I remembering being in Montreal once -- mercifully, only once!-- and meeting a woman there who was rather nasty when she discovered I was a Christian. Folks in Canada seem to have an ongoing competition war with Americans for some reason, and especially American Christians. So she says, apropos of nothing, "All these silly Christians going around praising God. Why do such a stupid thing?"
I responded, "Well, when you get up in the morning and you turn to your beloved, don't you ever say, 'You're the greatest! I love you'?" God must've helped me with that answer because she was immediately silenced. The psalmist says that brutish people don't know this love of God.
The thing is, praise naturally rises from the heart for anything we love. Just as snide cracks rise up instantly when we deal with something (or someone) we hate. Just as we naturally whine when we're in pain.
Of course sometimes we don't quite feel like praising. Yet, this psalm tells us it's a good thing to do. We must rejoice at what God is doing in our lives, even if we don't see it. We know God's character and God's Word. What God has said is truth. Not what we see, not what the doctors declare, but what God himself has proclaimed. This is where our victory comes: we praise God for what we know He is doing in our lives in spite of what we see because we know God's character.
Psalm 92
1IT IS A GOOD THING TO GIVE THANKS UNTO THE LORD, AND TO SING PRAISES UNTO THY NAME, O MOST HIGH:
2To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,
3Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.
4For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.
5O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.
6A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.
7When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:
8But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore.
9For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
10But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
11Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.
12The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;
15To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
I responded, "Well, when you get up in the morning and you turn to your beloved, don't you ever say, 'You're the greatest! I love you'?" God must've helped me with that answer because she was immediately silenced. The psalmist says that brutish people don't know this love of God.
The thing is, praise naturally rises from the heart for anything we love. Just as snide cracks rise up instantly when we deal with something (or someone) we hate. Just as we naturally whine when we're in pain.
Of course sometimes we don't quite feel like praising. Yet, this psalm tells us it's a good thing to do. We must rejoice at what God is doing in our lives, even if we don't see it. We know God's character and God's Word. What God has said is truth. Not what we see, not what the doctors declare, but what God himself has proclaimed. This is where our victory comes: we praise God for what we know He is doing in our lives in spite of what we see because we know God's character.
Psalm 92
1IT IS A GOOD THING TO GIVE THANKS UNTO THE LORD, AND TO SING PRAISES UNTO THY NAME, O MOST HIGH:
2To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,
3Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.
4For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.
5O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.
6A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.
7When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:
8But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore.
9For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
10But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
11Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.
12The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;
15To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
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