Praise That Must Never Cease
July 13, 2008
America is not the nation it was when I was a boy but I love it nonetheless. Our future as a nation seems dark and time may prove it to be so. Everywhere I go I hear dismal words coming from people’s mouths. Jesus said that out of the heart the mouth speaks. This simply means that people are giving up hope because their hope is misplaced to start with. When the world loses its perspective it is understandable but when the people of God forget God society rots. We are the salt of the earth and salt is a preservative.
In Psalm 137:4 the children of Israel asked from the banks of Babylon, “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” it seemed an impossible thing to praise God when so much had gone wrong. Family members were slaughtered, raped, separated, and dispersed to a foreign land as slaves. Hope for the immediate future of their nation was lost, but hope was not. God never withdraws His power to sustain love, joy, nor peace that passes all understanding where a remnant remains loyal to His heart. Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. The Holy Spirit is liberating no matter our circumstances.
We often say that we praise and worship God. The irony is that we must first worship God before He will accept our praise. How can we praise God for who He is if we have not been in awe of Him for who He is? Worship that fails to praise is worship that is disobedient to God. If we truly worship and praise Him how can we be without hope Thomas Paine opened the American Crisis with the immortal line, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” God showed Himself faithful throughout the American Revolution. As Christians we need to once more learn what it means to cast ourselves upon the mercy of the Lord. It means that God was, is, and always will be faithful to Himself and those faithful to praise Him irregardless.
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