A few posts ago, I mentioned that I had three Bible verses that I tried to start each day with. I also confessed that I wasn’t always that faithful with saying these verses. I’m getting better at it, however. I started this about two years ago, though two of those three verses have been special to me for longer than that.

The first of these verses comes from the Psalms. I find it in two places there: Psalm 57:8 and Psalm 108:2.

I will awaken the dawn.

Actually, that’s not the full verse. I should quote the full verse.

Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.

While I have probably read this more than once, it first grabbed me when we were doing a study of Psalm 119 maybe four years ago. For some reason this verse in Psalm 108 must have been cross-referenced to something in Psalm 119.

This, as I say, grabbed at me. What did it mean exactly? To try to find out, I checked other translations (the above quotes are from the NIV). I found they were surprisingly the same. The New Living Translation has Psalm 57:8 as, “Wake up, my heart! Wake up, O lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song.”

What did it mean? I pondered it for a while, internalizing it, and concluded that the psalmist woke in the morning excited about the day that was before him. He couldn’t wait for the sun to come up so that he could be about living another day joyously in service to God. So he wrote, “I will awaken the dawn.” I will call upon the day to start so that I can get to my daily chores, my work, my career, or whatever it is he had to do.

That struck me as a good way to start my days, to be anxious for what God had in store for me today, and what the world has for me. C’mon day, let’s get going. C’mon sun, I need your light so that I can be out and about, meeting people, serving God, serving mankind.

First, I had to think, is this how I really feel? Am I excited to have another day to live? Thankful, of course. But when nature calls early in the morning, and I swing my feet off the bed to the floor, and I anxious for the day, so anxious that I say, “I will awaken the dawn”? I decided yes, yes I am excited to be living another day.

What about that Saturday in late February, when I spent three hours chopping ice in the driveway and shoveling it off so that I would be able to get to church on Sunday and teach Life Group? My back was tired, my hip was tired, my mind was tired. I woke up that Sunday with many more aches and pains than usual. Yet I was able to say, “I will awaken the dawn,” get up, and get to my normal Lord’s day activities.

What about income tax season? I have a love-hate relationship with income taxes. I enjoy the challenge of doing them myself. Yet, it’s a lot of work and often frustrating. In early March, when I work on the partnership taxes, and then in early April when I do our personal taxes, saying, “I will awaken the dawn” isn’t all that easy. Still, I say it anyway, realizing I have another challenge to tackle and overcome.

Then there’s the daily “grind” of writing. Yes, it is a grind. I can’t say it any other way. Sometimes it’s almost a drudgery. Yet, again, there’s that challenge waiting me in the morning, to get my coffee, walk down the stairs to The Dungeon, have my time of devotions and prayer, check overnight e-mails and social media, then get to whatever book I’m working on. While it severely cuts into my retirement idleness, I can joyously say, “I will awaken the dawn” as I open a book file and begin typing.

I actually wrote a poem that kind of sums up, or maybe expands upon, what this verse is saying. It’s the second poem in my book Daddy-Daughter Day.

That says kind of the same thing, I think. Written in 2005 (or 2006), it speaks of wanting the day to occur and being excited about the adventures that await you.

So, what happens on a day when I wake and just don’t feel ready to claim the day as my own? When I don’t particularly want to awaken the dawn? Yes, I have days like that. I still say the verse. And the verse seems to get hold of me, once again. My attitude quickly changes. And I get on with the adventures that God has for me today.