Bless the Lord at All Times

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Scripture

Psalm 34:1     I will bless the LORD at all times;
        his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2     My soul makes its boast in the LORD;
        let the humble hear and be glad.
3     O magnify the LORD with me,
        and let us exalt his name together.

Observation

David wrote this Psalm after he had feigned madness before Abimelech. His enemy was still in hot pursuit and yet, David took the time to praise the Lord. Blessing the Lord at all times became a feature of his life. He was able to see God’s intervention in even the most difficult of circumstances and in and through this, he was able to worship and praise God.

Application

The idea of blessing the Lord at all times may feel rather foreign to us. There are certainly times in life when I don’t feel like blessing the Lord and being angry and grumpy seem well justified. However, when we give into and justify our anger and frustration we only seem to become more angry and frustrated!

Blessing the Lord at all times is not just about God, but it also does us good! When we focus on God in the midst of our difficult circumstances, we are forced to turn away from our own personal frustrations and recognize what it is that God does for us.

God is the one in whom we should boast for he is continually and actively engaged in our lives. He loves us and is concerned about our well-being and what it is that we will be doing today and tomorrow.

When we worship the Lord our focus becomes entirely on him. We are to bless the Lord at all times. We are to boast in him. We are to invite others into a great exaltation of his holy name….”and the things of this world will grow strangely dim.” The struggles we are facing today will suddenly become much smaller in light of God. This was the secret that David had learned. Even in the face of enemies he praised and worshiped God on high!

Come, join me today in exalting his holy name.

Prayer

Lord, may my life be a prayer of praise and worship to you.  Amen.

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