PRAISE AND PRAYER

 

Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion; and to You the vow shall be performed. O You who hear prayer, To You all flesh will come. (Psalm 65:1-2 NKJV)

What delight there is here! It reminds one of a lark at dawn filling regions of air with music which threatens to tear its tiny throat. The psalmist is in fellowship with God. He is enjoying his prayer and praise so much that it seemed to him as though all flesh must wake up to enjoy it also. His iniquities and transgressions are purged away. He feels that God is causing him to approach into His secret place, and all nature takes on a new radiance and beauty.

The personal pronouns for God, Thou, Thee, Thy, occur at least twenty times in thirteen verses! We remember that Wordsworth speaks of a presence that rolls through all things: "A sense sublime of something deeply interfused, whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, and the round ocean, and the living air, and the blue sky, a motion and a spirit." The poet was a lover of the meadows, and the woods, and mountains!

To many of us, also, nature seems but the slight covering or garment, which only partially, conceals the glory and beauty of God's presence. The bush still burns with fire. The mountain heights are filled with the horses and chariots of angelic guardians. "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament displays His handiwork." There is no voice or language that the ordinary sense of man can detect, but when our hearts are clean, and our ears open, we realize that we are in touch with Him whom some day we shall see face to face, but who even now reveals Himself to the pure in heart.  Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8 NKJV)

PRAYER

O God our Heavenly Father, renew in us the sense of Your gracious presence, and let it be a constant impulse within us to peace, trustfulness, and courage on our pilgrimage. In Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN.

God's Daily Promise

Promise #108:
You can trust in Me, for I am your strength and your song.

Isaiah 12:2 (WEB)
Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for Yah, Yahweh, is my strength and song; and he has become my salvation.”