The Last of the First

Today is the last day of the first month in 2010.

Are you calling it "two thousand-ten" or "twenty-ten"?

An argument for "twenty-ten" is that we didn't say "one thousand, nine hundred-ninety-nine." But I never heard anyone say "twenty-oh-nine" either. Personally, "twenty-ten" sounds like a shotgun caliber and I'm sticking with "two thousand-ten," but it's really irrelevant.

On another New Year note, how are you doing with those resolutions?

I decided long ago that making official resolutions was too depressing. Who wants to spend all that time, during the bleakest days of winter, thinking about all one's failings? And then one spends all that time, during the bleakest days of winter, trying to overcome all those failings. And finally one is overwhelmed with the realization, still during the bleakest days of winter, that one is probably never going to overcome all those failings.

I've nixed formal resolutions, but I just can't escape the feeling that the beginning of a new year is a good time for some personal assessment.

One thing I've been praying in this first month is, "Lord, help me to stop wishing and worrying so I can start working and worshipping."

I recognize that I spend too much time wishing certain aspects of my life and my world were different (wishing for spring, for one thing!). I also spend a lot of time worrying about things that I cannot control. If I spent less time wishing for change and worrying about things I can't change, I would be better able to work and worship.

On this last day of the first month, I anticipate a day of rest and worship. And I continue my New Year's prayer for my wishing and worrying to be replaced with working and worshipping.

New Year's Psalm

It's amazing how often regular reading straight through the Bible yields scriptural gems that are extraordinarily apt for one's current circumstances. It frequently seems that the scripture read "just happens" to fit one's particular trials or times.

In our regular devotional reading through the Psalms, we "just happened" to read Psalm 67 as the new year dawned. Along with one of my all-time favorites, Psalm 90 (which was the text for our church's New Year's service), Psalm 67 (ESV) seems particularly appropriate for a new year:

May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us,
that your way may be known on earth,
your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide the nations upon earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!
The earth has yielded its increase;
God, our God, shall bless us.
God shall bless us;
let all the ends of the earth fear him!

In a year filled with even more uncertainty than usual, this psalm begins by verbalizing my prayer for God's blessing in language that reflects God's ancient and continuing words of covenant faithfulfulness.

The psalm continues by describing the purpose of God's blessing in his people's lives: that God's ways and his salvation may be known throughout the earth and among all nations.

It continues with a prayer that all earth's people will praise God and all the nation's will sing for joy because of God's equitable judgments and his guidance. In every nation throughout the world, God is guiding and directing all events of the new year. His judgments will guide events toward their ultimate fulfillment, when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

The psalm concludes with a reminder of the abundance that the earth has yielded; amber grain, brilliant gems, and useful oil, all have been given from God as blessings to humanity. God has blessed his people throughout the centuries and he will continue to bless his people with his providential care throughout the new year. All who dwell to the very ends of the earth do well to fear God by acknowledging his power and sovereignty, and Christ's salvation and lordship over all of life!

New Year's Prayer

Invocation

O Lord, if only You might pour on me
Abundant grace of Milton's heavenly muse!
That this gray mind would empty shadows flee
And into golden praise itself would lose.

But Lord, I'm paralyzed with Barak's fear
and blinded by my Pharasaic sight.
My hearing's grown as hard as Pharoah's ear,
While empty echoes rise to Babel's height.

You, Lord, gave Milton songs of worthy praise
And You alone can cause me to grow bold—
Explode in reminiscent rhythmic phrase—
That I, like him, might sing a song of gold,

No deathly talent hid or Lord denied,
But God in every line be glorified!


© Glenda Mathes