Psalm 19 - First Light
Right about this time of year 24 years ago, I was returning from a mission period in Central America where this Psalm was one that just kept coming up over and over again. I ended up taking a picture of a sunrise over the ocean (similar colors and light to this one that I took yesterday morning, but without the ocean - a lake had to do instead) and gave that picture along with that verse to my Dad. So maybe that was my first post like this - pre-blog days (actually pretty much pre-internet days for the most part). There is something glorious about the first light of the morning - the hope and promise of a new day, the freshness of a cool morning (as yesterday was and also today - yahoo!), the sounds of birds and other animals, and the colors that come out at that hour. Photographers call it the magic hour and its so very true. It is a stunning time of day and I am grateful that I am one of those morning-types of people.
This Psalm feels like a first light kind of Psalm - the day begins with the heavens declaring the glory of God and the skies proclaiming the work of God's hands. Verse six speaks of this glory emerging one one distant horizon and moving to the other. And throughout the Psalm is a call to listening to the voice of God moving through our lives.
But it all starts with a first light - the first glimpse that says that it is a brand-new day that is full of possibilities and hope. It is a day where we can act and live in new ways from what we might have done before. It is a day that we have the possibility of seeing God at work in a new way. We can be surprised, blessed, challenged, and so many other things.
I am grateful for the first light and grateful for what it speaks of God and God's ongoing work in my life and in the world.