We have friends on the Keto diet, others on a gluten free menu and a few going the sugar free path. Our get-togethers can be tricky if you’re the one trying to figure out what to serve so everyone will be happy. Though I am not a big fan (or even a little one!) of fancy diet plans I respect my friends even though I tease them sometimes. Now, diets are something we can be picky about but today’s verse tells us that we should be as choosy about what words come out of our mouths as what foods we put in them.
I don’t know what you are facing this morning or what fears stand in your path. This passage from Psalm 34 has been one of my go-to scriptures when I have felt overwhelmed by my own problems. I have found that after clinging to God’s words in the darkest situations that they become more precious and real the next time I face them. Have a blessed Sunday. No matter what is on your menu remember that you can still choose to bless the Lord. His daily bread is on your table and He sends it fresh out of Heaven’s oven every morning for you!
I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The Humble shall hear thereof and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together. Psalm 34:1-3 KJV
We won’t have read far into the Bible before we realize that our Sunday School hero; that giant killing boy named David, grew to be a man with plenty of moral failures. Yet in spite of his sins, weaknesses and mistakes, God tells us that David was, “A man after my own heart” Acts 13:22. What makes David so special? We could point to His courage as He faced the giant, His humility in the way He obediently continued taking care of sheep even after He had been chosen to be king or even His musical ability. Yet there are other people in the Bible who also had these characteristics, but what makes David unique is his legacy of praise. Praise is a part of our prayer life equally as important as intercession and without it we will just drift along between problems, wondering what crisis we will need to intercede for next. But if we like David, we begin to praise God when we get victory in battle, then God will also teach us to worship when we are being hunted down by people like the jealous King Saul. (See Psalm 52 and 63). And just as David worships when the ark is brought into Jerusalem, we ought to be praising in church. But David also worships after the death of his child who Bathsheba bore as a result of their adultery, and we he leaves us His heart-rending cry for forgiveness and renewal in Psalm 51.
Our real, honest to goodness legacy of praise is not just “Hip-Hip Hooray, I am so blessed!” when we are nicely dressed and singing in church. We hear David praise the Lord “At all times” even when those all times are hard times. Even in those times when we fail most miserably, we can turn to God in humble repentance and praise Him for His wonderful and undeserved mercies. In Psalm 118:24 David tell us that, “This is the day that the Lord hath made.” That means every one of our days is made by God. Our good days and our bad – successes and failures – our greatest celebrations and our deepest moment of grief all belong to God. But if we praise God at all those times, moment by moment and day by day we become more like the person most like God’s own heart – His Son Jesus Christ. And as His praise remains continually in our mouths, we leave behind for others a true legacy of praise.
I love the Mullett family’s rendering of “Though You Slay Me” and it gives us just a peek into their story and how the God who has kept them through it all is worthy of all our worship, our trust and our praise. I pray you will be blessed as you listen, and that God will help you with whatever you are facing today. He is always worthy of our praise!
First I would like to thank Beth Alisan for encouragement to make my poem “What if Joy? into a song. Personally I was skeptical as song writing and poetry are much entirely different at least for me. But the idea kept nagging at me. Finally, I sat down with the guitar, prayed and worked on a melody over the last couple of weeks. By the way, I highly recommend the blog that Beth writes – Lessons from a Lab – I have always admired the multitude of life lessons that she has passed on to us while walking Adi, her Labrador Retriever. You can find it at https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/163893015
So thanks Beth and I hope you like this simple song. Have a blessed day all and no matter what you are facing, stop and ask the question, “What if Joy is the path that God is making to see me through?”
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