The morning devotional is very important to me because God always listens.
It is a blessing to know God hears my voice. I thank Jesus for all He has done for us.
Giving thanks with a grateful heart. 🙏
✦ Back in France
After five countries in a week, the road has come back into France — to Bourbonne-les-Bains in the Haute-Marne, an old town of healing waters. And Le opens a morning psalm. David's prayer at the start of the day: listen, consider, hear. 🙏
"Listen to my words, Lord, consider my lament. Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray."
✦ Words, Lament, Cry
David brings three kinds of prayer: words — the things he can say clearly; lament — the sighing that is deeper than words (the Hebrew means something like a murmur or a groan); and a cry for help. He brings it all — the spoken, the half-spoken, and the urgent.
And he asks God to receive each one differently: listen to the words, consider the lament, hear the cry. God does not only listen to what we manage to say — He considers what we cannot quite say. The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26).
And to whom? My King and my God. Not a distant King — mine. Sunday's psalm said He inclined His ear to me (October 18). Today David says: so I will speak to Him first thing. 🙏
"In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly."
✦ Lay It Out, and Watch
In the morning — said twice. Before the road, before the day's decisions, before anything else: His ear first.
I lay my requests before you — the Hebrew word is the one used for arranging the wood and the offering on the altar, setting things in order. David lays his requests out carefully, like an offering, and leaves them there.
Then: and wait expectantly. The word means to watch, like a watchman on the wall looking for the dawn. Not anxious waiting — expectant waiting. Psalm 27 said wait on the Lord (October 13 and 16). Psalm 5 shows how: lay it down in the morning, and keep looking up all day for His answer.
October 12 — I found a room in a motorhome. Every morning, in that small room, the requests are laid out and the watching begins. 🙏
"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."
✦ Giving Thanks with a Grateful Heart
Le tells us why the morning matters to her: because God always listens. Not sometimes. Always. That is David's confidence in verse 3 — in the morning, Lord, you hear my voice — not you might hear, but you hear.
And what does Le bring first? Not only requests — thanks. I thank Jesus for all He has done for us. Giving thanks with a grateful heart.
Paul puts the two together in Philippians: let your requests be made known — with thanksgiving. The requests laid on the altar are wrapped in gratitude. We do not wait expectantly with clenched hands, but with thankful ones — because of all He has already done. Sunday's psalm asked what shall I render? Le's answer this morning: a grateful heart. 🙏
"It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."
"And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed."
"The morning devotional is very important to me because God always listens. Giving thanks with a grateful heart."
Le · Bourbonne-les-Bains · France · Psalm 5 · In the morning, LordGod Always Listens
Words, lament, cry — He listens, considers, and hears. Always. So the morning begins with a grateful heart.
In the Morning
His ear first, before the road and the day. Lay the requests out like an offering — and leave them with Him.
Wait Expectantly
Like a watchman looking for the dawn. Not anxious waiting — expectant watching for His answer all day.
A morning psalm for a pilgrim: On the road, each day begins somewhere new. Psalm 5 makes the first stop the same every morning: His ear.
Le's morning: God always listens. That is why the morning devotional matters — not as a duty, but as a meeting with the One who hears. And she begins it with thanks. Requests wrapped in gratitude are Philippians 4:6 lived out.
Room for the lament: David does not tidy his prayer. He brings the groan along with the words — and asks God to consider it. Nothing is too unformed to bring.
Expectant, not anxious: Lay it down. Leave it. Watch for the dawn. The watchman does not make the sun rise; he only looks for it — and it always comes. His mercies are new every morning. 🙏