Every day, I will praise You

Every day I will praise You, Lord.

David, the Psalmist, makes this commitment in Psalm 145… daily praise, and even forever praise.  (verse 2)

Even though David was well aware that some days are tougher than steel and colder than ice.  Even though he knew that pain is real and piercing and that loss is inevitable and wrenching, and that there are moments when it’s all you can do just to breathe, David chose to say, “Yes!” to praise.

WHY?
Why choose to praise when there are days that we want to shout, with every fiber of our being, “No!  Oh, please, no… Lord, no.” ???

Read on, and look for David’s reasons (and for your reasons, too) in Psalm 145.  Then, let us think about this together.

Psalm 145

A psalm of praise. Of David.

¹ I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
² Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.

³ Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.
⁴ One generation commends your works to another;
they tell of your mighty acts.
⁵ They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty—
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.^[b]
6 They tell of the power of your awesome works—
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
⁷ They celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

⁸ The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.

⁹ The Lord is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made.
¹⁰ All your works praise you, Lord;
your faithful people extol you.
¹¹ They tell of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might,
¹² so that all people may know of your mighty acts
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures through all generations.

The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises
and faithful in all he does.^[c]
14 The Lord upholds all who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.
¹⁵ The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.
¹⁶ You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and faithful in all he does.
¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
¹⁹ He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.
²⁰ The Lord watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

²¹ My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.
Let every creature praise his holy name
for ever and ever.

So, what are the reasons that David gives for his daily praise?

1.  The Lord is great.
He is great… far beyond our understanding.   (So, when we don’t understand… He is still great.)

“His greatness no one can fathom.” (3b)

2.  The Lord is worthy of praise.
A fact is a fact… no matter how we are feeling.  He is worthy.  Period.

“Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise” (3a)

3.  The Lord has done incredible, mighty, awesome, wonderful things.
His creation and His recreation of our hearts and lives give us a glimpse, but we cannot begin to fathom all that the Lord has done.

⁴ One generation commends Your works to another;
they tell of Your mighty acts.

…and I will meditate on Your wonderful works.^{[ 5 b ]}

⁶ They tell of the power of Your awesome works—
and I will proclaim Your great deeds.

4.  The Lord is majestic in His splendor.
We cannot even imagine the majesty of the Lord.

Take all of the most beautiful, awesome, and wondrous things and places you have ever seen…
take the vastness of space…
take the intricate and amazing work in a creature as tiny as an ant…
take the most majestic, sparkling, costly royal splendor that mankind has ever been able to produce (with the minds that He created)…

All of that, together, is a part of His creative and majestic creation (which is also a revelation of who He is).

But all of it together,
from the microscopic to the humongous beyond belief,
and from the wonder of all living things to the beauty of every kind of ecosystem…

reveals only a fraction of His majesty.

⁵ They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty—
and I will meditate on Your wonderful works.

5.  The Lord is powerful.
If His works are powerful, how much moreso is He!  He made them.  They are just His creation, but He is the source of their power.

⁶ They tell of the power of Your awesome works—

6.  The Lord is abundantly good.
Everything good comes from His hand.  He made everything and pronouced it “good” because His original Creation, before mankind brought sin, reflected the goodness of its Creator.  He is good in every way that it is possible to be good.  His goodness is cause for celebration!  His is not a false goodness.  It is not pretense.  It is righteous goodness.  He does not show preference.  He is good to ALL.

⁷ They celebrate Your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of Your righteousness.

⁹ The Lord is good to all;
 He has compassion on all He has made.

7.  The Lord is righteous.
     He is not merely good… He is holy and righteous.  He will ultimately make everything right.  His goodness goes beyond what we know as goodness, because it is righteous.  It is totally pure… in love… in motivation.  There is no darkness in Him at all.  His righteousness produces joy. 

^7b and joyfully sing of Your righteousness.

¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all His ways
and faithful in all he does.

