2nd. December. 2021. Daily Devotion.
The Advent story of hope and mystery, anticipation, preparation, a kingdom of this world and the next, and a king appearing when we least expect. Heaven touching earth, footsteps of the divine walking dusty roads as once they did in Eden, and a people, searching for a Saviour, and walking past the stable. Open eyes and hearts, that this might be an Advent of hope to the world.
Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel.
3 He heals the broken-hearted
and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
6 The Lord sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;
make music to our God on the harp. Psalm 147:1-7
During the season of Advent, we sing songs proclaiming God’s steadfast love. We sing of the hope and promise of the soon-coming Saviour. Our songs often depict a duality: we remember Jesus’ birth as the promise given to the Israelites of the coming Messiah, while we also keep in mind that Jesus came and died on the cross, ascended to heaven, and will come again. Thus, we await the second coming with great anticipation. We live in the tension of now and not yet. So much of our world seems caught between this tension of how we are to be now while we await the future promise of that world to come where all will be well. The psalmist points us to this duality by inviting us to praise the God who heals the broken-hearted and binds up the wounded. The emphasis is on what God is doing now even as we live amid difficulties. The same care that God gives to the animals and to the plants, God gives to us. God tends to the smallest detail. We are precious in the eyes of God. The psalmist reminds us that the faithful response is to continually praise God. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving, we are told. And so we do. Assured that God’s delight in us is not for our strength or might, but for our hope in God’s steadfast love.
Grant us, O Lord, to pass this day in gladness and peace, without stumbling and without stain, that reaching the day’s end victorious over all temptation, we may again praise you, the eternal God, blessed over all things now and for ever. Amen. Mozarabic Sacramentary (10th Century)
Prayer
Wonderful Counsellor, we ask for your guidance at this time. Help us to take the right paths and the correct decisions. Lord be our guide. And even when we take a wrong turning, help us to trust that you are with us, healing, restoring and forgiving. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
