Listen

For Zion’s sake I won’t keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I won’t sit still until her righteousness shines out like a light, and her salvation blazes like a torch. Nations will see your righteousness, all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name, which the Lord’s own mouth will determine. You will be a splendid garland in the Lord’s hand, a royal turban in the palm of God’s hand.

Isaiah 62:1-3

Think

One of my favorite hymns is “O Praise Ye the Lord” by Henry Baker. The final verse always makes me teary: “For love in creation, for heaven restored, for grace of salvation, O praise ye the Lord!”

We don’t often think of our salvation as a gift of God. When I ask people to share their prayers of thanksgiving, they will say they’re thankful for their family, for the food on their table, for some good news they recently had. Very rarely does someone offer a prayer of thanksgiving for the salvation of God.

But it is a gift. The ultimate gift. The gift that undergirds all other gifts. So we often don’t even notice it. Sometimes it’s important for it to blaze out like a torch, that we might remember God’s love gives us more than just our food, family, and friends. God’s love saves us from the power of Sin and Death. It began from the earliest days of creation. It restores our hope of heaven. O praise ye the Lord!

Jordan Haynie Ware

Pray

God, you gave your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus, which means YHWH is salvation. Shine that salvation as a blazing torch for me to see, that my heart and every heart may love him, who is the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.

(Some phrases inspired by the Book of Common Prayer)

Go

My mouth will proclaim the Lord’s praise,
and every living thing will bless God’s holy name
forever and always.

Psalm 145:21