Can You Still Praise Him?

I have been reading a book that is a good book, called We Be Big, The mostly true story of how two kids from Calhoun County, Alabama became Rick and Bubba.  It's mostly an autobiography of these two men and how they became radio personalities.  One of them talks about the birth of their son and how his wife and the baby almost died.  As we walked out to tell his family that everything was okay, he yelled how great God was at that moment.  But then he heard, if they had died, would I have been less great?  What words!  When we are high on that mountain with life being good and everything going our way it is so easy to say God is good.  But it's in those lowest points that we have to question ourselves about our faith.

I do not think it is a question we want to ask ourselves, but something that we need to evaluate maybe after the worst is pass.  And you will know when that is.  Maybe it will be a few months after the crushing blow of losing a loved one, or your job.  Maybe it's after the dust settles and the treatment is starting to work.  It could just be the blahs.  But whatever it was that took you to a dark, sad place, can you still say the words to Psalm 92?

Psalm 92
It is good to praise the LORD
   and make music to your name, O Most High,
² proclaiming your love in the morning
   and your faithfulness at night,
³ to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
   and the melody of the harp.  ⁴ For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD;
   I sing for joy at what your hands have done.
⁵ How great are your works, LORD,
   how profound your thoughts!
⁶ Senseless people do not know,
   fools do not understand,
⁷ that though the wicked spring up like grass
   and all evildoers flourish,
   they will be destroyed forever.
 ⁸ But you, LORD, are forever exalted.
 ⁹ For surely your enemies, LORD,
   surely your enemies will perish;
   all evildoers will be scattered.
¹⁰ You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox;
   fine oils have been poured on me.
¹¹ My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries;
   my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.
 ¹² The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
   they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
¹³ planted in the house of the LORD,
   they will flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴ They will still bear fruit in old age,
   they will stay fresh and green,
¹⁵ proclaiming, “The LORD is upright;
   he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

How Do You Praise?

Sometimes we just need to clap, cheer, sing, stomp our feet and praise God in a not-so-traditional way.  And by "not-so-traditional way", I mean opposite of what you usually do.  In our church, most (not all) people (me included) stand there, sing and depending on the song, may clap.  A lot of people don't.  I stand in front of the congregation, helping to lead singing and sometimes wonder if these people ever are led by anything.

My dad will close his eyes when he wants to get to the meat of the song, or if it is his favorite song.  One person in our group will at times, raise her hands toward heaven.  I will sometimes clap.  The clapping, hand waving, smiling, seems unnatural at church to some.  We want to keep it reverent, quiet, subdued.  What we sometimes fail to realize is that the Israelites didn't do that.  They sang, danced, jumped, yelled and celebrated.  Look at the things King David did.  He danced before God, he led parades, he sang and played instruments.  Did God accept him less because of this?  No.  He doesn't accept you less if you do what you feel comfortable with in praising and worshiping Him.  So, don't feel bad if you are the only one in the group holding your hands heavenward, or clapping along with a peppy tune. 

Psalm 47 would be a good peppy song.  I can just hear (in my head) the song leader singing fast and hitting a tamborine in rhythm with this song.

¹O clap your hands, all peoples;
         Shout to God with the voice of joy.
    ²For the LORD Most High is to be feared,
         A great King over all the earth.
    ³He subdues peoples under us
         And nations under our feet.
    ⁴He chooses our inheritance for us,
         The glory of Jacob whom He loves. Selah.
    ⁵God has ascended with a shout,
         The LORD, with the sound of a trumpet.
    ⁶Sing praises to God, sing praises;
         Sing praises to our King, sing praises.
    ⁷For God is the King of all the earth;
         Sing praises with a skillful psalm.
    ⁸God reigns over the nations,
         God sits on His holy throne.
    ⁹The princes of the people have assembled themselves as the people of the God of Abraham,
         For the shields of the earth belong to God;
         He is highly exalted.

I woke up!

Psalm 7

   O LORD my God, in Thee do I put my trust. Save me from all them that persecute me; and deliver me,
 ²lest they tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces while there is none to deliver.   
 ³O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there be iniquity on my hands,   
 ⁴if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy),   
 ⁵let the enemy persecute my soul and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honor in the dust. Selah   
 ⁶Arise, O LORD, in Thine anger; lift up Thyself against the rage of mine enemies, and awaken for me the judgment that Thou has commanded.   
 ⁷So shall the congregation of the people compass Thee about; for their sakes, therefore, return Thou on high.
 ⁸The LORD shall judge the people: Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to mine integrity that is in me.   
 ⁹O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just; for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.   
 ¹⁰My defense is of God, who saveth the upright in heart.   
 ¹¹God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.   
 ¹²If he turn not, He will whet His sword; He hath bent His bow and made it ready.   
 ¹³He hath also prepared for Him the instruments of death; He ordaineth His arrows against the persecutors.
 ¹⁴Behold, the wicked travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief and brought forth falsehood.   
 ¹⁵He made a pit and dug it, and has fallen into the ditch which he hath made.   
 ¹⁶His mischief shall return upon his own head; and his violent dealings shall come down upon his own pate.
 ¹⁷I will praise the LORD according to His righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.   

 Have you noticed that most Psalms start with praise to God and end with Praise to God?  No matter what is said in the middle, they start and end with praises.  Maybe starting your day and ending your day with a praise to God will give you a different attitude.  They say that if you are going to reprimand someone, there should be more positives than negatives.  I am probably the worst at that.  I try to make things positive, but always it comes out wrong and makes people upset.
This Psalms talks about the wicked and how God is going to judge them and what he will do to them.  The writer admits something he has done and I think is trying to come to terms with his sin.  He wants to distinguish himself as not one of the wicked, though.  He wants to be on the side of righteousness (verses 9 & 10).
No matter what will happen, the writer praises God and sings to him.  In your darkest hours, do you praise God?  Do you start with a praise to him on your lips?  I'm reading a story about these people who go out to the homeless in Fort Worth, TX.  The came across this one person who, every time they see him is always smiling.  He was asked why he smiled so much and his answer was that he woke up that morning.  How I take for granted just waking up!  If a homeless man can be happy about that, what much more should I be joyful about?

Earth Day 2010

Today, driving in to work, I heard that it is Earth Day.  What comes to mind when you hear or heard this?  First I think, shouldn't every day be a day we recognize and try to better the earth/environment?  Do you recycle?  I recycle cans and glass.  At work, we have a guy, who every Friday, recycles all the paper we throw in a few boxes and dumps them in a recycling container somewhere on the premises.  Jokingly, the first time I saw him do that, I called him Recycle Man.    I told him he needed a green cape with a big letter R on it.  So now, every Friday as he walks past my desk, he says, "Recycle Man.  Recycle Man."

It is nice to take a few minutes to think about the earth.  But what I like to think about most is the verses in the Bible where it says that the earth will praise God.

Psalm 66:1
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth;

Psalm 69:34
Let heaven and earth praise Him,The seas and everything that moves in them.

 Psalm 100:1
Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.

Psalm 148:13
Let them praise the name of the LORD,For His name alone is exalted;His glory is above earth and heaven.

And of course there is the praise song we all love, Shout to the Lord, by Darlene Zschech.  The chorus goes: 

Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing

Power and majesty, praise to the King.

Mountain bow down and the seas will roar

At the sound of Your name.

I sing for joy at the works of Your hands.

Forever I'll love you, forever I'll stand

Nothing compares to the promise I have in You.

Earth Day is okay, but I like that the earth and all within it praises God.  A much better scenario in my opinion.

Praise the Lord

For me this is the last week of summer hours. Hooray! I stated earlier that I do not care for this schedule. Even getting off at noon on Fridays did not seem to make up for working four days of nine hours each. I think it will be easy to slide into regular hours because this will be the last half Friday I will work and then next Monday is Labor Day. So that will be nice.

Yesterday I was reading Psalms and found Psalms 149, as I am thinking about choir practice and everyone singing. This passage talks a lot about singing and praising God.

Praise the LORD!
Sing to the LORD a new song,
And His praise in the congregation of the godly ones.
Let Israel be glad in his Maker;
Let the sons of Zion rejoice in their King.
Let them praise His name with dancing;
Let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and lyre.
For the LORD takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.
Let the godly ones exult in glory;
Let them sing for joy on their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
And a two-edged sword in their hand,
To execute vengeance on the nations
And punishment on the peoples,
To bind their kings with chains
And their nobles with fetters of iron,
To execute on them the judgment written;
This is an honor for all His godly ones.
Praise the LORD!

That is what I love to do the most; Praise the Lord! He has been so good to me and my family. I want to give back what I can for him and singing is one way I do it. I hope that you can find your own way to praise God. Whether you use your singing voice, do random acts of kindness, tell others about God, I hope you do it.

Praise - June 16, 2009

If it wasn’t for God I would have nothing.
If it wasn’t for God, I would be nothing.
If it wasn’t for God, I could do nothing. Praise His holy name!

Surely I depend on Him for all my needs.
Surely I call on His name to always take the lead.
Surely I fall to my knees and cry Holy! Holy! Holy!. Praise His holy name.

The world has assaulted my senses.
The world has besieged my mind.
The world tries to change my thinking, but I can only Praise His name.

If it wasn’t for God, I would have nothing.
If it wasn’t for God, I would be nothing.
If it wasn’t for God, I could do nothing. Praise His holy name.

Psalm 103: Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name.