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Ver. 5. I beseech thee, O Lord] Annah Jehovah; an insinuating preface; whereby he seeketh first to get in with God speaking him fair; as doth likewise David, in a real and heavenly compliment, Psalms 116:16. Obsecro Iehovah, I beseech, O Lord (I am thy servant, I am thy servant, the son of thine handmaid), break thou my bands. So the Church, Isaiah 64:9, “Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.” The great and terrible God] A great King above all gods, Exodus 15:11. Αξιωματικωτατς εστιν ο βασιλευς ημων, saith a Greek father: “glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders,” saith Moses in one place; as in another, “The Lord our God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible,” Deuteronomy 10:17. Vere verendus et venerandus. Truly reverence and will worship. Thus Nehemiah begins his prayer, and counts it a great mercy that he may creep in at a corner, and present himself before this most majestic Monarch of the world with greatest self-abasement. That keepeth covenant and mercy] That he may at once both tremble before him and trust upon him; he describeth God by his goodness as well as by greatness, and so helpeth his own faith by contemplating God’s faithfulness and lovingkindness. God hath hitherto kept covenant with heaven and earth, with nights and days, Jeremiah 33:20,25, that one shall succeed the other; and shall he break with his people? no, verily. Be sure to keep faith in heart, or you will pray but poorly. And for this, learn in the preface to your prayers to propound God to yourselves in such notions, and under such terms and titles, as may most conduce thereunto, pleading the covenant. That love him and observe his commandments] That love to be his servants, Isaiah 56:6, that wait for his law, Isaiah 42:4, that think upon his commandments to do them, Psalms 103:18.
Ver. 6. Let thine ears now be attentive, and thine eyes open] Should not God see as well as hear (saith a divine), his children should want many things. We apprehend not all our wants; and so cannot pray for relief of all. He of his own accord, without any monitor, is wont to aid us. “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous; and his ears are open to their prayer,” Psalms 33:15. That thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant] If not secundum voluntatem, yet ad utilitatem (Aug. Confess. 1. 5, c. 8), but usually God answereth his servants’ prayers, fitting his mercy ad cardinem desiderii, to a longing heart, as here; and letting it be unto them even as they will. Which I pray before thee now, day and night] Christ requireth his servants and suppliants to pray and not faint, Luke 18:1. Ordinarily, morning and evening without fail; extraordinarily, oftener. The Jews divide their day into prayer, work, and repast; neither will they omit prayer for their meat or labour. The Mahometans, what occasion soever they have, either by profit or pleasure, to divert them, will pray five times every day; and upon the Friday (which is their sabbath) six times. Vae torpori nostro! woe our numbness, how few and feeble are our prayers for ourselves and for brethren in distress; who have for that cause an unanswerable action against us! And confess the sins of the children of Israel] This he did more fully and at large than is here set down; and he fitly beginnneth with confession; that having gotten off the guilt of sin, he might with more courage and comfort deprecate wrath, and beg mercy. Which we have sinned against thee] There lay the pinch of his grief, that they sinned against so good a God. Both I and my father’s house have sinned] Hic igitur Lyra deliravit, Lyra is incorrect when he saith here, that Nehemiah confessed his own sins, but only as a member of the same body, he himself being innocent. Comparatively innocent he was, doubtless; but that he was not without sin, and such sin as he had cause to confess to be God provoking sins, is clear by this very text. He was sensible of his own sins, and of other men’s sins too. The sins of our ancestors not bewailed and disclaimed, are set upon our score, Daniel 5:22.
Ver. 7. We have dealt very corruptly] Heb. Corrupting, we have corrupted ourselves against thee. Or, We have bound ourselves unto thee to be punished for our sins. Of confessing with utmost aggravation, and laying load upon ourselves, see the notes on Ezra 9. [See Trapp on “Ezr 9:1”] &c. And have not kept the commandments, nor statutes, nor judgments] i.e. Neither the laws moral, ceremonial, nor judicial. We have broken all thy bonds, and cast thy cords from us.
Ver. 8. Remember, I beseech thee, the word] It befalleth not the Lord to forget or remember (to speak properly), for all things are present with him. Nevertheless metaphorically God is said to do both; as when, being provoked by the horrid sins of the Jews, he so punished them as if he had forgotten that they were his people, or that he had ever made them any promises. And in this case God gives his prophets and praying people leave to be his remembrancers, Isaiah 62:6,7. Ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers, keep not silence, and give him no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. This Nehemiah doth here most vigorously, and sped accordingly; let us do likewise. Cast the labouring Church into God’s everlasting arms, and remind him of his promises burden him with them, as that martyr said; put them into suit, they are nigh the Lord day and night, 1 Kings 8:59. Say, remember thy word unto thy servant, whereupon thou hast caused me to trust, Psalms 119:49. And in the want of other rhetoric urge this, with repetition, Lord, thou hast promised, thou hast promised, &c. He loves to be urged with his word, to be used upon his bond, &c. The word that thou commandest, &c.] The threatening is also to be acknowledged God’s word, as well as the promise; and the uprightness of our hearts is, to be approving by believing the one as well as the other. Sour and sweet make the best sauce; promises and menaces mingled serve to keep the heart in the best temper, as Nehemiah’s was.
Ver. 9. But if ye turn unto me] By sin men do wickedly depart from God; as by repentance they return unto him, and close with him. And keep my commandments] Evangelically keep them; for with a legal obedience none can: our short legs and pursy hearts cannot hold out here. And do them] Or at least, be doing at them, do them as we can; si praecepta faciamus, etiamsi non perficiamus, sufficit. Unto the uttermost part of the heaven] That is, of the earth, which seems to our eye terminated with the heaven, and covered as with a half globe. Jews are a dejected people to this present; and a fearful instance of God’s heavy indignation against sin. Josephus saith, that in his time they were grown so wicked, that if the Romans had not destroyed and dispersed them, without doubt either the earth would have swallowed them up, or fire from heaven have consumed them. Yet will I gather them from thence] Else not. God’s promises are with a condition, which is as an oar in a boat, and stern of a ship; and turns the promise another way.
Ver. 10. Now these are thy servants and thy people] And therefore thou art concerned, in point of honour, to see to them, and to work for them, as every master will do for his servants, and king for his subjects. Otherwise, the neighbouring nations our enemies may possibly say as Aigoland, king of Saragossa, in Aragon, did; of whom it is reported, that he long time made Charlemagne believe that he would be baptized. And when he came for that purpose to the French court, and saw many diseased and poor people expecting alms from the emperor’s table, he asking what they were? was answered, that they were the servants and people of God. On these words he speedily returned, desperately protesting that he would not serve that God which could keep his servants no better. Whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power] And wilt thou part with thy purchase, or obscure the glory of thy conquest over the gods and people of Egypt, by leaving this thy people destitute?
Ver. 11. O Lord, I beseech thee] He ends as he began, see Nehemiah 1:5, praying in the Holy Ghost, whose creature prayer is. And to the prayer of thy servants] Whose necessities prick them on to prayer in all places; and who pray for the peace of Jerusalem incessantly, Psalms 137. Who desire to fear thy name] The whole life of a true Christian is nothing else but sanctum desiderium, saith Austin, a holy desire. “Willing to live honestly,” Hebrews 13:18, wishing well to an exact keeping of God’s commandments, Psalms 119:4,5, affecting that perfection which yet we cannot effect. Prosper, I pray thee] Prosperity given in as an answer to prayer is very sweet; as the cipher, when it followeth the figure, adds to the number, though it be nothing in itself. For I was the king’s cupbearer] And so might take mollissima fandi tempora, my fittest opportunity to help my people.