Now is the time…… To Praise the Lord

Praise the LORD, all you nations! Extol him, all you peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD! Psalm 117

How is your “praise life”? This psalm is only 2 verses long but it holds great truth about God’s love and care for us and it begins and ends with the command to “praise the Lord”. The second verse tells us why we should praise him. It says “For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.” These are two great reasons to praise the Lord and two great truths to think about, and as we do, we will find praise automatically rising within us.

Years ago a military chaplain, Merlin Carruthers, wrote a book called “Prison to Praise”. The book contained many stories of what happened in people’s lives when they begin to praise the Lord in their difficulties and disappointments. Pastor Carruthers had received a revelation from the Lord about the amazing power that is released when we praise God and when he began to teach people this truth wonderful things began to happen.

We must never forget that God is worthy of our praise and that is the first reason why we praise him. But praising God when things are not all that we would want them to be, shows that we trust him in spite of our circumstances. It demonstrates that we trust God and believe that he has heard our prayers and that we believe things will change and our prayers will be answered.

Hebrews 13:15 tells us “Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God,”. Praise is a sacrifice when we do it in spite of how we feel. Have you ever begun to praise God even though you didn’t feel like doing it? In my experience, it does great good to my spirit. The word tells us that God will give us “a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” Isaiah 61:3. How good is that! The secret is that most times we have to put that garment on by deciding to praise the Lord, the feelings of joy and thankfulness then follow.

Is there a circumstance in your life which is causing you to despair or be discouraged? Will you pray about it and then decide to praise God believing that he is in control, that he is faithful and that he loves you and will work things out? Let me know how it all works out!

Prayer: Faithful and loving God, help me to have a heart of praise no matter what trials come my way. Amen