“O Day of Rest and Gladness,” ELW 521 AND LBW 251
1 O day of rest and gladness, O day of joy and light,
O balm for care and sadness, most beautiful, most bright;
on you the high and lowly, through ages joined in tune,
sing, "Holy, holy, holy," to the great God triune.
2 On you, at earth's creation, the light first had its birth;
on you, for our salvation, Christ rose from depths of earth;
on you, our Lord victorious the Spirit sent from heav'n;
and thus on you, most glorious, a three-fold light was giv'n.
3 Today on weary nations the heav'nly manna falls;
to holy convocations the silver trumpet calls,
where gospel light is glowing with pure and radiant beams
and living water flowing with soul-refreshing streams.
4 New graces every gaining from this our day of rest,
we reach the rest remaining to spirits of the blest.
We sing to you our praises, O Father, Spirit, Son;
the church its voices upraises to you, blest three in One.
Devotion
Christians worship (primarily) on Sunday, the first day of the week. It is the day of Christ’s resurrection. It symbolizes the first day of creation. The hymn hails it as a “day of rest and gladness … day of joy and light … balm for care and sadness, most beautiful, most bright” (verse 1).
Whether or not this describes the reality of your Sunday is circumstantial. But coming as it does at the beginning of the week, and not the week’s end, the day is intended as a time of spiritual focus, an invocation for the six days which follow.
On Sunday, as we gather for worship, we begin our week by projecting our needs and hopes upon the Father, Spirit and Son: that in the blest Three in One, the object of our worship, we may find the rest and gladness, joy and light, healing and comfort that we and our nation need.
Prayer
God, we ask for your blessing upon this day that, trusting in you, we may confidently face the challenges and burdens of the days that lie ahead. Amen.