8.  The character of the Lord is tender toward us.

    a.  He is gracious
Full of grace, flowing continually out of His abundantly gracious character (who He is), God gives His grace without expecting us to earn or deserve it.  He gives His grace because He is gracious.

     b.  He is compassionate.
His compassion goes far beyond just caring about us.  His compassion motivated Him to give Himself completely in the person of Christ.  Compassion is caring that is deep enough to motivate a profound expression of love.

     c.  He is slow to anger.
The Lord is patient with us… much moreso than we are with one another, and even with our own loved ones.  Although He is deeply grieved by our every hurt and loss (compassionate), He remains patient with mankind, desiring to give us continued opportunity to turn to Him for salvation.

    d.  He is rich in love.
The love of the Lord is vast and immeasureable.  If the earth is His footstool and everything belongs to Him as Creator, He is certainly rich… but it is the limitless stores of his wealth of love that He longs for us to know.

How far would His love go?
From Heaven… to earth… to the cross… to death… and even to hell,
all to gain the victory for us over sin, hell, and death.

His love took our most hideous weakness and ugliness and enveloped it in the strength and everlasting power of His pure holiness, removing the stinking graveclothes of our sin and clothing us with His own righteousness.

⁸ The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.

⁹ The Lord is good to all;
 He has compassion on all He has made.

9.  His Kingdom is glorious and everlasting.
In order to have a Kingdom, one must be a King.  But His is not just any Kingdom, and He is not just any King.  He is the King of Kings, and His Kingdom is everlasting.  He can never be de-throned because He is the Lord of all, even of those who do not acknowledge Him.

¹⁰ All your works praise You, Lord;
  Your faithful people extol You.
¹¹ They tell of the glory of Your kingdom
and speak of Your might,
¹² so that all people may know of Your mighty acts
and the glorious splendor of Your kingdom.
¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and Your dominion endures through all generations.

10.  The Lord is trustworthy and faithful.
        He is good, so we can trust Him.  He is a keeper of promises.  He does not give up or quit.  He is faithful to keep His word, to remain unchanging, to finish all of the good works that He has begun, and to someday make everything right.

The Lord is trustworthy in all He promises
and faithful in all He does.^{[ 13 c ]} 

¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all His ways
and faithful in all He does.

11. The Lord is our Sustainer and the Giver of all good things.
Without the sustaining presence of the Lord in all of Creation, the needs of every living thing would not be met.

¹⁵ The eyes of all look to You,
and You give them their food at the proper time.
¹⁶ You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

12.  The Lord is our helper and our Savior.
He helps us get up when we fall and even holds us as we are falling.  He lifts up those who are bowed beneath a heavy load and brings joy to hearts that have been humbled or broken.  He is near.  He is with us.  He hears us when we call on Him in truth.  He fulfills our desires.  He hears our cries.  He saves us.  He watches over us.  He will someday remove us from the very presence of evil.  He is our loving and caring Shepherd.

¹⁴ The Lord upholds all who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.

¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call on Him,
to all who call on Him in truth.

¹⁹ He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him;
  He hears their cry and saves them.
²⁰ The Lord watches over all who love Him,
but all the wicked He will destroy.

  The Lord is close by, waiting for us to understand that we need Him and come into agreement with the truth about who He is and who we are. Then, when we see our need for Him and cry out, He knows that knowing Him, having His forgiveness, and living in fellowship with Him have become Him the desires of our heart. He hears our cry, and He saves us (when we have asked Him to come into our lives as Savior and Lord).

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David’s conclustion, in light of who God is,
is that he must commit himself to daily and eternal praise.

David begins the Psalm with this commitment and ends the Psalm with a restatement of his personal commitment to daily and eternal praise.

This is the final verse of Psalm 145:

²¹ My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.
Let every creature praise his holy name
for ever and ever.

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The notes on Bible Gateway about Psalm 145 tell us this interesting bit of information.  “This psalm is an acrostic poem, the verses of which (including verse 13b) begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.” 

This fact tells me that David was also communicating the fact that the Lord is the Alpha and Omega, worthy of praise from the beginning of time and throughout eternity, meeting all of our needs and sharing His love with all of mankind, keeping His promises and fulfilling His Kingdom with both awesome power and gracious, loving tenderness.

