Day 20 "Praise You"

So after reading the Psalms for today, I’m thinking that my last blog post about Justice and Mercy might better fit today, but oh wells. J  It’s the Last blog for Psalms! So I thought I’d let the Psalms speak for itself.

I believe that Wisdom grows with your relationship with God. “The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.” [Psalms 111:10] Reading through the Psalms has been an interesting adventure for me. It is hard to not skim past it and also not over analyse it, and some of the passages were repetitive or hard to read. I still haven’t found the best formula to reading it, but I personally found it quite helpful to listen to it through audio. I would sometimes listen to it while folding away my clothes or while reading it, and I’d gladly try listening to it with a morning jog. Also, I think verbalizing it through reading it out loud; praying with it, or blessing the congregation with reading a psalm before or during worship is also quite nice. It was interesting, too, to find how many famous songs with lyrics straight from the Psalms! I wonder if there is a copyright? J

            Imagine a telescope. When you look through it, you see big galaxies of stars, countless, beautiful, and awesome. And to think the God who created all of that, is my Friend, Father, and Savior?

 “Lord, what are human beings that you care for them,
    mere mortals that you think of them?
⁴ They are like a breath;
    their days are like a fleeting shadow.”

[Psalms 144:3-4]

            Now imagine a microscope. When you look through it, you see the details and complexity of the tiniest things. It is insane. One look at life and it’d take a whole lot of faith to think that there wasn’t a creator. This Psalm is amazing to read, which is why I posted this whole chunk here even though it makes my post seem really long :P

 “You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.”

“Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
    Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
    your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
    and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
    I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

[Psalms 139]

This Psalm is amazing to read, because it makes me awestruck that God is the only one who knows me for everything I am, my imperfections, ugliness, sin. He sees my innermost being, straight through the masks of conformity society has dressed me with. Why do I bother to hide anything from Him? I can carefully shape my identity, doing good deeds and charitable acts, and yet God knows my heart and mind! This is why He doesn’t care about the things we can do or the skills we have. Our futile strengths are matchless to His. He seeks the hearts of the pure.

“His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
¹¹ the Lord delights in those who fear him,
    who put their hope in his unfailing love.”

[Psalms 147:10-11]

Through our weakness, His strength is revealed. God always keeps His promises, so read His word and claim His promises! Through the battles and fights, persecution and taunting, our God is always there! He has promised to those who love Him, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”. Even when you don’t see Him, trust in His perfect timing and His faithfulness, and He will honor you.

“The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises
    and faithful in all he does.”

[Psalms 145:13b]

Our God is a great God, worthy of all praise and honor. It is lovely to see that the Psalms end with a song of praise. After all the challenges and difficulties the Psalmists faced, they still sang praises to the Lord. (Personally, I feel as though worship sessions in church should perhaps try that too, start with worship and end with praise!) When we praise God, it is an outward symbol of our inward trust and hope in Him. When we can sing in the midst of pain, to say “Lord you are good, and I trust you in whatever situation”, that is the best praise. This is why the Devil hates Praise songs! Because if we trust in the Lord’s Army, who can be against us?

”Praise the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary;
  praise him in his mighty heavens.

Praise him for his acts of power;
    praise him for his surpassing greatness.

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
    praise him with the harp and lyre,

praise him with timbrel and dancing,
    praise him with the strings and pipe,
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
    praise him with resounding cymbals.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.”

[Psalms 150]

Here is a song that I really like the lyrics to, "Praise You In The Storm" by Casting Crowns,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCpP0mFD9F0