Hearken O Daughter!
Hearken O Daughter, consider and incline your ear; forget your own people also, and your father”s house. For the King has greatly desired your beauty. Because He is the Lord, worship Him. Psalm 45: 10,11
From not long after I was saved, I heard the call of God to serve Him. I was not certain where or how I would serve Him, but I knew I should train to be a nurse. After working there some years, it was time to go and study towards that end, but at that time I was uncertain how my father would react to that news.
I needn”t have worried as when I chose to speak to him about it God had already prepared him and given him this verse to pass onto me. I am sure I had read it before, but suddenly, it took on a new meaning.
I was humbled that my family realized that bringing kids up to serve God and let them go, was much more important than holding us close and watching us grow older. I was relieved to have the blessing of my parents as I went on with God.
But even more important, I was amazed as I looked again at this Psalm and saw the glories of the Messiah with His Bride. If I had seen the passage written without a reference, I would possibly have thought it was from the Song of Solomon, as it is such a ballad of love.
This thought is not only for women as Jesus calls the church His Bride, referring to everyone who has been saved by His Grace. Imagine! the King of heaven desires each one of us. He sees us as beautiful no matter how young, how old, what shape, size or color.
He loves us with a love enough to die for us. No matter who we emulate on earth, it is unlikely they would be prepared to die in our stead!
He wants us to listen to what He has to say and follow after him.
“Hearken”, means much more than just listen. It means to “listen intently, with a will to obey.” This is the kind of listening we use when waiting for an important, longed for phone call, listening for a child”s cry in the night when they are unwell. Listening with your full attention, ready to move when called!!!
How often do we rush through our time with God and if we do listen it is not even expecting Him to speak and certainly not with the expectancy of getting an answer! We do miss out such a lot in our busyness!
Just in case we did not get the full meaning of hearken, the Psalmist goes further. “Consider” Ponder it! Think carefully about it! When the Lord does speak to us we should carefully consider what He is saying and the great privilege we have of having an audience with and being spoken to by the almighty King of heaven.
Not only hearken and consider, but “incline your ear.” How very often do we talk to someone whom we know is not listening and when we really want to listen to a conversation, we stop whatever we are doing and turn towards the speaker to hear every word.
We have a dog staying with us at the moment and when he wants to hear what we have to say, he turns his ear in the direction of the voice. But if he is enjoying his freedom outside and doesn”t want to respond to the call or whistle to come inside, he keeps the head down and pretends not to hear.
I know we often do that with each other, but it is sad to realize that we sometimes do it with God too! Think about how closely a newly married couple listen to what each other has to say!! Jesus loves us even more than that and yet we often ignore His voice when we do not want to obey!
Today, let us listen carefully and obey joyfully knowing that we are full accepted in the beloved, loved with an everlasting love and serving the King who has made each one of us desirable in His sight!!