May every day become a day of praise.

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This post was written by Cynthia Boyd, with the inspiration of Psalm 145.
The NIV Scripture text was copied from Bible Gateway

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+145

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Do you know someone who is looking for answers?

Thank you for spending your valuable time reading the contents of this page. We hope that it has been helpful to you. If you or someone that you know is looking for answers about life, we hope that you will visit our page called “Do You Know Jesus?”. The links provided on this page will help to answer life’s deepest questions. Here is the link to “Do You Know Jesus?”: http://www.worshipsounds.wordpress.com/do-you-know-jesus/

Please feel free to share this URL with anyone who is looking for answers about life and eternity.

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Joy for Today

“This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”    Psalm 118:24

What does it mean to rejoice and be glad in today?

Here’s one definition of the word “rejoice”:  “animated with gladness, exhilarated, feeling joy” *

Pastors and Bible scholars often state that there is a difference between happiness and joy.  The writers at GotQuestions.org state their belief in this way:  “The Bible teaches that happiness is fleeting because it often depends on things outside of ourselves, but true joy is eternal because it is based on our relationship with Jesus Christ, which is itself an everlasting source of joy.”
Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/joy-happiness.html#ixzz2MbRweTBr

We shouldn’t be as focused solely upon happiness which is dependent on outward circumstances.  Our joy in the Lord is based on an internal constant – our relationship with Him.

What does the Bible say regarding joy?

1. *  Psalm 4:7 –  “You have filled my heart with greater joy.”
   God is the source and provider of joy in our lives.
3. *  Psalm 19:8 –  “The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.”
   God’s Word also brings joy to the life of the believer because it is right.

*  Psalm 92:4 –  “For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord; I sing for joy at the work of your hands.”
God’s mighty works can bring us joy as we consider His mighty power, His creativity, and His kindness.

*  Acts 16:34 –  “The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God – he and his whole family.”
Salvation brought joy to the Philippian jailer.

*  2 Corinthians 7:4b –   “…in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.”
Even in the midst of problems, we can have endless joy as we learn to keep our minds focused on God and his promises.

*  Galatians 5:22 –   “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.”
Joy is one of the evidences of our spiritual conversion and our relationship with Christ.

*  1 Thessalonians 1:6b –   “…in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy of the Holy Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit gives us joy, revealing God’s love and care for us in countless ways.

*  1 Thessalonians 5:16 –  “Be joyful always…”
We are commanded to always be joyful, a similar verse reminds us that we are “abounding in hope”.

*  James 1:2 –  “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.”
We should be joyful even when we face trials in life,  choosing joy in spite of circumstances.

– The scriptures about joy were taken from http://www.richchristianpoorchristian.com/2010/04/difference-between-happiness-and-joy.html

What does the Bible say about “today”?

“So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”   Hebrews 4:7
Although this verse probably referred to salvation (similiar to “today is the day of salvation”), we can also enter His rest by choosing to spend time in meditation and prayer.  As we allow God to specak to our hearts, we have chosen His rest rather than choosing to harden our hearts by allowing worry or doubt to take hold.

“Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.”    Exodus 14:13
The Egyptians had been the captors of the children of Israel and then became their pursuers, intending to punish them and take them captive once more.  Moses encouraged the people to believe and to trust firmly in God’s deliverance.  After all that God had already done in sending the plagues on Egypt to secure the release of His people, He was not going to allow them to be re-captured and enslaved again.  What holds you captive and pursues your heart?  God has promised delieverance to those who will stand firm and trust him.

“I am making this covenant both with you who stand here today in the presence of the LORD our God, and also with the future generations who are not standing here today.”   Deuteronomy 29:15
God was always thinking of us.  Though we had not yet been born, we were in His heart.  His covenant and His promises are for us!  As the Psalmist said, “What is man that You are mindful of him?”  And yet, He is.  YOU are on God’s mind and in His heart.

