Awake, my soul! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn.
✙ Psalm 57:7-8 ✙
To be awake at sunrise and sing the psalms not only arouses the soul, but welcomes the day in a way that nothing else can, for, as Calvin put it, "one who is really awake to the exercise of praising God... will be unremitting in every part of the duty."
Eternal Father of my soul, let my first thought today be of thee, let my first impulse be to worship thee, let my first speech be thy Name, let my first action be to kneel before thee in prayer. Yet let me not, when this morning prayer is said, think my worship ended and spend the day in forgetfulness of thee. Rather from these moments of quietness let light go forth, and joy, and power, that will remain with me through all the hours of the day. Amen.
—John Baillie, A Diary of Private Prayer
