2003).

[13] Ferguson, Daniel, 129.

[14] 1 Peter 5:8 (ESV).

[15] See Isaiah 11:6.

[16] See Daniel 3:27.

[17] John 19:36 (ESV).

[18] See Revelation 6:16.

[19] Isaiah 53:3 (KJV).

[20] Charles S. Horne, “Sing We the King” (1909).

[21] See 1 Timothy 2:1–2.

[22] Daniel 7:13 (KJV).

[23] Keith Getty and Kristyn Getty, “There Is a Higher Throne” (2003).

[24] See Ephesians 1:11.

[25] See Luke 21:28.

[26] See Matthew 24:30; Luke 21:27.