Praise Belongs: Reasons to Praise the Lord

Scripture: Psalms 7:1-17

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.

Scripture: Psalms 13:1-6

Day 2 – Praise For God’s Provision

As we talked about yesterday, praising God is sometimes really difficult work. There are days where praise flows out easily from our lips and then days where our arms feel far too heavy to raise above our heads. And yet, we are still called to praise the Lord because He is deserving. If you are struggling with the belief that God is good and righteous – that’s okay! There are plenty of other reasons to praise Him. Today we want to explore praising God for the way He has cared for us before.

In the first verse of the song “Praise Belongs” by CXMMXNS, they sing, “He delivered us with an outstretched arm, His endless love has overcome.” The Lord is a deliverer and cares deeply for us in times of trouble and difficulty.

In Psalm 13, David writes from a place of deep pain. The opening lines are David confessing frustration with a lack of the Lord’s presence, “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (v. 1). Perhaps you may even feel the weight of this Psalm currently. You feel like the Lord isn’t present or that He is a God of forgetfulness. It’s okay to feel these feelings – but we encourage you to express them like David does!! He is honest with the Lord, fighting for vulnerability – even if it feels counter-cultural.

Similarly to Psalm 7, it is thought that this Psalm was written during David’s time hiding in the wilderness from King Saul. He would have been weary, exhausted, frustrated (after all – he did everything “right”) and burdened. But, in the midst of this suffering – Psalm 13 does not end here.

After David laments, he turns to praise. Despite everything he was going through, he ends chapter 13 with this, “But I trust…” (v. 5). BUT I TRUST!! What a declaration of faith, outside of circumstances. David may not have seen God’s goodness or His plan, but he chooses to trust anyway.

Verse 5 continues, “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the LORD’s praise, for he has been good to me,” (v. 5-6). While it may be hard to praise God for our present circumstances, especially if they look a lot like David’s did, we can, however, praise Him for what He’s done before. In the past, the Lord has been faithful. Not only has He saved us from death itself – but He has lavished us with good gifts since then.

Can you think of one way the Lord has shown up for you in the last 10 years? Here are some examples:

• Has the Lord blessed you financially?
• Has He healed a sick family member?
• Did He provide you with a new job after you lost the last?
• Did He give you children?
• Were you able to purchase a car?
• Do you have a roof over your head?
• Did you pass that test?
• Did you find community in that new church? Did you have a mentor there?
• Maybe you met your best friend?
• Did you find a prom date?
• Could you retire?
• Did you get to spend a weekend in the mountains? How about the beach?
• Did Jesus save you?

This is just a short list of things that you may have prayed for that the Lord has perhaps blessed you with in the last decade! It can be easy to look at this list and point out things that we don’t have – yet, we want to encourage you to dive deeper to meditate on the things that you DO have. Our God is so faithful, and he provided us with so many reasons to praise Him in the past.

Take a moment to turn on “Praise Belongs” and meditate on the ways the Lord has previously shown up for you. We are declaring that He will surely do it again!

Scriptures: Psalms 22:1-31, Matthew 27:46

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!