Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 734
Delivered on Lord’s-day Morning, FEBRUARY 10, 1867, by, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
“At the beginning of your supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show you; for you are greatly beloved.”- Daniel9:23.
PRAYER is useful in a thousand ways. It is spiritually what the old physicians sought after naturally—namely, a catholicon—a remedy of universal application. There is no ease of need, distress, or dilemma, in which prayer will not be found to be a very present help. In the case before us Daniel had been studying the book of Jeremiah, and had learned that God would accomplish seventy weeks in the desolation of Jerusalem, but he felt that there was still more to be learned, and he set his face to learn it.
His was a noble and acute mind, and with all its energies he sought to pry into the prophetic meaning. But he did not rely upon his own judgment—he betook himself at once to prayer. Prayer is that great key which opens mysteries. To whom should we go for an explanation if we cannot understand a writing, but to the author of the book? Daniel appealed at once to the Great Author, in whose hand Jeremiah had been the pen. In lonely retirement the Prophet knelt upon his knees and cried unto God that He would open up to him the mystery of the prophecy, that he might know the full meaning of the seventy weeks and what God intended to do at the end of them, and how He would have His people behave themselves to obtain deliverance from their captivity.
Daniel made his suit unto the Lord to unloose the seals and open the volume of the book, and he was heard and favored with the knowledge which he might have sought for in vain by any other means. Luther used to say that some of his best understandings of Holy Scripture were not so much the result of meditation as of prayer—and all students of the Word will tell you that when the hammers of learning and Biblical criticism have failed to break open a flinty text, oftentimes prayer has done it, and nuggets of gold have been found concealed therein. To every student of the Word of God who would become a well-instructed scribe we would say, “With all the means which you employ. With all your searching of commentaries. With all your digging into the original languages. With all your research among learned Divines, mingle much fervent prayer.”
As the Lord said to Israel, “With all your offerings you shall offer salt,” so does wisdom say to us, “With all your searching and with all your studying, offer much prayer.” Rest assured that the old maxim, “To have prayed well is to have studied well,” is worthy to be written not only upon the walls of our studies but upon the tablets of our hearts. If you will place the Book of Inspiration before your attentive eyes and ask the Lord to open up its meaning to you, the exercise of prayer itself shall be blessed by God to put your soul into the best state in which to get at the hidden meaning which lies concealed from the eyes of the worldly wise—but which is clearly manifested to meek and lowly souls—when they reverently seek the guidance of their heavenly Father.
The particular point in the text to which I would direct your attention, this morning, is that Daniel’s prayer was answered at once—while he was yet speaking! Yes, and at the beginning of his supplication. It is not always so. Prayer sometimes tarries like a petitioner at the gate until the king comes forth to fill her bosom with the blessings which she seeks. The Lord, when He has given great faith, has been known to try it by long delays. He has suffered His servants’ voices to echo in their ears as from a bronze sky. They have knocked at the golden gate, but it has remained immovable, as though it were rusted upon its hinges.
Like Jeremiah they have cried, “You have covered Yourself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.” Thus have true saints continued in patient waiting for months, and there have been instances in which their prayers have even waited years without reply! Not because they were not vehement, nor because they were unaccepted, but because so it pleased Him who is a Sovereign, and who gives according to His own pleasure. If it pleases Him to bid our patience
exercise itself, shall He not do as He wills with His own? Beggars must not be choosers either as to time, place, or form. Brethren must not take delays in prayer for denial—God’s long-dated bills will be punctually honored—we must not suffer Satan to shake our confidence in the God of Truth by pointing to our unanswered prayers.
We are dealing with a Being whose years are without end—to whom one day is as a thousand years—far be it from us to count Him slack by measuring His doings by the standard of our little hour! Unanswered petitions are not unheard. God keeps a file for our prayers. They are not blown away by the wind—they are treasured in the King’s archives. There is a registry in the court of Heaven where every prayer is recorded. O tried Believer, your sighs and your tears are not fruitless! God has a tear bottle in which the costly drops of sacred grief are put away and a book in which your holy groans are numbered! And by-and-by your suit shall prevail.