Tuesday, February 5, 2008

The Release of Praise

“For Your faithful love is higher than the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches the clouds. God, be exalted above the heavens; let your glory be over the whole earth.” (Psalm 108:4-5 CSB)

Psalms can be powerfully expressive! They often release the hearts of the writers to soar in praise of God, pure like refined gold. Praise like this can powerfully impact the hearts of readers, so that we, too, catch a glimpse of that same glory of God and release our own “Hallelujah!” before the Lord. The communion with His Spirit that follows provides us with a deeply spiritual sense of satisfaction that continues to well up from within us. And in our hearts and minds we shout, “Glory!”

Prepared, we then push on into the day before us. We find ourselves facing some tasks that take time and must be done, a few of them perhaps not so pleasant. We encounter other people during the day, sometimes family members, sometimes friends, sometimes co-workers, sometimes strangers, and in these encounters we find opportunity to serve, or grow, or learn, or share, or even confront. These can be somewhat distracting, or even distressful, depending.

So, what happened to the soaring praise of the morning? Answer: It is still there. We just do not see it, and we may not be feeling it exactly; but it’s still there. And, in fact, we have been expressing it continually through our serving.

Those who serve are releasing praise before God. And in our hearts and minds we shout, “Glory!”

Lord, May our praise of You be released first to You, and then to those we serve. Amen.

No comments: