Monday, March 10, 2014

Praise God At All Times


Psalm 108:1-4 and 13 - My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing and make music with all my soul.  Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.  I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies…

With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies.

 

David took 2 of his former works and blended them to write this Psalm.  Verses 1-5 are from Psalm 57 and verses 6-13 are from psalm 60.  As he struggled with a time that God was making him wait for deliverance from his enemies….his heart remembered two very important things about his God.  Even though he was in a low point of his life…he remembered to praise God for his love and faithfulness. He also remembered that God’s promise was to give him total victory over his foes.

 

It is easy to praise God when we are happy…when things in our life are going well…and his blessings are being enjoyed.  It is much harder to thank and praise him through a storm. Sometimes we forget in our prayers of rescue to God that we should be praying for complete victory. We let satan trick us into merely asking God to help us survive the storm…when we should be claiming his promise to give us hope for a great future.

 

Paul and Silas sure didn’t let satan trick them.  The full story of their prison lockup is found in Acts 16…but the part that shows they understood David’s words here in Psalm 108 rest in the praises and songs they were singing at midnight….while locked up in shackles…in the deepest darkest part of the prison.  They knew in their heart that God was not leaving them there for eternity…but had plans to save them and even the people around them that heard their praises to God.  The jailer’s family even got saved!

 

That gives me a whole new outlook on my petty problems of today…and even the saddest tragedies God has helped me walk through.  As he gives me strength to push forward and wait on the future he promised that would give me hope and prosper me…my praises to him while I wait will show others around me that God is in control. Makes me want to sing out loud in my empty house…but maybe I can keep the smile and joy going till I get to school.  May be a whole new way to enjoy a Monday instead of dreading it.

 

Father….thank you for the reminder that I need to praise you the most when life seems the darkest.  Help me to keep an attitude of joy and praise at all times…and always know that you have a plan…even when I don’t see it clearly at first.  Give me the strength that I need to wait on you…and praise you …and pray for total victory.  Give me complete success in all I do…not just let me exist to survive.  Amen.

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