“For he says, ‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’  I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”   2 Corinthians 6:2
Isn’t it incredible the lengths to which God has gone to show His favor to us and to offer us salvation.  He did not withhold His only Son.  He loved us while we were yet sinners.  He sent the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts and speak to our hearts to call us to Himself.  When you have already said “yes” to God’s salvation, you are the apple of His eye.  His favor rests on you.  This is not just the favor of an earthly King.  God’s favor is the merciful and loving goodness of the King of all creation!

“The Sovereign LORD has given me His words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary. Morning by morning, He wakens me and opens my understanding to His will.”   Isaiah 50:4
God has given us His word, full of promises, assurance and comfort.  He gives us His peace when we fix our minds upon Him.  He opens our minds to the understanding of the eternal, even when the temporary circumstances of our lives seem overwhelming or even hopeless.  He sends others to strengthen and encourage us, working in their hearts as well so that they may know how to comfort us; and sometimes He allows us to be the one with words of comfort or just a comforting presence for others.

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”   2 Peter 3:8& 9
Never forget God’s patience and His complete understanding.  He is not slow to hear your prayers.  He is patient.  Unlike us, he is not prone to act hastily or unwisely.  There is time…an eternity of time…for God to make everything right and to wipe away all sorrow, giving us the incredible, eternal gift of being present with Him in Heaven, where the joy and delight will be beyond anything we can imagine and will never end!

“This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”   Psalm 118:24
Today, we can rejoice and be glad!  We have a loving God who is a keeper of promises.  He is patient, kind, merciful, and good.  He cares about everything in our lives.  He is the God of all comfort.  He saw our need and sent His only Son to provide salvation.  He is preparing a place in heaven for you!  As Babbie Mason’s song, “What Can Separate You (From the Precious Love of God)” says, “To give you life forever, He left no stone unturned“.  He is the lover of your soul and the keeper of your heart.

“In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.”   Psalm 5:3
May we choose to begin the day seeking God, knowing that He hears us.  May we wait expectantly for His work in our lives and on our behalf.  May we wait, trusting Him, and choosing joy in the waiting!

Dear friend, rejoice today; and be glad in the loving kindness of the one true God, whose mercy endures forever!

Here are the words to a brand new song by Travis L. Boyd.  This song is special and will bless a lot of hearts.  May it be a reminder of God’s love and care and the way He meets us where we are and surrounds us with His loving presence.
EARLY IN THE MORNING
by Travis L. Boyd

Early in the morning
When the night is gone,
Creation awakens
To welcome the dawn.

Early in the morning
At the break of day,
Your glory shines forth
In the beautiful world You have made.

Early in the morning,
When I bow in prayer,
Your presence surrounds me.
I rest in Your care.

Early in the morning,
When I speak Your name,
Your peace overwhelms me.
My soul must proclaim…

Hallelujah, Amen!
Hallelujah, Amen!

(bridge)
Morning by morning,  Your mercies are new.
Lovingly, You guide my way.
Moment by moment, You shepherd my soul,
Giving me strength and  fulfilling my days.

Early in the morning,
I will lift my voice
To worship and praise You,
My soul must rejoice!

Hallelujah, Amen!
Hallelujah, Amen!
Hallelujah!  Hallelujah, Amen!

(copyright Travis L. Boyd, Worship Sounds Music)
Available on the Worship Sounds Music website at http://www.worshipsounds.com

* The definition of “rejoice” near the beginning of this post is from http://av1611.com/kjbp/kjv-dictionary/rejoice.html

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This post was written and compiled by Cynthia A. Boyd, with song lyrics written by Travis L. Boyd.

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Here is a link to a video of Babbie Mason’s beautiful and comforting song,
“What Can Separate You (From the Precious Love of God)”

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=1MECJNNU

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Looking for answers for yourself or for a friend?

Thank you for spending your valuable time reading the contents of this page.  We hope that it has been helpful to you.   If you or someone that you know is looking for answers about life, we hope that you will visit our page called “Do You Know Jesus?”.   The links provided on this page will help to answer life’s deepest questions.   Here is the link to “Do You Know Jesus?”:  http://www.worshipsounds.wordpress.com/do-you-know-jesus/

Please feel free to share this URL with anyone who is looking for answers about life and eternity.

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