When Tobiah mocked his work, when the Samaritans threatened to attack the city, when the people were inclined to be angry with him for his reforms, when he discovered that there were traitors and hired agents of Sanballat inside the very walls of Jerusalem, when he brought upon himself enmity and hatred because of his faithful dealing in the matter of the temple store-house, when he had to encounter difficulty and opposition in his determination with regard to the observance of the Sabbath, and when he still further incensed the half-hearted Jews by his prompt punishment of those who had taken heathen wives, and by his summary dismissal of Manasseh; in all these times of danger, difficulty, and trial, we find Nehemiah turning to the Lord in prayer.
There was one prayer of which he seems to have been especially fond, three times over does Nehemiah ask God to remember him.
'Think upon me, my God, for good,' v.

19.
'Remember me, O my God,' xiii.

14.
'Remember me, O my God, for good,' xiii.

31.
Can it be that this prayer was suggested to him by the words of his friend, the prophet Malachi?
Can it be, that as he and Nehemiah took sweet counsel together, and spoke together of the Lord they loved, Malachi may have spoken those beautiful words which we find in chap.

in.
16, 17, of his prophecy, in order to cheer and encourage his disheartened and unappreciated friend:-- 'They that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name.