BLESS THE LORD

"I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth."

- Psalm 34:1

The tragic truth about American Christians is that we are better at complaining to the Lord than we are praising the Lord. We are experienced at belly-aching but we are novices when it comes to expressing gratitude. We tend to see the glass as half full while also complaining that the glass is too small.

The fact is that we can't see the forest for the trees. We nit-pick about small inconveniences while overlooking the huge provisions that we are granted daily. If 99 items were perfect and only one didn't meet our expectations, we'd forget about the 99 and spend our time whining about the one.

If we look at ourselves as God see us, we'd have to confess that we act like a bunch of spoiled brats. We are never content despite that abundance of blessings that we receive daily. Even worse, some act as if they are entitled to more and that God should respond to their complaints; as if God is their slave.

A truly honest view of our situation would result in a different attitude. God is not our slave. We aren't entitled to any blessing. We have been blessed far beyond our capacity to repay. God has been good to us, but in response, we haven't been very good to Him.

We need to learn from David. David wrote, "I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth." God is good all the time, thus He deserves our praise all the time. As recipients of His blessings, we should bless Him at all times.

If God were to withhold all of His blessings from your life for just 60 seconds, just think of what would occur. You see, we can't live one second without Him. His blessings continue to be poured upon our lives 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I must confess that some days seem better than others, but every day is a blessing.

God deserves much better than we give Him. Like David, we should bless the Lord, "at all times." It is easy to sing hymns on Sunday morning, but doesn't God deserve our praise on Monday mornings, too?

Furthermore, David advocated public praise. So many like to practice "silent praise." While there is a place for private worship and meditation, we need to also be verbal in our praise. David wrote, "... his praise shall continually be in my mouth." We don't seem to have problems verbally praising our sports team around the water cooler. We don't seem to be slow in our praise of a singer, politician or actor. Yet when it comes to the Lord, we prefer to just be silent saints. God deserves better than this. He has blessed us in many private matters, but He has also blessed us openly. He deserved to be praised openly by us.

The real test of faith comes during our most difficult days. It isn't hard to praise the Lord when the bills are paid and your family is healthy. But when you loose your job, get a bad medical report or loose a family member, it is much more difficult to praise the Lord.

As you study the Scriptures, it is obvious that men of faith were men of praise. David could praise the Lord even though his circumstances were depressing. Paul and Silas sang from a prison cell, even though their backs were probably bleeding from the beating they had just received. John worshiped from the Isle of Patmos although he was left there alone with little expectancy to survive.

David said, "I will bless the LORD at all times," (emphasis added). David was determined to praise the Lord, not just in good times, but at all times.

We would be wise to do the same.