In The Morning

Just three words from three verses.  But they have meaning.  They speak of morning ... and a cry or a plea unto the Lord.  It's what I do every day.

Every day, the first thing I try to do in the morning before climbing out of bed is to  consider the Lord.  But then as I do ... a whole bunch of other thoughts flood my mind about the coming day.  What's the weather like?  What should I do first?  So then, I must tell myself, all in good time ... but first the Lord.

These three words ... in the morning ... come from King David, who was once just a simple shepherd boy, whose heart always looked to the Lord.  I desire to have that kind of heart.  He writes in Psalms 5: 1-3 ...

"Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.  Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.  My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct [my prayer] unto thee, and will look up."  (King James Bible)

I must point out that the two words in brackets, [my prayer] have been added to the Scripture taken from the original old Hebrew scrolls by the translators for clarity.  But that's okay ... David was speaking of prayer.  His voice in the morning, at least this particular morning, was a prayerful cry as he looked up to God at the start of his day.

Let's examine this scripture a little closer. 

"Consider my meditation" ... David is asking God to hear what he is going to say after he meditates with a moment of reflection or thought ... which he doesn't say what that might be in these first three verses.  Whatever it might be, David is saying to the Lord, consider ... meaning, be attentive to it and understand what he is about to say.

"Hearken unto the voice of my cry" ... Listen, attend to, give heed to my cry.  Throughout the Psalms, David often gives a "cry" for help unto the Lord.  And that's not a bad idea either.  When he says he gives voice to his cry, what he is saying is, he calls aloud ... just as he used to hear his sheep's bleating as they followed after their shepherd.

"My voice shalt thou hear in the morning" ... This sounds as if David has confidence that God hears his morning cry unto his Lord.  Shouldn't we then also have this same confidence that God will hear us in the morning?

"I will direct my prayer unto thee" ... There is purpose to David's cry.  He doesn't just speak words unto the wind.  He directs his words to God.  The word "direct" in Hebrew, (as I understand it) is "aw-rak"  and means ... to arrange and put in order.
    
I had to smile when I read the first meaning of this word.  It's ... "to set in a row."  My first thought was, I wonder if this is where the phrase, "putting your ducks all in a row" came from?

I have a hard time trying to articulate to the Lord just what it is I'm trying to tell Him or ask of Him.  Maybe David didn't have that problem ... perhaps he was better than I am at putting my words in order, arranging them to make sense.  I'm not always grammatically correct as you can tell from my writing.

But, I have also found out that God can understand what I am trying to say ... as long as my heart is doing the speaking and not just my head.

And then David says ... "and will look up."  Honestly, I don't get too excited about the original meaning of this phrase.  It means to ... "peer into the distance."  The next two meanings are better ... by implication they can mean, "to observe and await."   Usually after we pray, we just wait.

But it's the third description that sets my spirit free.  This is how I see David.  When he looks up, it is to ... "behold, to keep the watch, to wait for, and the last one ... to look up well."  The word "well" speaks of ... intimately, closely and profitably.

David's cry ... in the morning ... at the break of day, was to draw as intimately and as close to his Lord as possible.  All those mornings in the fields as a shepherd boy must have helped shape David's heart like the heart of his Shepherd, his Lord and God.  He never saw the Shepherd of his soul with his physical eyes.  But he did say ... "in the morning, I will look up ... well."  That's to God.

So ... even though I don't get up at dawn, at the first light of day like I used to when I was younger; now when I rise in the morning, I want my first thoughts to be about the Lord and His goodness and mercy which gives me another day to walk with Him ... intimately, closely and profitably.

From the 23rd Psalm, the best known and most beloved of all of David's writings ... not every morning, but often these select words come to mind in the morning ... "He restoreth my soul, I will fear no evil, I shall not want, my cup runneth over, and goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."  

"Those that seek me early shall find me."  (Proverbs 8:17)