Praise Him

A psalm. For giving thanks.

¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

² Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

³ Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his ^a]">[a] ;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalms 100:1-5

It's interesting that the readings for the last few days have focused on praise, and my mind has also been thinking about praise even before I read it.

When we arrived at church Sunday night, the pastor told us that we were going to sing some old songs and enter into some praise. I said out loud to the person next to me. "Good, I'm ready. Let's get started." I don't know if that person had any idea how serious I was by that, but I am certain no one near me did out praise me that night. It helped that those were some of my favorite praise songs. I needed a night like that as much as a starving person needs food and water. My soul was longing for a night like that, a night where I could really praise Him.

This last Thursday, the pastor said we didn't get where we could have that night. I noticed the same. As a corporate body, most were hesitant to enter into that realm of praise. Why is that? Could it be that people were thinking about the rough week they just had? Were they thinking about all the prayers they were still waiting on? Or, were they just afraid for someone else to see them?

If you get desperate enough, you won't care who is there to witness it. Somebody came by and asked me if they could "get some of that". I guess they thought I had some happiness they desired.

The truth be known, last week was a terrible week for me. There were a lot of stressful personal issues that I had to deal with. It did end with Captivate, which was a great ending! However, that in itself was a tiring day. Honestly, I doubt my current life situation was any better than any one else at the moment. I just knew that I needed God to show up, and He was the only answer there could possibly be. I needed to praise Him for a month of preparing for Captivate and a great ending. I also needed to praise Him for all the personal issues I had to deal with that were yet unresolved. I needed to praise Him like it was already done! At some point, you have to understand that if there is nothing else in this world going right for you, you still have God and that is all you need.

Are you desperate enough to praise Him in both the good and the bad? Do you need Him to the point that you wouldn't care who noticed?

In the youth, they sing a song, "My soul longs for you---Like a deer pants for water". This song is also drawn from lines in the book of Psalms. Does your soul long for Him? Do you need Him as much as you need water and food? You do, even if you don't realize it. Without Him, your soul will wither up and die. After many days without Him, you will just be going through motions without even feeling His presence. It won't matter how good your life is. Your soul will still be dying and happiness will evade you.

Keep Him close to you. Praise Him! Praise Him for all He is, for all He has even done, and for all He ever will do. Just praise Him!