“Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually” (KJV, 1 Chr. 16:8-12).
“Give thanks unto the Lord”
Father, You have been gracious and kind to me. You have been loving and merciful toward me. You have been generous and compassionate toward me. I pray that You would forgive me for not loving You as I ought to. Thank You for not holding my sins against me. Thank You for cleansing me from my sin by the precious blood of Christ.
Thank You that Your mercies are new every morning and that Your grace abounds to me. Thank You for giving Your Son to me that I might have life. Thank You, Jesus, for taking on flesh and for being my Great High Priest. Thank You for identifying with me and for helping me in my times of need.
I cannot fathom what it meant to You, Father, to give Your Son for me. I do not have the capacity to truly know what that was like. However, I pray that You would increase and that I would decrease. In that, may I be more keenly aware of Your heart.
“call upon his name”
Father, I need You this day. This day, I call upon Your name. I pray that You would make Your face to shine upon me and that You would be gracious to me. I see in John’s Gospel that I cannot do anything good apart from Christ. I see my great need to abide in the Vine and for Christ to abide in me.
I see that the only way that I will bear fruit is if I am connected to Christ and Christ produces fruit in me. I see that I am still prone to sin and that sin is contrary to Your nature and Your ways. I pray that You would help me to fight this day for Your glory and my own good.
You are worthy of more devotion than I give You. I call upon Your name this day to fight for me. You are a shield for me and a strong tower. You are my place of refuge and my strength. Teach me Your ways, O God, and cause me to walk in Your statutes.
“make known his deeds among the people”
Father, I see a great need for the Gospel to be proclaimed to the ends of the earth. Jesus, I see that when You sent out Your disciples, You told them that the fields were ripe for harvest. However, You also told them to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send out laborers into the fields. The reason You said this is due to the fact the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
I pray that You would help me to be a witness for You, Lord. I pray that You would use me to share the Gospel. Help me to learn the Gospel and grow in my own understanding of the Gospel. Teach me to be unashamed of the Gospel as Paul was and to proclaim Your Gospel to a dying world.
I also pray that You would help me to learn to talk about Christ in conversations with others. Show me how I can be a light in the world in which You have placed me.
“Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him”
Father, I thank You for creating music. I pray that you would help me to glorify You through singing. Thank You for the instruction that has been given to me in Your Word. I thank You for giving me a new song.
I pray that You would work in my heart and that it would overflow in praise to You. I pray that I would worship You even in the midst of my difficult moments. I see that Your Word tells me that even during difficult times, I can put on a garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness.
You have shown me that You delight in being worshipped through song. Please burden my heart to worship You in this way.
“talk ye of all his wondrous works”
You have done more good than I can recount. In the Garden after man sinned against You, You promised that the Messiah would come. You looked upon the offering of a sinner, Abel, and accepted his offering. You showed favor to Noah and spared the human race when You would have been just in putting the human race to an end. You looked upon Abraham and called him to Yourself so that through Abraham, the nations would be blessed with Christ.
You delivered the Israelites from bondage through signs and wonders. You drove back the waters so that Your people could pass through. Yet the waters swallowed the Egyptians. You showed an amazing amount of mercy to sinners such as Manasseh and Ahab. You blessed Your people down through the ages with Your Word.
You sent Christ into the world to take on flesh. You determined that Christ would die in the place of sinners so that sinners could be reconciled to You. You have justified the believer and made him righteous in Christ. You poured out Your wrath on Christ so that the believer would not experience Your wrath on the Day of Judgment.
“Glory ye in his holy name”
You are holy, God. But even such a declaration does not quite express what is truly at stake. Yet again, I lack the capacity to truly be overcome by such a truth. You are perfect, but how can the imperfect fathom what it means to be perfect? You have never sinned, but how can the sinner know what it is like to have lived in such a way? You are absolutely good, but Paul tells me that no one is good. Jesus tells me that no one is good but God alone. As a result, how I can know what it means to be good?
I am limited in my ability, yet I see to a certain extent the greatness of Your being. I see that You are high above me, and I am not like You. Surely, You have made me in Your image. Surely, I have been united with Christ. But I am more different from You than I am like You.
You are far above me. You are the Creator; I am the creation. You are of infinite worth, and I was formed from dust.
“let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord”
Father, in You, I rejoice. In Christ, I rejoice. You have given the Christian many reasons to rejoice, and I must recognize this to be so. I have many reasons to thank You, and I pray that You would cause me to remember this fact.
Thank You for not giving up on me. Thank You for enduring with me. Thank You for being patient with me. Thank You for giving me life when I deserved death. Thank You for allowing me into Your presence. Thank You for accepting my prayers. Thank You for being a source of strength to me.
“Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually”
I see that I must seek You and Your strength. I can see in my flesh that I often grow weak and tired. I see that I am not who I ought to be because my flesh is weak. I see myself falling asleep, much like the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, when I should arise and get ready for action.
I need Your strength. However, I often go into battle in my own strength. I often seek to fight against the enemy with my own wisdom and tactics.
Thank You for telling me the way by which I can be strengthened by You. You tell me to seek Your face continually. I must never assume that what I did yesterday will suffice for today. Teach me to seek Your face at all times. In Jesus’ name, Amen.