I've Got To Praise You!

SCRIPTURE

Psalm 81 (NRSV)
God will feed us

Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob.
Raise a song, sound the tambourine,
the sweet lyre with the harp.
Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our festal day.
For it is a statute for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
He made it a decree in Joseph,
when he went out over the land of Egypt.

I hear a voice I had not known:
"I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I rescued you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
Selah
Hear, O my people, while I admonish you;
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

"But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
O that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
Then I would quickly subdue their enemies,
and turn my hand against their foes.
Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,
and their doom would last forever.
I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you."

DEVOTIONAL

Today’s devotional says, “Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob. Raise a song, sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp.” I love these verses because I hear them as a call to praise and worship!

In today’s reading we see that when the Israelite people forgot to lift up their voices in praise and worship they ended up paying homage to idol gods and refusing to obey the commands of God!

When we worship God, we are telling God “you are worth my praise and my adoration.” When we take the time to sit in the presence of God we are letting God know that we enjoy God’s company. When we take the time to read God’s Word, we love God well by listening to God’s heart. And when we enter into a place of real praise, in the good times and the bad, we let God know that we are seeking God’s face and not just God’s hands!

Oh hallelujah! Praise and worship are the antidote to much of what ails us! As Christians we have put all of our hope in Jesus. We know, believe, and confess that God loves us so much that God gave Jesus to die on the cross to save us from our sins and gift us with eternal life. We know that Jesus did not stay dead, but was resurrected on the third day—and that, my friends, is something to shout about!

As we sing, shout, and play instruments before the Lord, we take our focus off of ourselves and put it squarely on God. No longer do we have time to bow down to the idols of greed, consumption, materialism, vanity, jealousy, gluttony, lust, pride, anger et al, instead we bow before The One who is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end of all things.

Now, ain'ta that good news?!

On this day, will you make up your mind to worship God with all your heart, as you pray, meditate, and read scripture as you draw near to God? If so, please pray with me:

Hallelujah God! I love you so much! You are wonderful beyond compare! Today, I worship and bow down before you. I lift up my voice in word and in song! Please draw me even nearer to Your heart on this day and please help me to share Your love with others. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.



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