1. When Daniel prayed, vv.1-2. Daniel was made to understand that the seventy years prophesied in Jeremiah 25:12 and 29:10 were now reaching their conclusion with the overthrow of Belshazzar and the city of Babylon by Darius the Median (Daniel 5:31). The Lord is faithful to keep His Word.
2. What Daniel prayed, vv. 3-19. To those who say, "There is no use praying because God has already foreordained all that shall ever come to pass," take heed to this Scripture. The Lord declared to Jeremiah that after seventy years of captivity He would liberate Israel. Daniel is made to realize that the Word of the Lord was being accomplished before his very eyes! This fact, however, did not prevent the prophet from praying about Israel's deliverance. God burdens the hearts of His people to pray, then marvelously answers those prayers, and in so doing accomplishes that which He decreed to do in eternity past! Daniel's prayer consisted of various words of praise to the Lord, confession of sin, a declaration of the justice of God in the punishment of iniquity, petitions for mercy and an appeal for the restoration of the true worship of God. When Daniel presented these requests, he did not bring forth the righteousness of the people as the reason why they should be granted for they had none. He appealed, instead, to the great mercies of God found in Christ Jesus.