1 My opening eyes with rapture see
The dawn of Thy returning day;
My thoughts, O God, ascend to Thee,
While thus my early vows I pay.
2 O bid this trifling world retire,
And drive each carnal thought away;
Nor let me feel one vain desire,
One sinful thought, through all the day.
3 Then, to Thy courts when I repair,
My soul shall rise on joyful wing,
The wonders of Thy love declare,
And join the strains which angels sing.
(https://hymnary.org/text/my_opening_eyes_with_rapture_see/compare)
I want you to imagine this morning going to see at night and as you wake up, you see Christ returning in the clouds.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 says:
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1Th 4:16-18 ESV)
Imagine this! Verse 17 again:
17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (1Th 4:17 ESV)
Think about the hope, the love, the excitement that will be there as we meet the risen Savior in the air.
Let me read the first verse of our hymn this morning:
“My opening eyes with rapture see
The dawn of Thy returning day;
My thoughts, O God, ascend to Thee,
While thus my early vows I pay.”
This image of Christ returning; is it in your eyes when you wake up in the morning? Do you anticipate the day of the Lord’s returning as you wake up?
I remember when I was returning from my second deployment. We were in Germany and Monica had made a big banner in side our stairwell welcoming me home. It hung there for a month!
She had prepared for my return. During the last days of the deployment, while I was in and out Iraq and Kuwait and onto the planes to fly through Europe—she was preparing the house for me to come home.
As I was traveling, every day I would wake up thinking about returning home—we both were counting the days.
Do you wake up every morning to the view of the rapture?
How do you have this view?
Our focal passage for this morning is from Psalms 5:3 which reads:
3 O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. (Psa 5:3 ESV)
“In the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you.”
Psalm 5 is a Psalm of David-many years before Jesus, when the Israelites still prepared sacrifices as a part of their worship. We no longer have to prepare these sacrifices because Jesus became our sacrifice.
This is important to remember. Before Christ, the priest would shed the blood of a lamb to pay the penalty for sin.
Hebrews 9:22 teaches us that:
22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. (Heb 9:22 ESV)
But, when Christ came to Earth, he died on a cross and became the lamb in our place.
Further down in Hebrews 9, the Bible says:
28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Heb 9:28 ESV)
It was with this idea that David says:
“In the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you.”
He was still living under the law of the sacrifice, but to us we are to reflect on this sacrifice in the morning.
Have you ever been digging through your old boxes and found an old high school yearbook?
You may be in the middle of unpacking following a PCS or just doing some Spring Cleaning and at the bottom of all your things is a book of memories from 20, 30, 40 years ago. Last year was my 30th Anniversary of my High School graduation.
When you look through that book, you are reminded of life as it was in high school. You can remember the teachers, the books, the lockers, the friends, the enemies, and the activities.
You naturally reflect on the good and the bad.
In the morning, you can reflect on what Christ has done on the cross for you. This begins with reflecting a moment on your sin—anything you think, say, or do—and then thanking God for his son who became your sacrifice.
This naturally leads you to remember the words of this song:
1 My opening eyes with rapture see
The dawn of Thy returning day;
My thoughts, O God, ascend to Thee,
While thus my early vows I pay.
2 O bid this trifling world retire,
And drive each carnal thought away;
Nor let me feel one vain desire,
One sinful thought, through all the day.
3 Then, to Thy courts when I repair,
My soul shall rise on joyful wing,
The wonders of Thy love declare,
And join the strains which angels sing.
—–
Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash