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If today’s lesson scripture seems familiar, read it out loud.  It may seem even more familiar because we hear in these words the pattern of prayer that we sometimes hear in worship today.  Spontaneous prayer is wonderful, but there is also a place for prayers that are written out as well.  They need not be unemotional either.  Nehemiah’s prayer, though thousands of years old, and most likely based on formulas and patterns that had been used before, can still evoke the sense of awe, praise, sorrow, supplication and thanksgiving that the most heartfelt spontaneous prayer conveys:

5 I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments;
6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Both I and my family have sinned.
7 We have offended you deeply, failing to keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances that you commanded your servant Moses.
8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples;
9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place at which I have chosen to establish my name.’
10 They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand.
11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man!” At the time, I was cupbearer to the king.  Neh 1:5-11 (NRSV)

Have you heard echoes of Nehemiah’s prayer in worship services you attend?  Knowing the source of some of these phrases may make those prayers even more meaningful.  They do for me.