Worship Song Suggestions for the Awakening Hour
Wake Up - All Sons and Daughters
What a Beautiful Name - Hillsong
Every Praise - Hezekiah Walker
Overview
Psalm 5, verse 3 declares: “In the morning I will offer you my prayer."
Not surprisingly the themes of this hour are much brighter and positive than the Night Watch, as we welcome the new possibilities of another day, we offer our joy, our plans, and our praise to the One through whom we live and move and have our being.
Praise and Resurrection
Joy & Delight
The coming of the light
When you hear those themes, especially in contrast to the themes of The Night Watch, we can’t help but realize that the morning is all about priming ourselves to look for the good in each day.
Scripture
From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb. I will ever praise you. I have become a sign to many; you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long. ~Psalm 71:6-8
What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. ~Matthew 6:31-34 (Message version)
It is you who light my lamp; the Lord, my God, lights up my darkness. ~Psalm 18:28
Reflection Questions
1. Has morning prayer been a regular practice for you in your faith journey? If so, what do you typically pray when you wake up in the morning?
2. How do the themes of praise, joy, delight, resurrection and light fit with your morning routine?
3. Could you commit to trying this practice of The Awakening Hour at least one morning this week?
The Awakening Hour Practice
Opening:
Set the clock of your heart for dawn’s arrival.
Taste the joy of being awake.
Poem:
[Imagine yourself standing before a country pond at dawn. On the far side of the pond a large blue heron suddenly takes flight.
What lifts the heron leaning on the air
I praise without a name.
A crouch, a flare, a long stroke through the cumulus of trees,
a shaped thought at the sky – then gone. O rare!
Saint Francis, being happiest on his knees,
Would have cried Father! Cry anything you please.
But praise. By any name or none.
But praise the white original burst that lights
the heron on his two soft kissing kites.
When saints praise heaven lit by doves and rays,
I sit by pond scums till the air recites
Its heron back. And doubt all else. But praise.
~John Ciardi
Scriptures:
Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
~Psalm 95:1-2
All of Psalm 19
Closing Prayer:
O Light of God…
Anointed by your morning light I life my spirit to receive the gift of this new day. Open my eyes to the beauty that surrounds me that I may walk through this day with the kind of awareness that calls forth grateful living. In all of creation let me see the brightness of your face. Shine in my heart and on my life, filling me with joy, creativity, hope, and laughter. Draw me into the radiant glory of your presence and into the small lights of those with whom I live and work. Inspire me to take time for those who are discouraged.
May I live with the kind of presence that enables others to feel at home.
O God of Resurrection Life, hear my prayer.
