Praise

"Praise the Lord!  How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting." - Psalm 147:1

Praise the Lord!  I wonder how many people today truly praise the Lord.  On Sunday's we gather for our Sunday Service, but is real praise happening?  Wednesday mornings, we gather for prayer time, but is real praise happening?  Daily people do their devotions, read their Bible readings for that day, and spend some time in personal prayer, but is real praise happening?

Statistics indicate that only about 15-20% of our population today regularly attends church.  But there are a lot of reasons for attending church.  I suspect that only about 15-20% of those in our churches are really there because they have a strong and vibrant relationship with Jesus.  These are the people that I might expect truly praise the Lord.

But we should all be praising the Lord.  King David, author of this psalm, tells us it is "good to sing praises to our God."  It is good.  In Genesis 1, each day as God creates, at the end of the day He exclaims, "It is good."  It is as it should be.  It is how God had intended it to be.  Praising the Lord is good.  When people praise the Lord it is as it should be.  It is how God intended it to be.

We praise the Lord because "he is gracious".  He is filled with grace. We know that we should be filled with grace, and we try to be gracious, and perhaps it would be easier if it didn't involve others.  There are some people, of course, that it's easy to be gracious to, but if you love only those who love you, where does that get you?  We have to love those who seem unlovable.  We have to show grace to those who don't deserve grace.  Because, by definition, none of us deserve grace.  But God gives it to us anyway.

A "song of praise is fitting."  It is the right thing to do to praise God.  He deserves our praise.  In fact, He alone deserves our praise.  So it is fitting when we can pause to give Him praise.

Priase the Lord!  How good it is...