Feb 26 Daily Rhythm

Morning
Psalm 81:1-3

Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob! Raise a song; sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp. Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.

Oh Dear God, help our frail and trembling lips to sing your praises! Too often we sing our own, too often we come to you and cry out in our distress, but not when we are well. Hear us God, make our feeble hearts more able to sing your praise!

Afternoon
Psalm 81:4-10

For it is a statute for Israel, a rule of the God of Jacob. He made it a decree in Joseph when he went out over the land of Egypt.  I hear a language I had not known: “I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket. In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! O Israel, if you would but listen to me! There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

Almighty God, we have bent the knee to strange gods. gods that promise health wealth and prosperity. We worship in the temples of these false deities that lay claim to our allegiances. Yet, you promise not to abandon. Hear our prayer, come to our aid, restore us to yourself.

Evening
Psalm 81:11-16

“But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever. But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

God hold us steady, keep us faithful by the grace you have granted to us in Christ Jesus. He is the faithful one. We hide ourselves in him. You have hidden us in him. Lord, hold on to us even as we struggle to hold fast to you.