“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
Psalm 34:1
It must be both intentional and incessant.
“Praise to the Lord.”
When David penned the lyrics to today’s Manna, he’d just escape from the potentially murderous grasp of Abimelech. Most likely, that was a Philistine king’s title (like that of Pharaoh for the Egyptians) and he was probably Achish, king of Gath (I Sam. 21:10). To escape, David feigned madness, “scrawling on the gates and letting spittle run down his beard” (v.13). He did so because Achish’s servant had already reminded him of who David was (vv.11-12).
So, we shouldn’t be surprised that the shepherd-king felt like singing and praising God when he escaped to the cave in Adullam (I Sam. 22:1). We would have too!!
How often we forget to stop and thank the Lord after He’s blessed us in a wonderful way or answered our prayer in a time of need. Much better it is if we’ll say/sing with David, “I will bless (Heb. ‘barak’—‘to kneel, salute, give thanks to, etc.’) the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
Now, the problem with this is our forgetfulness. Too often ours is a “foxhole faith,” which cries out in desperation to God when things are falling apart, but forget all about Him when everything’s running smoothly.
But, such shouldn’t be, Pilgrim.
We should train ourselves to “cast down imaginations and capture every thought as we bring under Jesus’ Lordship” (II Cor. 10:5). And, what better way to do this than intentionally willing ourselves to say “Regardless of what happens today, I’m going to bless the Lord. With His help I’m going to praise Him, not pout. . .give thanks, not a tirade. . .glory in Him, not be a grouch.”
No one said it’s going to be easy.
Especially when the tongue and temper are involved (James 3:1-12).
Even so, we should still strive to “magnify (Heb. ‘gadal’—‘to make large, advance, boast of, increase, lift high, etc.’) the Lord in all we say and do and encourage others to join us in exalting (Heb. ‘ruwm’—‘to raise high, rise up, extol, heave upward, promote, enlarge, etc.’) His Name” (Ps. 34:3).
Let’s face it:
The world’s full of bad news. . .“doom, despair and agony on me”. . .pessimism. . .cynicism . . .sarcasm. . .fatalism. . .and every other kind of “evil ism.”
But, we don’t have to join in with them. Instead, we can say with David, “O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusts in Him” (Ps. 34:8). Don’t hesitate to speak up and say, “Let me say a word here” and then give them your testimony of God’s deliverance in your life. Who knows? Someone else may also stand up and say “I’m so glad you said that. I sure needed to hear it today. Thank you for blessing me as you blessed the Lord.”
By Tom Smith Morning Manna Dated November 7, 2009
