Morning thanks for steadfast love

Before the sun clears the hills, the table is already set with a cup and a crust; the ten-stringed lute rests where the plate should be. Psalm 92 calls this a good thing: to give thanks to Yahweh, to sing praises to His name, to proclaim His loving kindness in the morning. Morning thanks is the first note that tunes the whole day to His name.

Why is it good? Because the morning is the hour of fresh mercy, and the night is the hour of tested faithfulness. The same hand that wakes us has kept us. I confess: I often let the morning slide into errands without naming that loving kindness, as if the day were owed to me rather than given. The psalmist does not wait for a feeling; he takes up the harp and the melody of the lyre, and gladness follows the work of God's hands.

But where is that work most clearly seen? On the cross, where steadfast love was nailed open, and in the empty tomb, where faithfulness broke the night. Christ's resurrection is the morning proclamation of loving kindness; His intercession is the nightly faithfulness. Because He rose, I can say 'You have made me glad through Your work', not my work, but His. The table is set because He first set His face toward Jerusalem.