Morning Prayer

Psalm 143 contains a fascinating verse (okay, there is more than one fascinating verse, I just want to highlight one). Notice verse eight:

Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning,
For in You do I trust;
Cause me to know the way in which I should walk,
For I lift up my soul to You.

This verse is in the midst of a prayer to God by King David. He is seeking God's guidance and help in some situation. In this particular verse there is a repeated pattern: a request followed by a reason. Outlined, it would look like something like this (in my own paraphrase):

Request #1: "Make me to hear Your lovingkindness"
Reason: "Because I trust in You."

Request #2: "Make me to know the way I should go"
Reason: "Because I am seeking You."

The fascinating aspect of this verse comes from the grammar of the Hebrew language. The first word in each of the requests ("hear" and "know") are in a form that is referred to as having a causative action -- that is, something or someone is causing (or "making" as in my paraphrase above) something to happen. This is why the NKJV translates the verbs as "Cause me to hear" and "Cause me to know".

As human beings, we like to be in control. We like to think that what happens in life is a result of our action, our choosing, or our planning. Biblically, we can never separate God's sovereignty and providence from our life; thus, our actions, choices, and plans are never ours alone, they are all part of God's overall plan for His world.

What the psalmist is requesting of God in this verse is that God would step in and do something in His life, that God would make something happen in the life of the writer that would not arise as a result of human action.

In other words, we might say that the psalmist is praying, "God, make me experience Your loyal love to me this morning even if in my sinfulness I don't want to hear about it." Or, "Yahweh -- my God, my trust is in You alone, so transcend my sinful humanity and make me experience Your loyal love."

The second half of the verse is seeking God's direction in life: "Lord, I am seeking Your will in my life, so make me know what You want me to do." I have said for many years that if a child of God is diligently seeking Him, that He will make His will clear. He doesn't desire to make His will a mystery.

The key to the application of this verse to our lives is surrender. We must "let go and let God" as the saying goes. Are we actively releasing our own control over life so that God can "cause" us to hear His loyal love and to know the way we should go? Are we truly seeking God to work in our life? Notice that David had already given himself to the Lord: "because I trust in You", and "because I lift up my soul to You". He had already recognized God's care for him, and God's providence over the direction of his life -- he was ready for God to work. Are you?