The verses after that call us to praise God for things He has done. The psalmist recounts some of the things God did for Israel, but all of us should be able to make a list of things that God has done in our lives.
This is a good example of how we should praise God first because He alone is worthy of all praise. And then we should praise Him because of the things He has done for us.
In the third section the psalmist tells about testing and trials that God brought them through and how they came out better in the end. "we went through the fire and water, but You brought us out to abundance."
In the fourth section are verses of commitment to follow through on promises made to God. The fifth section is another testimony of God answering prayer. It has an often quoted verse 18 "If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear"
Throughout this psalm we see praise to God for who He is, for what He has done - even for the tests of life. And through it all the psalmist says
"May God be praised! He has not turned away my prayer or turned His faithful love from me."
I hope you'll look for reasons to praise God today. Let this psalm be a guide for you.
1 comment:
A lot of good stuff in this one! The last verse about "if I regard wickedness/malice in my heart, God will not hear" I've heard many times.
One thing that jumped out at me was verses 13 and 14: "I will pay thee my vows, which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble." How many times we cry out and make promises to God - "If you will _________, I'll ______" and I'm sure we each have things we can fill in. But how many times do we fall back on keeping that promise? I'm sure we all remember how focused the country was on God right after 9/11. Didn't take long to go back to "normal."
During one personal tragedy that I had in my life, I asked a good friend who had been through something similar "will I ever look at life the same again?" I hope the answer is "no", that I will take some of the lessons I've learned and realize how good God is, and praise Him, no matter what.
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