The fact that David made request, "Cause me to hear your loving-kindness," evinces that he had no confidence in his own ability to do so. It is only when we make that our sincere, earnest, and trustful request each night, that we may warrantably expect to be able to say, "When I awake, I am still with you" (Psalm 139:18). Not "you are still with me" - though that is blessedly the case - but "I am still with you"; conscious of Your nearness, sensible of Your favors, enjoying happy communion with the Eternal Lover of my soul.
As the comparison of one passage with another requires us to believe, it was in humble dependence upon God that David declared, "My voice shall you hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto you, and will look up" (Psalm 5:3). Such was his holy determination that the Lord should be given the first place and not be crowded out by temporal concerns. As His protection was essential for the night, so divine direction would be equally necessary for the day: grace would be required to oil the wheels of pious actions, wisdom from above to instruct him in the performance of duty, and the avoidance of the fowler's snares. All of this, he was resolved to ask for, leaning not unto his own understanding, but seeking unto the Lord at an early hour.
Nor would he make request in a merely perfunctory way, but in confident expectation of an "answer of peace," as his "I...will look up" connotes. Furthermore, he purposed, "I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning" (Psalm 59:16). God's compassions fail not, but are "new every morning" (Lam. 3:22-23); equally so should be our acknowledgement of them. That is indeed a "good beginning" when we commence the day with prayer and songs of praise.
"Awake to righteousness, and sin not" (1 Cor. 15:34). While the immediate reference there is a call to arouse from the spiritual torpor into which false teachers had lulled the Corinthians, through the unsuspected effect of their evil teachings; yet those words may suitably be regarded as a divine exhortation unto a holy life, and particularly, as a summons for us to attend unto at the beginning of each fresh day. Considered thus, its force is" employ your renewed energies not in self-pleasing, but in walking by the rule that God has given us, for "righteousness" ever has reference to conformity unto a moral or spiritual standard. Earnestly set yourself to the glorifying of Him who has permitted you to see the light of another day; live it as though you knew it would be your last one on earth. Shun sin and the occasions thereof, as you would a deadly plague, yes, "abstain from all appearance of evil" (1 Thess. 5:22).
It is both interesting to consider some of the different experiences met with by awakened souls.
"And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him" (Gen. 9:24). What a sad awakening was that - recorded as a lasting warning against drunkenness.
"But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. So the captain came to him, and said to him: What do you mean, O sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish" (Jon. 1:5-6). What a rude awakening was that, when one of God's servants was rebuked by a heathen!
"And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not" (Gen. 28:16) - blessed experience was that.
"Then Joseph being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him" (Matt. 1:24) - may a like spirit of obedience characterize us.
"And they awoke him, and said unto him: Master, don't you care that we are perishing?" (Mark 4:38) - even His slumbers were disturbed by the unbelieving!
"And when they were awake, they saw His glory" (Luke 9:32). May that be, more and more, the happy lot of both writer and reader.
~A. W. Pink~
(The End)
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