Nehemiah's prayer
Then I said:
“O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.
8 “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, 9 but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’
This prayer reveals much about Nehemiah. He felt the same oneness with God’s people that Moses, Ezra, and other leaders of Israel had shown in the past. He was moved to intercede with the Lord on their behalf. Nehemiah had the same consciousness of sin that appeared in Ezra. He acknowledged his own sins and the sins of the people, but trusted the Lord for forgiveness. When any part of the body of Israel suffered, Nehemiah felt the pain. Nehemiah felt the same love and longing for Jerusalem that is expressed in so many of the psalms, notably Psalm 137. This devotion was especially remarkable since Nehemiah lived a thousand miles from Jerusalem—“the place . . . chosen as a dwelling for [God’s] Name”—and had probably never been there.