Praise Belongs: Reasons to Praise the Lordنموونە

Day 3 - Praise For God’s Faithfulness

Today, we wanted to start by sharing a quote from Tim Keller, “When Jesus Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane and the ultimate darkness was coming down on him and he knew it was coming, he didn’t abandon you; he died for you. If Jesus Christ didn’t abandon you in his darkness, the ultimate darkness, why would he abandon you now, in yours?”

Sheeeesh. Every time we read this, we are struck by the truth of his words. Can you relate? Have you ever felt like God has or is going to abandon you?

As children, so many of us are afraid of the dark. Did you ever fear for monsters under your bed or wake up when a storm knocked the power out, thus turning off your lamp? Us too.

Yet, as we grow older, we tend to start becoming more comfortable with tangible darkness and more fearful of the intangible darkness of a difficult world - spilling with trials and difficulties.

And sometimes, that darkness makes it really difficult to Praise God.

In Psalm 22, David writes, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” in the opening verse. If this sounds familiar, it’s probably because Jesus uses the same choice of words on the cross right before He died (Matthew 27:46). Verse 2 goes on to say, “My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, I find no rest.”

Not exactly a Psalm of praise, right? Like us, David experienced lows. He struggled to find reasons to praise the Lord. He spent most of his early life hiding to no fault of his own and some of his adult life reaping the consequence of his own deep sin. And in the midst of it all, he declared that God had forsaken him, and he wanted to know why.

Yet, by the end of this Psalm, David declares, “I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you.” (v. 22). So, what happens in between to turn his dejection into praise?

Hint, it had something to do with God’s wisdom and faithfulness! The Hebrew word for faithfulness is sometimes translated as “emet” and this word means “steady or certain”. In a dark world, we crave certainty and steadiness - and this is the character of our Lord and Father.

In between verse 1&2 and verse 22 - David makes various statements of God’s faithfulness, His steadiness. In verse 5, he talks about how the Lord never failed his ancestors when they put their trust in Him. In verse 9, David is reminded of how the Lord has been with him, guiding his faith journey since he was born. Later, in verse 24, David declares that God hears his cry like He has the cries of his ancestors.

David makes the choice to praise God for His consistency, His steadiness - His faithfulness. And we can do the same! Like verse 5, we can think of those before us that the Lord has taken care of when they trusted in Him. Like verse 9, we can praise how the Lord knit us in our mother’s womb! Like verse 24, we can remember that the Lord hears our cries because he heard David’s and thousands of others.

May your heart be encouraged and may you find a small reason to praise the Lord if today is feeling like a dark day. You’ve got this.

Take a moment to listen to “Praise Belongs” by CXMMXNS and go into the rest of your week with praise - despite circumstances!