Thoughts for the Day

Praise the Lord, all you nations!
Extol him, all you peoples!
For great is his steadfast love towards us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures for ever.
Praise the Lord!

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

The Gordon-Conwell Seminary in the US is a unique Theological College with its broad array of students from 85 denominations who come from 50 different countries. Each year they produce a statistical review of different religions, as well as those with no religion, based on their growth or decline patterns since 1900. The last figures for mid-2024 show that there are around 8,118,836,000 people in the world, and that of that number some 2,631,941,000 are Christian.

Today our Lectionary offers the reading of Psalm 117 along with two others for Morning Prayer. Now never let it be said I offer difficult tasks, but this Psalm, the shortest of the 150 in the Hebrew scriptures, is so small that we could all learn it by heart! How might our life change if we all started each day with some words of praise to God? If time is really short and the pressures of the day intrude, then we could recite it while getting dressed, doing the dishes, driving to work or having a shower. In the 1980s with a young family that was my answer to a selection conference, when asked how and when did I pray. But life changed over the years and my prayer time changed in due course., though there are still times when use a psalm for prayer.

So I guess the question is how might our world change if all Christians throughout the world started the day with words of praise to God, and how might our relationship with God also change when we constantly remember that He is eternally steadfast and faithful to the plans He has put in place?

Heavenly Father,
God of gods
and Lord of lords,
who designed the universe
and who continues to care for all people,
we praise Your name,
and extol Your virtues,
as we come before You in worship this day.
May we never forget Your steadfast
love and faithfulness
as we turn to You each day in praise.
Amen.