48. January 4.
The Lord is my strength and my song;
he also is become my salvation.
Teach me to believe in thee. Amen.
Isaiah 40, 26-31. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk, and not faint.
❦
This is a glorious text, and strikingly appropriate at the beginning of the year. What is to meet us during the course of this year? We know only that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God; — “through much tribulation,” but “into the kingdom of God.” We know that each day shall have its evil, but, also, that “sufficient to the day is the evil thereof;” hence we need not today bear the ills of yesterday or of tomorrow. Lift up your eyes on high, says the Spirit of God through the prophet. Look upward! We have the habit of opening the eye when we look downward, and of closing it when we look upward. Then we see wretchedness in everything, and do we not see that, in truth, there is glory shining over it all. “Who hath created these things?” You know that it was he who is your God, your heavenly Father. Who brings out their host by number, and calls them all by name? Do you think that he will lose any by reason of infirmity or forgetfulness? Does he forget or neglect you? Does he tire of helping and providing for you? Or does his understanding fall short when you are in want of help and guidance? O, we fools; why will we not believe in the Lord, the almighty, everlasting, merciful, faithful God? He has called you by name, and you are his own. How, then, could he forget you? You Christian people, members of his needy, poor, and afflicted church; you are precious to him for Jesus’ sake. Do read the above text once more, and keep it in your heart. “Lift up your eyes on high,” etc.
Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation, according to thy word. Amen.*
Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before him!
Let the Amen
Sound from his people again:
Gladly for aye we adore him.
[TLH 39, LSB 790, ELH 65; listen here]
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.