Psalm 108: The Heart That Wakes the Dawn
There is something almost reckless about the opening of this psalm — "O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory." David does not wait for circumstances to justify his worship. He wakes the dawn itself with his singing, as though the sun were sluggish and needed a nudge. This is not the forced cheerfulness of someone ignoring his problems; the second half of the psalm makes clear that trouble is very real, that enemies press in, that human help is vain. But David has learned something that most of us spend a lifetime fumbling toward: praise is not the result of victory but the posture from which victory becomes possible. "Through God we shall do valiantly." Not through cleverness, not through strength of arms, but through the God whose mercy, astonishingly, is described as being "great above the heavens." One wonders what it would feel like to begin each morning not by checking the news but by waking the dawn with a fixed heart.
00:00 A Heart Fixed on Praise
00:20 Waking the Dawn
00:35 Mercy Above the Heavens
00:50 God's Sovereignty Over Nations
01:00 Through God We Shall Do Valiantly