Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

A little bit of review is in order here.

Daniel, a middle aged teen is in exile in Babylon with three friends, of course many more too.

But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this is a divinely designed happening.

Daniel has an appointment with a pagan king.

This king Nebuchadnezzar is the most powerful man in that region.

He is king of a vast empire that he has largely been the mastermind of, though we know that it was really God who has put him in place, v.21.

God has chosen to give this king divine revelation (via a dream) that he cannot understand and is greatly disturbed about.

Which ought not surprise us, because we know that the unbeliever cannot understand the things of God ().

So the king seeks the counsel of his wise men, those who are supposed to have a connection with the spirit world.

And they do, just not with the one who reveals the truth.

In his anger at their inability to discover the revelation and give an interpretation, he condemns them all to death.

And by the way, You cannot expect an unbeliever to know what is the revelation of God, much less, give a correct understanding of it.Let me give you another verse to support that, tells us that Jesus had to open the minds of the two men on the road to Emmaus to understand the Scriptures as to who He was, though He was standing right there with them and had taught them for the last 3 years.

Anyway, Daniel is informed about the soon to be carried out executions of all the wise men including himself and his friends.

So he wins a reprieve with the promise of discovering the truth.

This makes perfect sense.

A true believer knows the truth and is able to understand the truth of God’s Word.

And this dream the king had is God’s Word.

Make no mistake about that.

It is Divine revelation.

It is going to revealed and recorded in Scripture by divine inspiration of Daniel.

It is directly from God to the King via Daniel.

But the unbelieving King needed a believer to reveal it to him, to give him an understanding.

This we know is the work of the Holy Spirit who gives the sense of the Word to those who believe, “he shall teach all things.”

“he will guide you into all truth.”

This is like the Ethiopian Eunuch who was reading the Scriptures but didn’t understand.

The king new the dream (Scripture to him) but didn’t understand it and was greatly disturbed.

Philip came along by Divine guidance and revealed to the Eunuch what it meant and he believed.

In the same way, Daniel comes along by divine guidance and reveals the dream and its interpretation to the King.

So then, Daniel and his friends pray to God for revealing of this secret and God in His grace and mercy gives them what they needed.

And here we are at our text.

Daniel’s joyous, grateful response in a prayer of praise.

This prayer has three parts: it begins and ends with praise and in the middle taking up the bulk of the prayer a description of God.

We will spend a brief time on the first part, the bulk of our time on the middle part and then a little bit on the last part.

A visual of the prayer might look something like this:

SLIDE:

1.Praise be to God, v.20a

Praise be to God, v.20a

wisdom and might are his

wisdom and might are his

He controls the events of life, v.21

regarding kings and kingdoms

regarding the granting of His revelation

He reveals hidden things, v.22

darkness and light are the same to Him

Thanksgiving and praise to God v.23

You can see from this slide the structure of what Daniel is saying and the emphasis He puts on God.

We need to understand that Daniel has been saved through the revelation of God.

If it were not for this Daniel and his friends and all the wisemen would have been executed on orders from the King.

But instead, because of the Word of God revealed to Daniel they are saved from death.

Doesn’t that sound like the gospel to you?

It is.

Daniel is extremely grateful but he is not specifically praising God for saving him, but rather for who God is and what He does.

His emphasis is on God Himself who is worthy of our praise.

His praise is God focused, centered, not human centered.

I. Praise to God,

He starts out by saying “blessed be the name of God forever and ever.”

The ‘blessed’ is a way of saying praise.

To bless the name of God, ie. to praise His name is to lift up God.

His Name is who He is.

It is to regard Him as all worthy, as above all.

That phrase blessed be the name of the Lord is found from David in in response to the offering that was brought in for the building of the Temple of God.

It was out of heartfelt joy in God.

To bless the name of God, ie. to praise His name is to lift up God.

His Name is who He is.

It is to regard Him as all worthy, as above all.

That phrase blessed be the name of the Lord is found from David in in response to the offering that was brought in for the building of the Temple of God.

It was out of heartfelt joy in God.

That phrase blessed be the name of the Lord is found from David in in response to the offering that was brought in for the building of the Temple of God.

It was out of heartfelt joy in God.

then again in

and

The name of God represents His person.

and He is eternal, as is intended by the idea of ‘forever and forever.’

God is supremely and everlastingly worthy of our praise.

The name of God represents His person

So in kind Daniel is overjoyed at the revelation God gave him regarding his request for revealing the dream and its interpretation.

LXX says that “he cried out.”

This was no soft response, like someone kicking the dirt and saying, “Oh, gee thanks.”

No this was a huge deal.

This was more a shout, a cry of acclamation and praise to God.

He was excited.

I think this is the response of anyone who is truly saved.

They are excited about what has happened to them.

They can’t help but respond with praise.

Think of the believers at Pentecost in “they gladly received his word.” it doesn’t say ‘glumly or sadly received it.

In v.47 they were praising God.

Then again in the lame man saved was “leaping, and praising God” in the temple.

And then in Daniel skip ahead to v. 46, and 3:28 and 4:34.

Folks this is the normal reaction of those who truly get saved, who truly become believers.

Think back to when you became a believer.

Was there not an overwhelming sense of joy and praise to God, that you could not contain within yourself?

Daniel Praises God.

And then in this second part describes the God who reveals mysteries.

II.

The God who reveals Himself, v.20b-22

A. He is Eternal, “forever and ever”

Here is the God who always is and always will be.

He is forever, and those who worship Him will worship Him forever.

B. He owns wisdom and might,