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The Perfect Morning Hymn
Psalm 95:1-4
There’s a song that we often sing in our church services, especially in the Office of Matins, and you find it there under its Latin name, The Venite. And that’s the first word in the Latin version of Psalm 95. And I want you to consider Psalm 95, or the Venite, as the perfect morning hymn. The perfect way to start your day. I want to read the first few verses here, but then I want to focus, especially on this picture of the hands of our God. And we’ll talk about that over a couple more devotions here. But the first few verses of Psalm 95,
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.For the Lord is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
Psalm 95, verses one through four. Now picture the hands and the picture the start of your day. You’re getting ready to use those hands. The day has been prepared for you to go and take your hands and do the work that God has prepared for you. Whether you’re working outside the home, inside the home, at your studies, work is objectified in the hands.
Think of the work that Adam had to do in the Garden of Eden, digging those hands in the dirt in order to plant and cause things to grow. All that work went out into a more difficult sphere after the fall into sin, and now that work is filled with pain and trouble and sorrow. But we’re to be reminded as we go to our work, which is going to be a day filled with our own sins and sins committed against us too, that we shouldn’t look just at our hands, but at the hands that are holding us and all things. Look at these hands. The hands of God hold the deep places of the earth and the heights of the hills. Not only does this emphasize the power of our great creator, but he’s the one who formed us out of the dust of the earth and who holds us still. And in a prophet, it also says that he has engraved us on the palms of his hands.
Where you see the hands of God most vividly are in those hands that are pierced by the nails on the cross. In Jesus hands your name was engraved. He holds the deep place of your sin, your death, your suffering. He holds that in his hands to bring you up onto the mighty hills of salvation, the hill on which he was crucified, the hill from which he ascended into heaven. The hill on which God comes to meet you with His Word and Sacraments, and ultimately will bring you again to be caught up with your Lord in the air. To be embraced by those hands once again. The hands of God hold you.
