"O Lord, in the morning I will direct my prayer to You."
"Hold me up, and I shall be safe."—Psalm 119:117
Most gracious God, give me grace to begin a new morning
with You. Before entering on the world, I invoke Your blessing. Before I hear
the voice of earthly friend, or mingle in earthly society, may I have a
conscious filial nearness to You, my Father in heaven. O You, who are better,
tenderer, dearer, than all on earth, give me the sweet assurance of Your
presence and favor. With this, all the day's joys will be joys indeed—with
this, the sting will be extracted from the day's sorrows. In quiet confidence
I will repose on Your covenant faithfulness. I need no other benediction,
Lord, if I have Yours. Other portions may fail me, but I am independent of
all, if "You are the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
I adore and bless Your holy name for every past token of
your kindness and forbearance. The retrospect of life is a retrospect of love.
I am a wonder to myself that You have spared me—that mercy is remembered when
nothing but wrath is deserved. "Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had
long before now dwelt in silence."
On that same arm I would desire still to lean. I am
compassed about with a great fight of afflictions, and the sorest and saddest
of all are my sins. But I fly to You, helper of the helpless. Give me to
know what it is to dismiss all my own guilty misgivings, and to rest by simple
faith on a tried Redeemer. It is mistrust of Him that has been the cause of
many a bygone fall. I have been dwelling more on the strength of my
temptations than on the strength of my Savior. Oh, "You hold me up,
blessed Jesus! and I shall be safe." Whenever in the way of sin, give me to
realize the all-sufficiency of Your grace. May every hurricane of temptation
drive me more under the shelter of the Rock. May the loss of every earthly
prop lead me to Yourself—the only abiding refuge. No step in the wilderness
journey would I take without You. No loss would I mourn when sustained at Your
bidding. No enemy would I fear if You are on my side. You hold
me up, and then indeed I shall be safe—safe for time—safe for eternity.
And the same support I ask for myself, I beseech You to
give to all near and dear to me. May the Lord God be their "sun and shield."
May they experience no temptation "above what they are able to bear;" or, with
the temptation, grant them grace that they may be able to bear it. And when
all earthly dangers and toils and trials are over, may we all be enabled to
meet in glory, and trace there, with adoring gratitude and joy, the way in
which Your mercy through life "has held us up."
Anew I commend myself, body and soul, to You this day. For
Your dear Son's sake, forgive all my sins. My sole trust is in the atoning
blood. May I feel this to be the best preservative against temptation and sin,
that all I am, and all I have, is not my own, but belongs to the Lord who died
for me. Hear these my unworthy supplications, and grant me an answer in peace,
for His sake. Amen.
"Cause me to hear Your loving-kindness in the morning, for
in You do I trust."