5 Jan 2018
Praise Continually
Psalms 34:1 I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
I feel there doesn't exist any person in this world who dislikes music. Our tastes may differ from classical to contemporary to country to fast to slow but all of us do love music. We play music and sing or make melody in our heart. But how many of us can sing whole day or even listen to music whole day? If you are like me then you may play music all day when you are alone or doing household chores . Or we may play music before we pray to prepare our hearts before the Lord. You know, one thing I observed is that there will be times when our heart becomes so hard that inside you feel the need to pour out your heart before God but somehow the heart keeps hardening and you cannot even pray. During those times if we start worshipping the Lord by singing songs or by playing music, then the emotions will start flowing and we will pour out our hearts before God. Music has the power to heal and has the power to even break a hard heart.
Recently I heard a popular speaker mention in his message that we should keep singing all through the day and he even added on a lighter note that we should even scold our family members as a song. (He meant it as a joke) It reminded me of what I shared with my niece about practicing to scold her with a smile on my face and I laughed out loud. I do not know if it is really advisable to scold others as a song but music, it definitely relieves tension. We all know that praise expels gloominess and sadness. Every time we feel discouraged or down if we start singing devotional songs and start praising God, automatically without us even realizing our hearts will be comforted and a kind of wonderful joy enters our heart.
In our today's verse David is telling that he will continually praise the Lord and bless Him all the time. He does not say bless the Lord when you are happy or praise when everything is going alright. In fact if we see the history of the psalm this psalm was written by David when he pretended to be insane in front of Abimelech, who sent him away. David was running for his life, he was hiding here and there as Saul pursued to kill him. Instead of feeling discouraged and angry at God David is praising God and blessing Him. David knew that everything, the good and bad it is the Lord who allows and that God is able to turn everything for his good. He trusted the Sovereignty of God and had faith in the goodness of the Lord. He trusted in the faithfulness of God and believed that if God has promised Him some thing then He will do it. He learned the art of encouraging himself in the Lord even when everyone turned against him.
You may ask, how will I praise God when my heart is so overwhelmed with pain. Start with this fact that God has blessed us with one more year to live. Praise him for the food, shelter and clothing he blessed us with. Praise him for the salvation and eternal life. And as you start counting your blessings and praise Him you will discover many more reasons to bless Him.
Dear ones, let this new year be a year of praise. And like the psalmist, let his praises be continually in our mouths too.
Please note when I mentioned music in the devotion above I was referring to Christian music