Praise to the Lord!
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.*
I hadn’t sung the hymn in many years; the last time might have been when I was a teenager, in the little jewel box of a church my family attended. Or perhaps it was at the Christian school where I was a student from sixth grade on, accompanied by the booming voice of the organ in the spacious sanctuary where we had our formal chapel services.
And yet it came to me as I tried to sleep last week.
On two consecutive nights.
Yes, Lord, I hear You.
You have blessed me beyond the ability of my small mind to comprehend, and I thank You daily for Your precious gifts.
But I don’t praise You enough.
Jesus said that I must love You with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind. (Matthew 22:37) But do I?
Do I come to you with one hand closed, holding on to a grubby scrap of self, afraid of surrendering completely to Your compelling love?
Do I allow the distractions of this world—even good things—to grow into a wall between us?
Will I ever fully understand the complex machinery of my heart, soul, and mind on this side of Heaven?
My questions usually outnumber my answers, but I am certain of this: I love You most when I praise You. When I meditate on Your divine Nature. When I still my soul and know that You are God.
In those moments my thoughts stop churning. I suspend my attempts to bring You down to my level, to reduce You to Someone I can figure out, like a math problem to be solved.
I yield to Your mystery.
Almighty God, You alone are God; there is no other.
You are the Spring from which truth, love, justice, and beauty flow. Holy, holy, holy are You, Mighty Defender, Loving Savior, Righteous Judge, Compassionate Creator.
You know the meaning of whale song and the thoughts of a newborn child.
You cupped the Sun in Your hands and painted the wings of a butterfly.
You made the sea, then walked upon it.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Holy Trinity, dancing inside and beyond time. Perfect communion. Perfect love.
Open my eyes to Your Glory. Let Your Light break forth into my inmost being and set free a chorus of praise.
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
Revelation 4:6 (ESV)
“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
Psalm 46:10 (ESV)
Let us all praise the Lord!
*“Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,” Joachim Neander (1680), translated from German by Catherine Winkworth (1863)
Melody: Lobe den Herren
C.S. Lewis has a beautiful chapter about the importance of praising God in his book Reflections on the Psalms. (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1958) I invite you to read this slender volume packed with insight.
