Prayers that bookend the night

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“Modeh Ani…” is the opening words of a prayer said by devout Jews before arising from bed each morning. Its full text is translated, “I offer thanks to You, living and eternal King, for You have mercifully restored my soul within me; Your faithfulness is great.”

Commending our souls to our Lord’s keeping through the night, thanking our Lord for keeping our souls while we sleep—two prayers, largely unknown to one another by those who pray them, both of them sharing the same concept of our Keeper’s care. I suspect that the One who Listens is as pleased with those who prays at evening as with those who prays at morning and is attentive to both. Mercy is given fresh each morning. Our loving Creator watches over and holds us through the night.

Both of these prayers, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep and Modeh Ani, are hopeful expression of Lamentations 3:22-23,

The Lord’s lovingkindnesses[2] indeed never ceases, Your compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

The discovery of this "other half” to my childhood prayer, a delightful "aha," expands my understanding beyond that of my younger self who prayed on knobby knees at bedside. In the synchronicity of these prayers, I recognize a larger view of the Keeper of our Souls. Prayers, after all, exist beyond the boundaries of religion, beyond our own understanding, beyond our particular circumstances. The One who Listens hears all who pray. Their prayers, like parts of an orchestra, combine in a grand and ongoing symphonic score that expresseshesed, the loving-kindness of both a Heavenly Maker and of we, the beloved ones, who, made in the image of the One who Creates, have the capacity to respond to that love with love and praise of our own.

"A divine song sings through all creation," says the Jewish book of prayer. What part of this symphony would the One who Listens not receive as prayer?

Maybe we, like our Creator, could learn to delight in the diversity of praise offered by all creation. Maybe we could listen with ears tuned to the "divine song." On the cusp of summer, this is my prayer for each and all. Amen. Amen. May it be so.

Maybe we, like our Creator, could learn to delight in the diversity of praise offered by all creation. Maybe we could listen with ears tuned to the "divine song." On the cusp of summer, this is my prayer for each and all. Amen. Amen. May it be so.

To learn more about Modeh Ani, click here:

Prayer...

How wonderful, O Lord, are the works of your hands!
The heavens declare Your glory,
the arch of the sky displays Your handiwork
In Your love You have given us the power
to behold the beauty of Your world
robed in all its splendor.
The sun and the stars, the valleys and the hills,
the rivers and the lakes all disclose Your presence.
The roaring breakers of the sea tell of Your awesome might,
the beast of the field and the birds of the air
bespeak Your wondrous will.
In Your goodness You have made us able to hear
the music of the world.
The voices of the loved ones
reveal to us that You are in our midst.
A divine voice sings through all creation.

Gates of Prayer The New Union Prayer Book, (Central Conference of American Rabbis) p. 651

Responses from Readers...