Pray
Well some of you have recognized that little piano piece as the beginning of a beautiful
song called Morning Has Broken. That's because this week I want to look at Psalm 5 and I've given it a title “In the Morning” because this is a beautiful morning Psalm.
David starts by saying this: “Listen to my words, LORD, consider my lament. Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice” (Psalm 5:1–3 NIV11)
In the morning you hear my voice. The morning is such an important part of the day. So much study has gone into how to make your morning a good morning. And I find this in my own life. If I have a good morning, it sets the tone for the day but if I have a rushed morning or an unhappy morning, it just never seems to recover from there.
I want to come to God in the morning and give the day to Him before the day even begins.
Morning Prayer Practice
And so like David at the beginning of the Psalm, the first thing to do in the morning is to pray. In the morning Lord you hear my voice. Can you say the same thing to God today? In the morning Lord you hear my voice.
Some people are morning people and some people are not morning people, but I think either way it's important for us to spend our mornings with God and to come to God in prayer in the morning. You may also do that in the afternoon or in the evening but don't neglect morning prayer. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing to start your day in prayer.
And I love the personal nature of David's prayers. See what he said there in verse 2 of Psalm 5, “hear my cry for help of my King and my God, for to you I pray”. There's a real personal relationship. You're my King, you're my God, to you I pray.
Morning Prayer Commitment
It's not just general spiritual practices like breathing deeply in the morning or stretching or exercising or whatever - those are great but we need to be focused on God and we need to spend time in prayer to really connect with Him.
Let me encourage us today to give our mornings to God. To not leave our homes until we've spent time praying to God and the rest of the Psalm will give us some ideas of how we can pray in the morning.
Can we make a decision today to spend tomorrow morning and the next morning and every morning in God's presence?
I hope so because our days will certainly be better if in the morning we come to God and pray.
