As we look through these verses, we particularly note how the focus is on the fact that we have sinned, and we confess our sins, and we lament the disobedience of our fathers, and then the word is of God's patience and kindness. There is far more said about God's goodness and his tolerance and his patience than there is about the sins of Israel. This is very important because it throws great light on the act of repentance. You might think that to utter a few words of repentance, and a lot of words about the kindness of God and his patience and his graciousness; you might think that that almost eroded away the repentance. In their repentance they speak more about mercy and kindness and love than they do about their sin. They mention their sin but it's a ratio of two to one, if not three to one in favour of blessing, rather than confession. But there is a great lesson in this because this is what repentance is like. You don't spend, say, twenty minutes in repentance. If you do that and you are sincere and earnest, you will be crushed. You will be as the Anglican liturgy would have it, even as a Christian, ‘a miserable sinner’, crushed by your sin and in despair. No, what you do in this passage is you do repent of your sin, and to examine your heart, and lament at what you have done. You seek to pledge to God a better performance in future, leaning on his power. But then you thank him for his mercy to you in spite of your sin, that you have not been cast off as you deserve to be, and all the gracious kindness that he has shown you, and that he still provides for you. You do not do this to wash out your sense of sin by changing the subject, but to move your heart at his forgiving love. That is the method of this prayer of repentance, which was evidently taught to those principal Levites, and which they uttered before the great crowds of people.