O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
Ver. 19. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive.] This was to pray, yea, this was to strive in prayer; Luk 13:12 to strive, as those of old did, in the Grecian exercises, some whereof were with fists and bats; to strive and struggle, even to an agony, as the Greek word signifieth, and as the Lord Christ did, who, "being in an agony, prayed yet the more earnestly"; εκτενεστερον , Luk 22:44 he sweat and sweltered out, as it were, his soul, through his body in prayer. Be we now "followers herein of Christ as dear children," and of Daniel here, who is a worthy pattern to pray by. Cold suitors, who want the aspiration of the spirit to pronounce Shibboleth, do but beg a denial.
O Lord, hearken and do; defer not.] This is coelum tundere, preces fundere, misericordiam extorquere, a as those primitive Christians did; to bounce at heaven gates, to tug hard with God, to wring the blessing out of his hands, who looks to be importuned, and counts it for a kindness to be asked forgiveness, as Ambrose b saith of Theodosius the emperor.
a Tertul.
b Beneficium se putabit accepisse, cum rogaretur ignoscere. - Ambr., Orat. de Exit. Theod.