“I will awaken the dawn!”
[Psalms 108]
The motto of our church this year is, ‘Let us continually devote ourselves to prayer.’ Considering this year's motto, I wonder how we can assess whether our church is devoted to prayer at all. There may be several ways to evaluate that. For example, if we evaluate numerically, we can think of how many people attend once a month prayer meetings, the Wednesday night prayer meeting, and the early dawn prayer meeting on Saturday. Although we can evaluate it by the number of attendance at prayer meetings, but we also need to evaluate it qualitatively. Of course this won't be easy. Each person will have to evaluate himself or herself. In other words, whether or not the whole church members are striving to pray at all can be seen by looking at the prayers offered to God during our early dawn prayer meeting. Why the early dawn prayer meeting is because it is the first hour of the day. In order to support God the first hour of the day, the more people who come up to the Lord's temple to pray to God and pray with thanksgiving and praise to Him, the more we can say that our church is really striving to pray for this year. It won’t be easy to wake up at dawn, which can be very tired and sleepy, and come to the Lord's temple to offer the first hour of the day and pray to God with thanksgiving and praise. Therefore, it would be enough to say whether we must have a dawning prayer meeting or not. However, if we can wake up the dawn and start the day with thanksgiving and praise to God, we can say that such people can be said that they are awaking the dawn. Then how do the people who awaken the dawn pray? There are three things we can think of.
First, those who awaken the dawn pray to God with thanksgiving and praise.
Look at Psalms 108:3 – “I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the peoples, And I will sing praises to You among the nations.” If we look at Psalms 108, we see the psalmist David who awaken the dawn. When he prayed to God, he began to pray with thanksgiving and praise. Why did he pray to God with thanksgiving and praise? The reason is because David experienced the greatness of God's lovingkindness and His truth. Look at verse 4: “For Your lovingkindness is great above the heavens, And Your truth reaches to the skies.” How, then, did David experience God’s great lovingkindness and truth? He experienced God’s great lovingkindness through the grace of God's salvation (v. 6). And he experienced God’s great truth by hearing when God spoke in His holiness (v. 7).
I think it is very precious faith to be able to give thanks and praise to God for His lovingkindness and truth as we come up to the Lord's house at dawn in the beginning of the day and pray to Him. Furthermore, if we can live a day in the Lord by giving thanks and praising the Lord, it is truly precious faith. However, I confess that I have not been able to live this life enough before God when I look back on my last one-week life. What is the cause? In light of Psalms 108, I think the cause is that I have not fully experienced God's saving grace and His holy Word. If I have been living my spiritual life in experiencing God’s deliverance and while listening to His holy Word, how would I not come up to the Lord's house at dawn and pray to God with thanksgiving and praise? Like David, who awaken the dawn, I want to pray to God with thanksgiving and praise when I come to God's house and pray to Him. I want to pray while giving praise to God with thanksgiving due to God’s deliverance and because I am thrill for hearing God's holy Word. How about you? Like David, don’t you want to pray to God with thanksgiving and praise because of God's saving grace and because you are hearing His words?
Second, those who awaken the dawn pray for the glory of God.
Look at Psalms 108:5 – “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, And Your glory above all the earth.” Those who awaken the dawn humble themselves before the holy God. Never can they be proud of themselves and exalt themselves before their holy God. If they boast of themselves before God like a Pharisee and pray, they they can never be said that they are awakening the dawn. Also, a prayer that prides the prayers on themselves will never be said to be true prayers. David, the prayer who awaken the dawn, prayed that only the Lord would be exalted. He prayed that only the Lord would be lifted up high and His glory would be exalted above the world. David prayed like this because he experienced God's great lovingkindness and truth. Therefore, while praising the Lord's greatness even with his soul (v. 1), David prayed that only the Lord would be exalted while praying. He prayed that the glory of God would be exalted over the whole world (v. 5).
Third and last, those who awaken the dawn pray for salvation from God.
Look at Psalms 108:6 – “That Your beloved may be delivered, Save with Your right hand, and answer me!” David prayed to God with thanksgiving and praise for God's lovingkindness and truth, and also prayed for the glory of God. In the meantime, David asked God to save him from the adversary. David, who experienced God's great lovingkindness through the grace of salvation in the past, was still asking God to deliver him from his adversary. In David's prayer, we knew that deliverance by man is in vain (v. 12). Therefore, he played to God for His lovingkindness and truth. In particular, he knew that if God didn’t reject the Israelites and went forth with their armies (v. 11), he couldn’t fight against the adversary and win. That was why he only relied on the God and asked Him for deliverance.
Like David, we must also rely solely on God and pray to Him. We must know that deliverance by man is in vain, and we must ask for God’s deliverance by trusting only in Him. In particular, when we fight spiritual battles, we must believe that God is the God who doesn’t reject us, but who goes with us (v. 11), and ask God for help to fight our enemies and pray for victory. Those who awaken the dawn have one thing and do another thing:
(1) Those who awaken the dawn have steadfast heart.
Look at Psalms 108:1 – “My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing, I will sing praises, even with my soul.” Those who awaken the dawn pray with thanksgiving and praise to God, and pray for the glory of God have steadfast heart while praying to God for His deliverance (salvation). This steadfast heart is God's grace given to those who fully trust in God and pray. Look at Psalms 112:7b – “… His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.” Those who awaken the dawn have peace in their hearts because they pray with full trust in God.
(2) Those who awaken the dawn do valiantly.
Look at Psalms 108:13 – “Through God we will do valiantly, And it is He who shall tread down our adversaries.” After David relied on God completely and prayed, he acted bravely. He wasn’t afraid of his adversaries and walked boldly and courageously with the assurance of victory with his armies. The reason was because he believed that God would go with him and his armies (v. 11). He also believed that God would bring him and his armies to victory and lead them to “the besieged city” (v. 10). Therefore, David acted boldly and bravely.
Dear friends, let's devote ourselves to prayer. Like the psalmist David, let's strive to become a man and woman of prayer who awakens the dawn. He prays to God with thanksgiving and praise because of His great lovingkindness and truth. Also, like David, let’s pray, “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, And Your glory above all the earth” (v. 5). Let’s ask God for deliverance (salvation). Then God will give us steadfast heart and courage. Let us have strong heart that cannot be shaken, and walk bravely for the glory of the Lord.
Wanting to be a man of prayer who awakens the dawn,
James Kim
(As times goes by, learning to rely on God more and more and pray to Him)