Praise Belongs: Reasons to Praise the LordSample

Day 1 - Praise For God’s Character

Do you ever struggle with praising the Lord? You look around at your life and while it’s not bad, it’s also not great. And deep down, you feel guilty because you know God is good - but man, what is there to really praise Him for?

You are not alone. In fact, we feel that way more often than we’d like to. The song “Praise Belongs” by CXMMXNS (pronounced “Commons”), is an offering of praise unto the Lord. The opening line states, “All the praise belongs to the One True God. We crown Him now with many crowns”. It’s a lovely lyric, but when praising the Lord feels like a struggle when we look at our life - we must challenge ourselves to look onto Him instead.

Psalm 7 was written by David in what is believed to be the period of time where he was in hiding from King Saul. If you aren’t familiar with this story, we encourage you to dive into 1 Samuel - but to summarize, King Saul had grown jealous of David after he succeeded in charge of the royal army and wanted him dead. In the midst of hiding, David is presumed to have written Psalm 7 - a song about the character of the Lord in times of trouble.

David is a great example of someone who’s life hardly looked like something worth praising. He was scared, on the run, and being punished unjustly. To put ourselves in his shoes - we may be scared about the state of the world around us. And sure, maybe we aren’t physically on the run - but instead, running from the trauma that keeps us up at night or running from friendships because our last one didn’t go so well. And maybe, just maybe, you lost your job unfairly. Or a parent passed prematurely. Or you failed that exam after studying all night.

If you have felt a little like a modern day David, you’re in good company. And yet, in the midst of ruin - David finds a reason to praise the Lord.

In Psalm 7:17, David says, “I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the LORD Most High.” It is his declaration of praise for the Lord and yet, it has nothing to do with the circumstances around him. Instead, it has everything to do with the character of the Lord; everything to do with what he knows is true about Him.

The Hebrew word that is used as righteousness in this verse is צֶדֶק (pronounced tseh’-dek). In addition to righteousness, the word can mean rightness or justice. In the midst of less than favorable or even comfortable circumstances, David praises the Lord, not because of what He has done, yet (or even will do) - but because he knows that the Lord is just. He knows that the Lord is the ultimate sense of rightness.

Our prayer today is that we may each take a moment to praise and thank the Lord for who He is - not just for what He does. If it feels as if not a lot has happened lately to bring forth praise, then we pray that the character of God will spur you to do so. He is praise-worthy because He is the one true God.

May we do as “Praise Belongs” says and crown Him with our praise, today & every day.

Amen.