Tagged: Worship And Praise

Full Throttle Praise: Psalm 34:1-3, NLT

1 “I will praise the Lord at all times.
    I will constantly speak his praises.
2 I will boast only in the Lord;
    let all who are helpless take heart.
3 Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness;
    let us exalt his name together.”

Worship should be something we do all the time–it is a perpetual focus on the Lord God. David refers to a lifetime of continual praise. But what does this “look” like? How is this done? Is this realistic?

I would suggest that our definition should adjust to broaden “praise and worship.” If you think about it, praise and worship is far more than Sunday morning at your Church. (And yet that is a major part of it.) There must be an eagerness on Monday afternoon and on Tuesday morning.

Commentary

V. 1, “I will praise the Lord at all times.
    I will constantly speak his praises.”

“All times,” “constantly speak,” must elevate our standards of praise. There is a certain fervency, and desire that compels David in his approach to his life. I find it fascinating that he says twice, “I will.”  Sometimes we end up weakening the will seeing it as “bad Christianity.”

Our wills are simply “brothers” to obedience. We dare not extract will from our lives. There is an obedience, subject to faith that will allow us to become “fire Christians.”

V. 2, “I will boast only in the Lord;
    let all who are helpless take heart.”

This is a great verse! When we praise our Lord, do we boast? It is nothing more then “bragging” or “showing off” our God to a watching world. (And it’s entirely biblical!) This bragging in David’s context, belongs to God exclusively.

Being helpless suggests weakness understood. People will dismiss you if your weak and pathetic. David exhorts that those who are feeble and incapable, to take heart–God has not forgotten you, by no means.

V. 3, “Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness;
    let us exalt his name together.”

David was a shepherd long before he was a king. He never lost those skills from working out in the pasture. We see him gathering people, of bringing them for a common purpose.

Perhaps our gathering times could be strengthened, by these two vital words– tell and exalt. Both of these are potent words for a heart that is His.

ybic, Bryan

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Worship Always: Psalm 34:1-2

I will bless the LORD at all times;

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make its boast in the LORD;
The humble shall hear of it and be glad.  

–Psalm 34:1-2

This Psalm manuevers us to face the uncomfortable position of a mute discipleship.  This particular Psalm is written by David himself when he had to act insane before Abimelech, in order to escape the Philistine king.  However David writes of “blessing the Lord at all times”.

“All times” praise is a characteristic that is rare in this generation of men.  It appears that “all-times-worship” is contrary to the normal Christian experience.  You see, it’s easy to rejoice when things are good.  We worship well when the sun is shining, and birds are singing.  Our hearts dance in the springtime when we pick the first bouquet of wild flowers.

But it can get dark, the thunderstorms roll in, things just seem gritty and grimy.  We resort to play-acting (like David did) and covering up.  I think what ultimately saved David was his ability to praise “at all times”.  No matter how ugly things turned, David would be found with ”His praise continually in my mouth” (v. 2).

Seeing David’s brush with death should create within us a confidence that we too can overcome.  When we worship “at all times”, we realize a victory that is already won for us.  We begin to praise and mysteriously there are protective walls that surround us.  It’s like we walk into a spiritual sheath of love and grace.

A drastic and enveloping glory stands before us.  It may come as a shock but our Father God treasures us, and we are of considerable spiritual value to Him.  He sent out His Son into the night to find us and retrieve us when we were so lost.  Our enemies, who anticipated torturing and destroying our souls, are struck down by the fact that our hearts & mouths are full of praise and worship. This is simply contrary to reason.

No matter what happens; no matter what the struggle– worship, a continuous stream of praise, becomes part of our make-up, our character.  Yet when we worship at these devilish moments that come, we display the Glory and Power of God to the world.  Let us consider this– we were created to worship our Father.

ybic, Bryan

 

 

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