1Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. 2And the Israelitesa separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God. 4On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani; and they cried with a loud voice to the LORD their God. 5Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
6b “You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. 7You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. 8You found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.
9“And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea, 10and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day. 11And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into mighty waters. 12By a pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go. 13You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, 14and you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant. 15You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and you told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.
How is our praise and worship today similar or different to their praise and worship back then?
Share your thoughts as well as your praise and worship among your peers.
This prayer in the book of Nehemiah is a great model that will teach us much for our own prayer life. It begins with a great section of praise. First, God is praised as the Creator and Maker of everything. Beginning with the life He gave you is a great place to start when you are praising God. It seems strange to me that people who are dependent every moment on God to give them life allow themselves so easily to forget that fact. God sustains us moment by moment. We ought to be grateful for that. Let us never forget that our very breath comes from Him.
The next section praises God as the caller and chooser of people. He is the one who gives undeserved blessings to those He chooses. God is the keeper of promises. Not one of us would be here today if it were not for that merciful, sovereign call of God. Jesus said, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him (John 6:44). We are here today because the Spirit of God in wondrous grace has drawn us to Himself.
Then the people praise God as the deliverer from sin and its enslavement. They retell the history of this nation, beginning with the call of Abraham and their deliverance from Egypt. Some of us have forgotten the lessons God has taught us and have returned to the same sins, plunging ourselves once more into rebellion and slavery. Let us never forget that we have been wonderfully, even miraculously, delivered by the great hand of God.
Praise for God as the great provider of wisdom and the necessities of life follows. Here is God’s providential care of His own. He taught this people how to live in the midst of great wickedness. He knew he was sending them into a land inhabited by tribes who were morally degraded to a degree that is appalling to us today. They offered their children to the god Molech by throwing them alive into a furnace of fire. It was among these people that the Israelites had to live. Yet God taught them how to avoid defilement from those things. He taught them how to be friends with these people but not be destroyed by their immorality. It is exactly the situation we are called to live in today. God has given us this wonderful book that teaches us the rules of life, health, salvation, and deliverance and the inner strength that can resist the temptations that abound all around us. To neglect it is folly.
God also supplied their needs. He gave them bread to eat when there was none. He gave them water from the rock in the middle of the desert. That is not only an account of meeting physical needs, but it describes the meeting of spiritual needs as well. The New Testament tells us these are pictures of Christ: He is the bread of life; He is the water of life. As the Israelites learned the meaning of these symbols, they began to understand that there was One coming who would fully meet the need of the human heart.
As we understand God’s attributes we are better able to know and worship Him. Are our hearts tuned to praise God as the One from whom all blessings flow?
Our praise and worship today are similar in which we still reading Scripture and we still giving praises to God for what He did in our life. We sing songs and listen to teaching of the word of God. What difference are that we don’t have to follow what the people of Israel have to do to worship God. We don’t have to wear sackcloth or put earth on our head. We don’t have to do sacrifices for our sins. Jesus fulfilled those Law when he died on the cross for our sins and resurrected. He is the ultimate sacrifice so that we can freely worshiping our God.
The people assembled to fast, wear sackcloth, and put earth on their heads. They praised and worshipped the Lord but this looks a little different from our worship today. By wearing sackcloth and putting dirt on their heads, they were humbling themself before God to show that nothing else is important because “You are the Lord, you alone.” This stood out to me as I try to picture myself in sackcloth with dirt on my heads. I’m sure there were people that didn’t want to feel humiliated so they did not partake in worship. However, we shouldn’t be so vain but rather humble ourselves to love our God for He is more than worthy of our praise.
A lot of the ways that the Israelites praised is very similar today. I like to praise God by highlighted who He is from scripture. Throughout these verses you will see: you saw, you knew, you led, you came, you gave, you commanded. God plays so many roles and does so much.
From brother Brian
Day 29: How is our praise and worship today similar or different to their praise and worship back then?
First thing first. As I shared before, I have a difficult time reading the OT mainly bc there’s a lot of wrath, affliction, curses etc. what really stood out to me today is the beautiful prayer of praise for God. It feels sincere, pure, and genuine and without any ill will towards anyone or group of people even though the Jews separated themselves.
One thing is certain, I don’t think many of us would STAND a quarter of a day (12 hours) to read His word and pray. First 6 hours they would confess their sins of their ancestors then for the next 6 they would confess their own sins and worship (praise) God.
Give me 10 minutes and I’ll be snoozing. (Jk but you get the drift). No but for reals that’s some intense praying. Is our generation so weak now where we can barely even make 10 minutes with God on a daily? Sadness.
Lord help me to spend more time with you. I used to spend my mornings having coffee with you and that was one of the best times of my life. I will start that tradition again stating tomorrow. Thank you for today’s reading and reminding me about how much I need to spend more time with you.
Today’s devotional showed us the prayer and praise in the past and just how faithful and beautiful their worship was. The praise in the past was similar in aspects of worship God. Some aspects that are different in how we may not notice and give glory to God for what he has given us and surround us with. I pray to glorify and be aware of what you have given me Lord. To truly allow into my heart to overcome the shame through You.