Direct It and Look Up

My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

Direct my prayer. The word means to arrange, to set in order, the way you lay out an offering deliberately rather than dropping it on the altar.

Much of our praying is unaimed. We talk in a general direction about a general worry and finish without ever having said the actual thing. Then we wonder why we cannot tell whether God answered — we never made a request clear enough to recognise the reply.

There is nothing unspiritual about being specific. A doctor cannot help a patient who will only say I feel bad. Naming the thing is not a lack of faith; it is the beginning of honesty.

Then the last two words: and will look up. Aim the prayer, then lift your eyes and expect. David does not fire and forget. He directs it, and then he watches the sky.