Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD. The LORD is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!
Psalm 118:26–27, ESV
As we prepare our hearts for Easter morning, we feel the elation of the season coming upon us. However, we must remember the pain and the suffering that comes prior, and was necessary for us to know the fullness of joy. When the psalmist wrote these words, it wasn’t written from a place of only good things but out of a memory of so much pain that led to God’s deliverance of the people. The journey since the Fall of all humanity in the Garden has not changed, only God’s method of delivery has been perfected, and over the days of Holy Week, we remember the final steps of this journey. We see the final sacrifice, the Lamb of God, bound and brought to the altar in the form of a cross. On this, our Lord was lain, and we hear the cries, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” The sound of the scourge striking its lashes and the clank of the hammer against the nails. In Him, we have our salvation. In Him lies all hope and promise. We watch as He takes His final breath, and darkness falls upon the land. Yet, today we celebrate, for we know what comes out of this time. We know that our redemption is at hand.
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.