A reading of Anglican priest Robert Hawker’s (1753–1827) morning devotional writings from “The Poor Man’s Morning and Evening Portion.”
The music for this reading is “Bald Eagle” by Chad Crouch and was adapted for length under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Then went King David in and sat before the Lord. And he said, Who am I, O Lord God! and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? And is this the manner of man, O Lord God?—2 Sam. 7:18-19.
The language of David, under the overwhelming views he had of divine goodness as it concerned himself, is suited to the case of every child of God, as he may trace that goodness in his own history. Surely every awakened soul may cry out, under the same impressions, “Who am I, O Lord God! and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?” My soul! ponder over the sweet subject as it concerns thyself. Behold what manner of love the love of God is from the manner of man! View it in each Person of the Godhead. What is the highest possible conception any man can have of the love of God our Father to us? Was it not when, as an evidence of the love he had to our nature, he put a robe of that nature, in its pure and holy state, upon the Person of his dear Son ; when he gave him a body in all points such as ours, sin only excepted, that he might not only in that body perfect salvation, both by his obedience and death, but also that he might be our everlasting Mediator for drawing nigh to the Godhead, first in grace, and then in glory? Tell me, my soul, what method, in all the stores of omnipotency, could God thy Father have adopted to convince thee of his love, as in this sweet method of his wisdom. God intimates, by this tender process, that he loveth the human nature which he hath created. And though, to answer the wise measures of his plan of redemption, he hath not as yet taken all the persons of his redeemed up to his heavenly court, yet he will have their glorious Head, their Representative, there, that he may behold Him, and accept the whole church in Him, and love them and bless them in him, now and for ever. O my soul! if this view of thy Father’s love was but always uppermost in thine heart, what a ground of encouragement would it for ever give thee, to come to thy God and Father in him and his mediation ; who, while he is one in the divine nature, is one also with thee in the human, on purpose to hid thee come. And as for thee, thou blessed Jesus! thy love and thy delights were always with thy people. From everlasting thy tendencies of favour have been towards them; thine whole heart is ours. All thy grace, in being set up as the Covenant-head for us, and all the after-actings of the same grace in time; all that thou didst then, and all that thou art doing now—all, all testify the love of our Jesus. And may I not say to thee, thou dear Redeemer! as David did—“Is this the manner of man, O Lord God?” Yes! it is; but it is of the Glory-man, the God-man Christ Jesus.; and no less, thou Holy Spirit, whose great work is love and consolation. What a thought is it to warm my soul into the most awakened contemplation and delight in the view-of thy love, that though thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, yet dost thou make the very bodies of the redeemed thy temples, for thine indwelling residence. My soul! do as David did: go in before the Divine Presence; fall down and adore in the solemn thought—“Who am I, O Lord God! and what is my Father’s house?”
