A Closer Walk
"Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord From this time forth and forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting The name of the Lord is to be praised," Psalm 113:1-3 NASB. During this time of pandemic it's possible we have been so focused on our day to day that we have neglected the praises we are instructed to offer to our Lord. We should praise the Lord. And we should praise the name of the Lord.
At the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak we discovered that our supple chain of toilet paper could be quickly overrun. Then other things began disappearing from store shelves; paper towels, facial tissue, wet wipes, hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, and so forth. On a couple of occasions the fresh meat case in one store was empty, or had limited selection. Even some of the frozen meats suddenly were in short supply. Meat processors began to close because some of their staff had contracted cases of the virus and their plants needed to be sanitized. But through all that our Lord provided for my beloved and me, and likely for you as well. We were never without. Although we may have been without exactly what we wanted. For example we had to buy a different brand of facial tissue than we normally purchased. We may have found a new favorite.
The dictionary defines praise as: to commend the worth of; to glorify. Praising is not asking for things or help. Praise is recognizing who God is and acknowledging that. Or put another way, praise is letting our God know that we know who He is and what He is. We may offer our praises through songs. There are numerous wonderful praise songs to sing. Ancient Israelite King David wrote many songs of praise to the Lord. We have many of them preserved today in the Bible book of Psalms. We may offer praises during prayer. We may even offer praises by reading God's Word back to him.
When are we instructed to offer praises to our Heavenly Father? “From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised.” All day every day we may praise the Lord. Any time of the day, or night, we may praise Him. We can praise Him sitting at home. We can praise Him driving down the highway. We can praise Him at work, or at school, or even at church. There are no limits as to time or place or situation or circumstance where we can praise the Lord. So, “Let's just praise the Lord,” as the Bill Gaither song says.
We could build a good case that praise and gratitude are connected; or even interwoven. We should thank our God for the many, varied, and abundant blessings He has already heaped upon us. We should remember to count our many blessings and see what God has done.
“Just the precious name of Jesus is worthy of our praise, Let us bow our knees before Him, our hands to heaven raise; When He comes in clouds of glory, with Him to ever reign, Let's just lift our happy voices, and praise His name. Let's just praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let's just lift our hearts to heaven and praise the Lord,” Bill and Gloria Gaither 1974.