His Bountiful Care

One of the most oft-repeated songs in our house over the last year has been “O Worship the King”, thanks to my 7-year-old and our long-standing bedtime routine of a song of choice for each of the girls and a final from the hymnal. (If you don’t know this hymn, it’s worth a few minutes to read through the lyrics and/or listen to it a time or two.) Verse 3, in particular the opening line, catches my attention nearly every time I sing it: “Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?” The rest of the stanza proceeds to lay out the ways in which the Lord demonstrates His care throughout every day: in the air we breathe, in the light that illuminates our lives, the dew, the rain, and more. Recently though, it’s also brought to mind a couple verses from the Psalms: Psalm 105:1-2 say to make known His deeds and tell of all His wondrous works, but Psalm 106:2 queries, “Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord, or declare all His praise?” Both psalms continue on to speak of the Lord’s faithfulness and the well-known ways in which He cared mightily for His people, but truly no one can really declare all His praise or tell of all His mighty deeds.

I think we do ourselves a vast disservice by not speaking of His care more often. Most of the time, actually, we likely don’t even recognize it as we move about our day. Surely we can’t speak of what we don’t realize exists. The truth though is that we don’t frequently tell of the might of His awesome deeds even when we do accurately credit them to the Lord, and all too often, what isn’t shared is instead completely forgotten.

It would have been unheard of for an Israelite in the 10th century BC to not know how the Lord had preserved the ancient fathers in famine, brought them out of Egypt, rescued them from their enemies time and again, killed mighty kings on their behalf and subdued all the kingdoms of the Canaanites (to name a few of His mighty works). Part of what I hope and wish – yes, and pray too – for my friends and family is for the future “remember when” conversations to be about the Lord. “Remember when the Lord answered that prayer before you asked?” “Remember when the Lord sent you that friend at just the right time?” Remember when you cried out to the Lord in your distress and desperation, and He answered you? In order to remember when the Lord worked wonders, we have to recognize them as His strong and mighty hand when He first works them.

Lord, give us eyes to see, hearts to know and understand, and minds to recall Your goodness and faithfulness and care, in the small everyday moments as well as in the life-changing times.