The practice of praise - Nigel Panter

Thoughts through Psalm 118, and the song, Forever, by Chris Tomlin

If you are anything like me, you go through days when events in the day cascade from one to the next and there seems not even a chance to stop and catch breath. You get wrapped up in doing what you hope is a good job, being efficient and effective, (or perhaps at best what feels like fire fighting) and then you realise that throughout the day you can’t recall considering God being in the day or even remember thinking of Him being around, or interested in what’s happening as the day is unfolding, let alone asking for Him to be involved or for His help.

Don’t get me wrong, I'm not saying that doing well in a job to the best of your ability is not a form of worship - I think the Bible teaches us that it is in Colossians 3:23-24 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

But I’m considering the sense of God ‘present-ness’ that we can have whilst we are doing something - anything! How can we get that?

Well, I think Psalm 118 helps us with this. There is a lot in the Psalm, and it is worth a full study but a few thoughts I share from it.

The first verse is a call to thank the Lord ‘for he is good’ and ‘his love endures forever’. This is addressed as an open command to all which must include oneself v1, Israel (the Jewish community) and the house of Aaron (the priestly line) (v2-3), and in v4 specifically to ‘those who fear the Lord’. OK, anyone missed out there?! Right - no!

So, we are all to give thanks because God’s love [for us] endures for ever.

There are plenty more reasons given in the Psalm for being thankful to God:

• He is our refuge (v8)

• He is with us, our helper (v7)

• He is our rescuer, our saviour (v6-14)

• He is our victor (v15)

• He is powerful (v15-16)

• He gives us life (v17)

• He answers us (21)

The Psalmist even references a cornerstone [Jesus] (v22) - the most important structural reference point - and says what the Lord our heavenly Father did with him is marvellous and should cause us to rejoice and be glad.

So, remembering what God has done for us through Jesus and giving thanks for it, is a very conscious and deliberate thing to do and we actually are called to do it. But, in the midst of doing life, this can feel unachievable.

Enter the song Forever by Chris Tomlin - a terrific way to thank God through this Psalm from which it is taken (see link to YouTube clip for song) The lyrics (see below) speak the truth of our great and loving God to our hearts and cause us to ‘sing Praise, sing Praise’.

Anything we want to do which does not come naturally, or we want to improve, needs practice (a repeated deliberate activity with a longer-term goal). Simply deliberately singing, humming or going through the words of songs like this in our head whilst travelling, or active in our daily / work tasks can be a great way to refocus our minds away from the day-to-day things in front of us, to lift our hearts and reconnect us with our Heavenly Father whose ‘love endures forever’.

I drop my children off to school and I consciously sing as I cycle to my workplace. I want to arrive with praise on my lips and a renewed sense of God’s love and power and gracious salvation in my heart. Does it give me the sense of God being more present? Well, it reminds me that he is with me regardless of how I am feeling, and my response in praise lets the Holy Spirit change my heart in that moment as I make myself open to Him. I think that’s a practice worth repeating.

What regular repeated part of God’s Word can you use to help you in the practice of praise?

Lyrics to “Forever”

Give thanks to the Lord our God and King
His love endures forever
For He is good, He is above all things
His love endures forever

Sing praise, sing praise

With a mighty hand and outstretched arm
His love endures forever
For the life that's been reborn
His love endures forever

Sing praise, sing praise [2x]

Forever God is faithful
Forever God is strong
Forever God is with us
Forever

From the rising to the setting sun
His love endures forever
And by the grace of God we will carry on
His love endures forever

Sing praise, sing praise [2x]

Forever God is faithful
Forever God is strong
Forever God is with us
Forever