“They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty — and I will meditate on your wonderful works.”
The psalms are “the moods of faith!” They describe the valleys of our depression, the depths of our confusion, and our mountaintops of joy that come with knowing Jehovah. They display the multitude of human emotions in an honest walk with God.
Psalm 145 is the mood of pure exaltation. It is the people of God in a parade of praise.
The Psalmist (David) sings, “I will exalt you, my God the king; I will praise your name forever and ever. Each day I will praise you and extol your name forever and ever.”
“Exalt,” “praise,” and “extol” pack an emotional punch. This is holy celebration! But today, I’m not feeling it. Truth be told, many days “I’m not feeling it.”
No trumpet blasts of exaltation.
No cymbal clashes of holy celebration.
No drum beats of adoration.
When did I stop marching in David’s parade of praise?
It’s not like I have quit the band. I’ll be the first to say, “God deserves the glory!” But when I look at my heart, I’ve stepped out of the drum line. My cymbals are silent. I’ve put down my trumpet. I have become the guy watching the parade, nodding in quiet gratitude as David’s procession of praise passes under my eyes.
I’ve moved from participant to spectator.
I’ve become the “arm-chair” worshiper, watching but not doing.
I confess that kind of praise is more past memory than present manner.
What’s the problem? What’s MY problem?
I read on…
“Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.” Psalm 145:3-4
There he goes again! David is describing present action, hearts overflowing with God’s greatness and goodness; I’m living with past memories, a dusty textbook of truths lying on the shelf of my heart.
I continue to read the Psalm, but I’m just “reading,” my eyes passing over print on page until I come to verse five.
“They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty. And I will meditate on all your works.”
Wait a minute! Wait just a minute! There is a word there, one word that arrests my attention. It is the word “meditate.” I am familiar with this word, but I re-check a Hebrew dictionary just to be sure I know it’s meaning in that context. Sure enough, the word means “to muse, meditate upon, study, ponder.”
And therein lies my problem. David did something that I, in my busyness and hurry, have ceased to do. David took time to meditate, to muse on God, to ponder his splendor, to study his mighty acts.
As I reflected in that moment, I saw a correlation between the exultation of verses one to four and the meditation of verse five. I’ll put it this way: Holy celebration comes from God-focused meditation.
I thought to myself, “Let me try this”:
I paused, for pause is absolutely essential to any meditative work.
I reflected, really taking time to ponder the beauty of God’s creation, to think about the majesty of his character, to meditate on his wonderful works.
I felt the tenor of my heart change. There was an uprising of emotional fervor in the depths of my soul.
Please don’t let me confuse you. Emotion in itself is not praise or worship. Actually, it’s more an occasional byproduct of a heart set on fire for God. Many times praise is a declaration of God’s goodness and sovereignty “in spite of” how I feel.
Job praised God in the valley of despair. Job 1:20-22
Habakkuk praised God despite an empty dinner table. Habakkuk 3:17
Mary praised God despite her confusing circumstances. Luke 1:34-38
But there’s a correlation, maybe even causation, between meditation and exaltation; between pausing and praising.
If you, like me, find yourself on the sidelines of that parade of praise, maybe it’s time to pause, to take a little more time to ponder, to meditate upon God’s wonderful works and his wonderful works in your life as well.
I did . . . and stepped out of the crowd and back into that parade of praise.
Notes:
“Meditate” from שִׂיחַ (SIACH) = to muse, meditate upon, study, ponder from Strong’s Hebrew 7878, and Brown-Driver-Briggs.