Marking Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year

Append i x

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Fleshing Out the Universal Priesthood, continued

C. We ought to declare his faithfulness in the night.

1. God gives us songs of praise in the night, Job 35.10 – But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night. 2. By day he commands love, by night our response in song rises to him, Ps. 42.8 – By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. 3. We ought to seek him during day and night, Ps. 77.2 – In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. 4. As our hiding place, anytime will do!, Ps. 32.7 – You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah . 5. His blessings warrant a song in the evening, Isa. 30.29 – You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.

II. It is biblical . The sacrifices of God in the Temple for his people mandated both morning and evening sacrifices.

A. Offerings were demanded of the people of God for both morning and evening.

1. David appointed officers to give the Lord praise expressly each morning and evening, 1 Chron. 16.40 – to offer burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of burnt offering regularly morning and evening , to do all that is written in the Law of the Lord that he commanded Israel.