FaithGateway Compelled by Problems in Our World Daniel’s prayer pulsates with this type of emotional conviction. His life for sixty-seven years had been difficult at best. As an old man, he lived through another violent regime change as the Medo-Persian Empire overthrew the Babylonians. His position was uncertain under the new ruler. He may have felt an increasing apprehension about the security of his people’s future. At the very least, he was living in an unsettled, rapidly changing world, implied by the brief statement, “In the first year of Darius…, who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom…” (9:1).