Psalm 5:3 “My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct it to you, and I will look up.”
The delightful voice
One of the most beautiful sounds reaching God’s ears is the voice of His bride, a bride in which He delights and whose fellowship ravishes His heart.
O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely” (Song of Solomon 2:14).
The Christian who sets himself apart for the Master’s use will always become the subject of a passionate love, and this love will invariably engender a heartfelt communication between the Beloved and His bride.
The psalmist declares: “My voice You shall hear in the morning …” These words evoke inspiration and aspiration. Nothing is cold in them. There is no room left for vacillation or procrastination. There is certainty, sincerity, and a fervent longing to reach out to God in utter trust.
An early call
“In the morning I will direct it to you”. Thus adds the psalmist and such is the desire of the lover, to fine-tune his heart as to reach the pitch of divine love and to awaken the dawn with groanings which cannot be uttered. Such a disposition will always be met by the Beloved with tender mercy and providential help, and this, right at the break of dawn.
But the psalmist doesn’t stop there. What follows is a testimony of utter confidence and a confession of vibrating faith: “… and I will look up”. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man will always engender a sense of expectation. It will lift the mind and cause it to soar on the wings of saintly anticipation.
The New American Standard Bible reports the words this way: “In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.” Here the waiting is far from being passive. The heart is occupied and the mind focused. The whole soul is stretched out towards heaven as to receive at any given time the object petitioned. This is beauteous and glorious. It is the expression of a clean heart rooted in God’s very character.
An expression of genuine faith
Often we are stressing the importance of prayer as if praying would be the only element needed to prevail, but what about the cleanness of heart and the sense of expectation? Could it be the looking out is a greater expression of faith than the actual prayer, for while we can pray religiously, we cannot eagerly watch religiously, at least not very long. In fact, to pray in the morning might remain little effective if not backed up by an eager watching. After all, it is the sense of expectation which triggers the prayer of faith. The person who prays in the shadow of doubts seems nearly defeated from the very start. Imagine a man applying for a job with no intentions to check his mail for the following six months. What does he gain by applying?
An unconvincing tendency
Did you ever hear someone say: “I know God will answer me someday.” This declaration, which might appear grounded in genuine faith, harbors a common flaw. It excludes the active today and procrastinates the expectation to a passive tomorrow. In brief, it chokes the possibility of an immediate expectation. Under such a banner there can be no motivation left, for ‘today’ is immediately excluded and the ‘tomorrows’ doomed to experience the same exclusion the moment they will metamorphose into an actual today. It can be compared to a person saying, “I will do it someday”, which implies, “I will not do it today”.
To postpone our looking-out into some undefined future—as if the answer cannot come any time sooner—is to pretend to know what we don’t. For the Scripture affirms that we don’t have a clue of what a day can bring forth (Prov. 27:1).
This sort of attitude is deplorable and can spread to different areas of our life. One might say: “I believe God will use me greatly in the future.” This sort of confession might seem soaked in faith. But is it? If the misapprehension doesn’t change that person will most surely postpone his duty to some futuristic time, and this, until he hits the grave. To believe God will use us in the future can be truly edifying, but only if we believe He can also use us now, if otherwise, what appears edifying might rather be corroding.
The Psalmist
Young’s Literal Translation reports the words of the psalmist as follows:
Jehovah, [at] morning Thou hearest my voice, [at] morning I set in array for Thee, and I look out” (Psalm 5:3).
The idea is taken from the sentinel whose duty is to keep vigilance from the top of the rampart with his eyes scrutinizing the horizon. This is precisely the picture the psalmist conveys and thus is the attentiveness of the expecting heart.
How wonderful it is to know with certainty we have touched God’s heart, and this in such a way that our entire being is on the lookout to see how God will bring it to pass. Thus prayed Elijah on the top of Mount Carmel with his face between his knees. He called on God to send rain, and before long he knew he had prevailed. Accordingly he told his servant: “Go up now, look towards the sea.” But the servant returned saying, “There is nothing.” Seven times he sent him to look out, and at the seventh time his servant came back saying, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea.” All along the man of God knew the answer had been coming. So he told his servant, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’” This is the anticipation of faith brethren! And it thrills God’s heart.
Let us lift up our voice early in the morning, for there is a God hearing our cries. And let us watch steadily to see what the Hand of providence is about to do. For great are the opportunities of a clean heart, and great the adventure of faith.
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