July 30thPsalm 117
Why I Wake Early
WHY I WAKE EARLY
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness. [Mary Oliver]
For all its brevity, Psalm 117 makes three claims that are long on significance. The first claim is simple but breathtaking. Praising God is the proper vocation and goal of human life!
The second claim ups the ante as it were; praise is what God intends for everybody. Because God rules the world all are invited to praise Him.
Consider the scene in Revelation 7:
9 After this I looked, and there was a great crowd that no one could number. They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They wore white robes and held palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out with a loud voice:
“Victory belongs to our God
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”
The reasons for such praise is found in verse 2; God is a God of ‘steadfast love and faithfulness,’ a declaration that goes all the way back to the book of Exodus and God’s deliverance of the Hebrew slaves (Ex. 34.6).
Claim three thus insists that the church is open to all. Martin Luther in his (long) commentary on this psalm wrote, ‘‘As I see it, the whole book of Acts was written because of this psalm.’ (see Acts 10, 15, or 17.16-34).
PRAYER
‘God’s abundance fills the world at all times ... and it always seeks a channel through which it may descend unto humans. If our words of prayer are concentrated upon God, they unite with his abundance and form the channel through which it descends upon the world.’ [Baal Shem Tov]