May 7, 2021

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 57, a prayer of fervent praise to our awesome God.

The act of prayerful praise can be hard to understand . The concept of human praise can get in our way. 

Prayerful praise in not flattery, or compliments, or the giving of deserved admiration to a distant God. Rather, as Psalm 57 shows us, it is an outpouring of reverent gratitude before Unimaginable Love.

Be exalted above the heavens, O God;
    above all the earth be your glory!

Psalm 57:12

Such a prayer rises
from our heart’s awestruck silence
not only to be in the Presence of,
but to be loved by
such Divine Wonder.

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We may not be able to stand before a majestic mountain today to image God’s magnificence as we pray. But we can bow our hearts before the abundant evidence of God’s love for us. God created us and holds us in love with every breath we take.

Today, we may simply want to breathe our praise.

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Poetry:Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver

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.

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Music: Be Exalted – John Michael Talbot