Good Morning!

"Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning;
For I trust in You;
Teach me the way in which I should walk;
For to You I lift up my soul."

David, Psalm 143:8

What a terrific way to say Good Morning!
So packed with love! So full of energy when I am often not in the morning! David lays out for us five actions: four that belong to us and one that belongs to God. Hear, Trust, Walk and Lift are our actions. Teach belongs to God in this passage.

How do we "hear" God? There are many ways. Here are three:
Reading His Word.
Being outdoors in creation. Paul writes to the Roman believers "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made,..."
Inviting His Spirit to speak to your spirit as you sit in contemplative silence. (What you will hear will NEVER contradict Scripture)

How do we "trust"? That's an action that is like faith: it gets stronger the more we use it. It means we are willing to take God at His word. Trust is so intertwined with faith that it is difficult to isolate. But it is our action item.

How do we "walk"? To walk here means our way of life; how we move through our day making decisions, taking actions, resting, whatever. If this action is dependent on God "teaching" us then it sounds like we need to spend time with God in order to know how to "walk". Hmmm

How do we "lift" up our soul? This action is referring to another action: prayer. Through prayer we can give ourselves to God; to surrender our day, our family, our plans to Him. Our surrender of being in control of how things go or turn out is also linked back to the action of trust....

What is "lovingkindness" anyway? That isn't a word we speak to one another in this compound form any more. Lovingkindness is a synonym for mercy or compassion. So God's mercy is new to us every morning (See Lamentations 3:22-23). He desires us to know Him, trust Him, walk with Him, and give ourselves to Him.


One verse of poetry.
Five actions.
One compound word that is outside our cultural vernacular: lovingkindness

It all equals a lot of comfort and encouragement if you allow it in!