If you’ve been reading my devotionals for a while, I’m sure you are as enraptured as I am with the photography of Michelle Robertson. Michelle is a friend and a member of my congregation who works in one of our local restaurants. She is not a professional photographer, and I bet that surprises you. Michelle is a faithful sunrise and sunset watcher and used to take pictures just with her cell phone. She had so many people respond to her glorious photos, she decided to invest in a “real camera.” It is undoubtable that Michelle has a gift for photography. You can see it in the way she naturally frames a great shot. Aren’t we all blessed by her work? And I am blessed that I don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn for great photos!

This psalm is a tribute to people who serve the Lord with such faithfulness, like Michelle does. She is up and out of her house every morning in all kinds of weather to capture such beauty, and she has been generous from the very beginning to allow her work to accompany my words. If you go back to my very first devotional, you will see that the picture is one of Michelle’s sunrises.

Psalm 113 (Common English Bible)

 Praise the Lord!
    You who serve the Lord—praise!
    Praise the Lord’s name!
² Let the Lord’s name be blessed
    from now until forever from now!
³ From sunrise to sunset,
    let the Lord’s name be praised!
⁴ The Lord is high over all the nations;
    God’s glory is higher than the skies!

Have you ever gone outside for sunrise or sunset just to look at the sky? We get some incredible sunsets on Colington Island, where I live, where the entire sky can suddenly become pink, orange, or red. But you have to stop what you’re doing and leave your house to fully see God’s majesty.

⁵ Who could possibly compare to the Lord our God?
    God rules from on high;
⁶     he has to come down to even see heaven and earth!

This next part is a tribute to the work God does on behalf of the people. As you read it, realize that it is our hands, feet, money, time, and talent that God uses to lift up the poor and the needy. Like Michelle’s camera, we are instruments that work in concert with God to pull mercy and grace into focus for all God’s children.
⁷ God lifts up the poor from the dirt
    and raises up the needy from the garbage pile
⁸         to seat them with leaders—
        with the leaders of his own people!

Finally, this last verse is nothing short of delightful. The psalmist says that God “nests” mothers with their children … once barren ones at that! It makes me wonder … what thing in your life is God ready to nest in you? What are you lacking that God can provide? Is it peace? Hope? Stability? Joy? We are invited to see God as a loving provider who is ready and able to meet even our most impossible need:
⁹     God nests the once barren woman at home—
        now a joyful mother with children!

Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord indeed!

The Sun Also Rises by Michelle Robertson