The Art of Confession for Spiritual Renewal – part 1 (Neh 9:3-5)

“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.” 

Most of us were never taught how to offer a prayer of confession, though we were probably told we should. In one sense, it seems easy: “I committed this wrong, and it is my fault.” But what if our wrongdoing has been long; what if it was a way of life? What if we want a deeper and more encompassing confession as part of a spiritual renewal? Nehemiah 9 shows us how.

Background

After they finished the wall, the people came together for a covenant renewal ceremony, and a blessing was offered before the reading of scripture (the Law of Moses). The people wept when they heard how unfaithful they had been, but Nehemiah and Ezra told them it was no time to weep, but to go and rejoice in the day of the Lord. 

They came back the next to study the word of God again. Learning about the Festival of Booths, a commemoration of when the Israelites wandered in the desert, they celebrated it right then for seven days—a time of remembering how God cared for them, guided them, and sustained them.

The next prayer is a lengthy confession—appropriate when people want to renew their faith. Because it is so long, we will explore it in several parts. 

We begin here, with the people wearing sackcloth, putting dirt on their heads, and fasting. The text tells us they spend a fourth of the day hearing the word of God read, and another fourth confessing their sins. Ezra will offer a prayer of confession for all the people—for all of Israel and her ancestors—but first, he begins with a blessing.

Meaning