“Oh Lord, in the morning you hear my voice. In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.”
– Psalm 5:3
Psalm 5:3, another great verse after chapter three. In Psalm 3, David talked about waking up by the sustenance of God. In chapter 4, he talked about sleeping in the safety of God. Then after waking up, Psalm 5:3 says, “I lift my voice to you as you sustain me through the night, help me sleep in peace, sustain me through the night. I wake up in the morning and you hear my voice. In the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.” This picture of David saying, “From the beginning of my day, before anything else, I look to you. I call out to you for help. I lay my life down before you. I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.”
From the time we wake up in the morning might we call out to God for His gracious leadership in our lives.
Just think about the picture of anticipation there in Psalm 5:3. I’m lifting my voice to you, I’m laying a sacrifice before you and I’m just waiting to see what you are gonna do in response to how I have lifted my voice to you. What you are gonna do with this offering I have placed before you in my life. Think about how that transforms your day, when you start by crying out, lifting your voice to the God of the universe and laying down your life in sacrifice before him. That just leads to a day where, Lord willing, you are seeing him answer your prayers from the beginning of the day. You are seeing him use your life for the spread of his goodness, and his grace, and his glory in the world around you.
This Verse Wants God To Hear Our Voices
What better way to start the day than calling out knowing that God hears your voice? Than laying down your life as a sacrifice, knowing that God is honored with that and will use that sacrifice, use your life all day long in ways far beyond what you can even imagine at the beginning of that day. Obviously, I don’t know what time you are listening to this right now, but just envision … Either it’s morning time, or maybe it’s nighttime and your starting to think about this for tomorrow.
Oh God, hear our voice from the beginning of our days, hear our voices crying out to you. We need you, we love you, we want to glorify you. We want to follow you, so we lay our lives down before you. And we pray for your leadership all day long. Just as I often do before you Oh Lord, in my time with you in the morning, I just go through every single detail that I know of my day, just praying for your leadership, praying for your guidance in this or that meeting, and this or that conversation, this or that interaction I know I’m gonna have. Then the anticipation of things that I don’t know are gonna happen that day, to pray and trust you with those things that you will lead and guide for my good and your glory.
Psalm 5:3 Prays For God To Help Us Honor Him
God we pray all these things for our day today. Lord, the things we know that are coming, please keep us in step with your spirit. Please help us to honor you, glorify you in everything we’re doing with life, family, work. God, in the things we don’t know are coming today, we pray for grace to respond to those things in ways that are honoring and glorifying to you. Help us to follow you all day long.
We wait in anticipation of how you will use this day to draw us closer to you. How you will use this day to bring about more good for us. How you will use this day to bring about more glory for your name. With anticipation, we cry out to you. In the morning, you hear our voice. In the morning, we prepare a sacrifice for you and we watch. So in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
