Psalm 108:1-4 – Four Phases of Daily Renewal
From Psalm 108 –
1
O God, my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.
2
Awake, lute and harp!
I will awaken the dawn.
3
I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples,
And I will sing praises to You among the nations.
4
For Your mercy is great above the heavens,
And Your truth reaches to the clouds.
"A Christian whose soul is in a healthy state," connects Spurgeon in Morning and Evening, "will come forward joyously, and say, 'I will speak, not about myself, but to the honour of my God." Spurgeon flies the first example as a banner, proclaiming for his delivered Everyman, 'He hath brought me up out of an horrible pit.'"
It is with this sense of resolved declaration that Psalm 108 seems to begin. I hunt in vain for a prequel to the first verse. I know the trials of the psalmists, and their heirs, and how often difficulties seem to prick them to pick up their pens. I know, likewise, how rarely I would be pronouncing the steadfastness of my heart unless some event or enemy visitation had caused me to doubt its soundness.
Whether Psalm 108:1 is a statement of that vessel which has been tested, or that rare moment in human history of unprovoked gratitude, we have a well-grounded beginning. We can declare with the psalmist, my heart, the essence of who I am, is steadfast. Just as Horatio Spotford sounded his own depths as he passed the spot where his daughters drowned and penned the song declaring, "It is well with my soul," so do we fresh from lesser trials. This is a new Psalm, a new song, and essential systems are go.
Still early, the psalmist declares the Lord's dominion over what the psalmist touches. The courts might say instruments are his if they were stolen. A listener might say that the skill is the psalmist's if they heard him play in early morning audience. But before they are awake, before they are in use, before they draw anyone's attention, the psalmist is putting them in league with the God besotted heart of Psalm 108:1.
Are our goods and skills so clearly assigned? This can't wait until the offering plate passes by on Sunday. We will have declared your true allegiance many times before then. Flat notes, once played in service to self, are impossible to retract. Yet, where we have already sounded off to our own glory rather than Christ's, He beckons back to Psalm 108:1. Because HIS heart was wholly His Father's, because He so often sought fellowship and comfort there early in the morning, we have His righteousness.
Psalm 108:3 proceeds apace. Repurposing Pericles, what we prize as good definitely flows into the boulevard to impact our families and our culture. For the psalmist, with his heart, his goods, and his skills already declared unto the Lord, this is a good thing. He need not edit his testimony before taking it public. What goes out to the peoples can come at God's discretion, go out to the nations.
If you were living in live stream in this day when so much is public and so little is erasable, what would you change? Aside from the activities Scriptural modesty demands we protect, how much would we scramble when, somehow to our shock, the decisions of Psalm 108 1 and 2 flow into Psalm 108:3? It's inevitable. What we hold as Gospel, what we deem as Treasure, WILL be on public display before the nations. If we find that what we exult before men is unworthy of such a designation, a reboot of Psalm 108:1 beckons.
Psalm 108:4 is likewise startlingly startling to those of us who would rather live our lives in pieces or compartments. Heaven, we breathe a sigh of relief, that's our hope. We will be straighten out there. Meanwhile, too often we would have the best of Earth while here while claiming that Christ as Heaven's King is on the throne of our hearts. Psalm 108:4 reunites Heaven and Earth as under His authority.
Confronted with this reality, recognizing with the dawn or with the mounting sun that His Truth is supreme and that we have relegated it otherwise, we are re-centered by His grace and mercy. We would not wait with wicked Absalom, planning and pledging to be remembered well when we die when we have TODAY to walk in submitted, grateful, royal authority. We have today, Jesus says, to store up for ourselves treasure in Heaven, and to little by little give our selfishness away because we treasure Him most.
1
O God, my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.
2
Awake, lute and harp!
I will awaken the dawn.
3
I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples,
And I will sing praises to You among the nations.
4
For Your mercy is great above the heavens,
And Your truth reaches to the clouds.
"A Christian whose soul is in a healthy state," connects Spurgeon in Morning and Evening, "will come forward joyously, and say, 'I will speak, not about myself, but to the honour of my God." Spurgeon flies the first example as a banner, proclaiming for his delivered Everyman, 'He hath brought me up out of an horrible pit.'"
It is with this sense of resolved declaration that Psalm 108 seems to begin. I hunt in vain for a prequel to the first verse. I know the trials of the psalmists, and their heirs, and how often difficulties seem to prick them to pick up their pens. I know, likewise, how rarely I would be pronouncing the steadfastness of my heart unless some event or enemy visitation had caused me to doubt its soundness.
Whether Psalm 108:1 is a statement of that vessel which has been tested, or that rare moment in human history of unprovoked gratitude, we have a well-grounded beginning. We can declare with the psalmist, my heart, the essence of who I am, is steadfast. Just as Horatio Spotford sounded his own depths as he passed the spot where his daughters drowned and penned the song declaring, "It is well with my soul," so do we fresh from lesser trials. This is a new Psalm, a new song, and essential systems are go.
Still early, the psalmist declares the Lord's dominion over what the psalmist touches. The courts might say instruments are his if they were stolen. A listener might say that the skill is the psalmist's if they heard him play in early morning audience. But before they are awake, before they are in use, before they draw anyone's attention, the psalmist is putting them in league with the God besotted heart of Psalm 108:1.
Are our goods and skills so clearly assigned? This can't wait until the offering plate passes by on Sunday. We will have declared your true allegiance many times before then. Flat notes, once played in service to self, are impossible to retract. Yet, where we have already sounded off to our own glory rather than Christ's, He beckons back to Psalm 108:1. Because HIS heart was wholly His Father's, because He so often sought fellowship and comfort there early in the morning, we have His righteousness.
Psalm 108:3 proceeds apace. Repurposing Pericles, what we prize as good definitely flows into the boulevard to impact our families and our culture. For the psalmist, with his heart, his goods, and his skills already declared unto the Lord, this is a good thing. He need not edit his testimony before taking it public. What goes out to the peoples can come at God's discretion, go out to the nations.
If you were living in live stream in this day when so much is public and so little is erasable, what would you change? Aside from the activities Scriptural modesty demands we protect, how much would we scramble when, somehow to our shock, the decisions of Psalm 108 1 and 2 flow into Psalm 108:3? It's inevitable. What we hold as Gospel, what we deem as Treasure, WILL be on public display before the nations. If we find that what we exult before men is unworthy of such a designation, a reboot of Psalm 108:1 beckons.
Psalm 108:4 is likewise startlingly startling to those of us who would rather live our lives in pieces or compartments. Heaven, we breathe a sigh of relief, that's our hope. We will be straighten out there. Meanwhile, too often we would have the best of Earth while here while claiming that Christ as Heaven's King is on the throne of our hearts. Psalm 108:4 reunites Heaven and Earth as under His authority.
Confronted with this reality, recognizing with the dawn or with the mounting sun that His Truth is supreme and that we have relegated it otherwise, we are re-centered by His grace and mercy. We would not wait with wicked Absalom, planning and pledging to be remembered well when we die when we have TODAY to walk in submitted, grateful, royal authority. We have today, Jesus says, to store up for ourselves treasure in Heaven, and to little by little give our selfishness away because we treasure Him most.
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