Focus: Poised For Praise (Pt.1)

Text: Ps.145:2

"Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy Name for ever and ever."

Psalm 145 is a psalm of praise ascribed to king David. So here is David praising, not David praying. Here is Israel's king praising his God, who he acknowledges as the King in the first verse of the psalm. This psalm is regarded as one of the post-exilic psalms. That means it was one of David's psalms sung by those who had returned home from exile. They were back from a strange land where they had been reduced to slavery, and resettled in their ancestral home of Canaan. They sang this psalm as the redeemed of the Lord. 

In Exodus 14, we read of God redeeming Israel from the Egyptian bondage. In Exodus 15, we read of Israel singing to the Lord the song of redemption. Moses wrote, "THEN SANG Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea" (Ex.15:1). Mark the word 'then' and the word 'sang.' They take us back to Exodus 14:30-31, which says, "Thus the LORD SAVED Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel SAW the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. And Israel SAW that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people FEARED the LORD, and BELIEVED the LORD, and his servant Moses." They sang because they had been saved from slavery. 

It is the same for the believer in Christ Jesus. Peter writes, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the PRAISES of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1Pet.2:9). 

The believer in Christ sings the praises of God. He shows forth the excellent qualities of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Psalm 145 is a personal psalm. An individual is making melody to the Lord. He says, "Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy Name for ever and ever."

The 'I' is emphatic. It is not 'we' or 'they,' but 'I.' I will bless the Lord; I will praise His name. It is personal. He waits for no one before he praises his God. He needs no props to praise his God. Be the day rainy or sunny, he will bless the Lord! Be the weather fair or foul, he will praise the Lord.

He has employed and deployed himself to praising God. It is his personal desire, decision and determination to praise his God, regardless of what life may throw at him. In good or bad days he will sing praises to his God.

It is every day praise. The psalmist says in Psalm 119:164, "Seven times a day do I praise thee…" It is daily praise. Seven times a day he praises his God. That speaks of perfect praise. Every day praise is going up to God by one man. In season and out of season he is busy praising God. Praising God is his daily routine and lifestyle. 

Our future depends on what we do routinely or daily. That which we are in the habit of doing determines what our tomorrow will be.

He makes praising God his daily business and eternal enterprise. His whole existence is organized around praising God. He is a dedicated and devoted praiser or a practitioner of praise. He makes praising God his eternal job. He praises God both with his lips and by his life.

Praising God, for the believer in Christ, will never become a past tense, but rather a present tense continuous. It will never become something he does as a pass time, or a part time thing. It is something he does for a lifetime. Praising God is the main thing about his entire existence. His whole life is predicated on his personal, private and public devotion to God. As long as he lives, he will bârak and hâlal the Lord. He will broadcast the name of his God. He will publicize his God.

His God is too good to hide. His God is too nice and too kind to be kept away from others. His God is good news to the ears of those who care to listen.

He says, "I will praise his name…" God's name stands for God Himself. His name speaks of His nature and character. His name speaks of His identity and reputation. The believer in Christ praises God for His words and works, but most importantly for who He is. One song says, 'This kind of God, I have never seen.' He is God all by Himself: self-existent, self-revealing and eternally unrivaled. There is no one like Him in the whole universe.

Interestingly, the believer in Christ knows who God is by what He has done and by what He still does. He is not a relic of history; He is the believer's contemporary and "a very present help in trouble" (Ps.46:1). His name is holy, great, excellent, and glorious.

Child of God, make praising God your daily job! Get yourself employed in this daily and eternal enterprise of praising God. Desire it! Decide it! Determine it! Do it! Be diligent about it! 

Discipline yourself enough to keep doing it regardless of all the distractions of life. Understand that praising God is more than an activity; it is more of a mental attitude, a disposition of the heart, and a spiritual orientation.

Make praising God your everlasting profession. A believer is jobless if he is not praising God. Praise the Lord at all times and by all means. Praising God is the business of heaven, and it neither closes nor goes out of fashion. The redeemed of the Lord praises God his redeemer for time and eternity. It is unstoppable and courageous praise.

Amid life's twists and turns the believer in Christ keeps praising God. He trusts in the character and promises of God and sings amid all contrary winds and opposing voices. Whether things are going his way or not, he praises his God all the same. It is said of Berber, the Turkish Mongul conqueror of Northern India, "He marched to conquest as to the light, his face turned towards the world of spirits." Like the psalmist, the believer in Christ says, "I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth" (Ps.34:1). Amen!!!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter