LET ME HEAR OF YOUR STEADFAST LOVE IN THE MORNING

PSALM 143 ... The first verse of this psalm reminds me of the “Jesus Prayer”, a prayer from the early church. The prayer is “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”. Orthodox Christians often pray this prayer several times daily. The psalmist has this attitude of heart when he says, “no one living is righteous before you.”

As we live our lives, we often find ourselves in the same place as the Psalmist. We feel weak inside and our spirits are overcome with dismay. We feel dry like parched soil when we come before God. We feel pressed to the ground and our spiritual life seems to be in darkness. But as we acknowledge these feelings before God we must in turn remember that God’s faithful love is always with us.

So the Psalmist is quick to remind the Lord that he is His servant. He says, “No matter how badly I’m pressed, I’m committed to You and to your kingdom”. As he struggles with his life, he also desires that God show him His will and that the Spirit of God will lead him. He says “show me the way to go; reveal your way to me. Many today are self confident within themselves and how they make decisions. We would be better served with a spirit of humility always depending on God to show us how to live.

To me the most personal part of the Psalm is the prayer posture mentioned in verse 6. As he looks at the works of God’s hands, he gives back to God his own hands spread out before Him. We see this prayer gesture throughout the Old and New Testaments. Often the early Christians thought of the cross when they stood and lifted their hands to the Lord. Stretching out one’s hands is a very vivid expression of an intimate and quite personal relationship of the creature with his creator.

The Psalmist gets very personal when he says, I trust in your faithful love, I long for You, and you are my protector. We need this personal approach when we live our lives because to the world, God either doesn’t exist or is just an idea. This Psalm reveals the sinfulness of humankind but we can come to God who is steadfast in His love and we can offer our whole selves to God.

In the morning, let us remember His steadfast love and put our trust in Him. He will teach us the way we should live our lives one day at a time.

Ron and Eleanor Ehresman