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25th March 2025
TuesdayReflection
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Shawn Thomas
Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of
Angleton, Texas
"The Morning Watch"
Psalm 5:3
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One of the best articles I have ever read is "The Tyranny of the Urgent" by Charles Hummel.
In it he writes that many people often wish for a 30-hour day, so they could get more done.
But Hummel says if we had it, we would soon be filling it up with more of the things with which we are already squandering our present 24-hour day!
His solution?
Do what Jesus did, and get up and spend time with the Heavenly Father to begin the day.
Get HIS direction and priorities for the day, and then follow that.
But the whole plan hinges on getting up and spending time with God first thing in the morning.
I want us to turn to a passage of scripture in which David models for us a commitment to walk with God in the morning, Psalm 5
I pray to you, O Lord; you hear my voice in the morning; at sunrise I offer my prayer and wait for your answer.
One of the ways the Hebrews emphasize something is by repeating it.
If they say it once, they mean it, of course, but if they say it twice, they really mean it (and if they say it three times it is ultimate, like "holy, holy, holy" is the Lord; which means that He is ultimate in holiness.
So the fact that David repeats "in the morning" here shows the emphasis that he put upon it.
The words "order my prayer" are also very revealing.
In Hebrew this is the same root word which describes how the priests "laid in order" the morning sacrifice, which was the very first act of the day in Israel.
So David is saying that just as the priests "ordered" the morning sacrifice as their first duty of the day, HIS first duty of the was going to be to let God hear his voice in prayer!
In Mark 1:35 we see that Jesus kept this same pattern:
"And in the early morning, while it was still dark, He arose and went out and departed to a lonely place, and was praying there."
There we see that Jesus got up early - and "early" is qualified by "while it was still dark", so it was pretty early! - and went out to a place where He could be alone.
And He did that, the Bible says, so that He could pray.
Jesus serves as the great model for us.
He was busier in ministry than any of us will ever be in our lives - the previous verses describe how just the night before, "the whole city had gathered at His door" and He was healing people.
This went on until very late. And yet Jesus made it a priority to get up early and seek God and pray.
Morning prayer is assumed in the Model Prayer that Jesus gave us in Matthew 6.
Think about it:
what good would it do to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" at the end of the day, AFTER you've already HAD your daily bread!
It makes much more sense as a morning prayer, asking God to provide what we need for the day ahead.
Now, let me balance that just a little bit by saying that I understand that not everybody is a "morning person", and there is not just one time for prayer:
First of all, we know that we should be praying all day long:
1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, "Pray without ceasing."
I understand that not everyone is best in the morning.
Some of you may not be.
Some of you may read or study or pray better in the evening, and wouldn't do well trying to have a long morning devotional time.
Maybe it is not possible for you to have your longest prayer and Bible study time first thing in the morning, but let me strongly encourage you to do at least SOMETHING first thing in the morning.
If you don't do a Bible study, at least read a verse or two, or review some memory verses.
If you don't pray a long prayer, at least pray for a few minutes.
Come back to it later, but do at least SOMETHING in the morning to begin your day with the Lord.
Have that commitment like David did: "In the morning, You will hear my voice."
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This is an edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
'Shawn Thomas'
A Southern Baptist pastor for almost 35 years,
I currently serve as Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Angleton, Texas,
and post my weekly sermons on this site,
as well as a brief overview for Sunday School teachers of the weekly Lifeway "Explore the Bible" lesson.
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