Hi and welcome back to afaithtalk.com. Yes, this is another post on what’s coming this Sunday on the lectionary. Since our church isn’t meeting due to Covid-19 raging through the area, and because Scripture is my favorite part of the service, we’re going to spend some time in Psalm 105 today. The first four verses are total focus changers and the ability to do that is so very important in our lives.
But first, let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, these verses are so beautiful, well, not really the words, but where they move our focus, You are the beautiful Lord we get our focus changed to, and You are the best refreshment we all need. So I ask, help us know exactly what it is we really need to see in these few verses. All for You. Amen.
Start with just reading these four verses and then we’ll break them down. That way neither of us will get confused.
Psalm 105
1Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.
2 Sing to him, sing praise to him;
tell of all his wonderful acts.
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
4 Look to the Lord and his strength;
seek his face always.
Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;
Do you know what it means to praise the Lord? What about Proclaiming his name? Here’s how I think of praise: Thank Him, Trust Him, Talk to Him, Sing to Him, but then that comes up in verse two… So proclaim His name. The Merriam-Webster dictionary online (it’s at m-w.com) says proclaim means
to praise or glorify openly or publicly
…in either speech or writing
Not all that clear is it? To praise is to glorify. To glorify is
to make glorious by bestowing honor, praise, or admiration
to represent as glorious : EXTOL
to give glory to (as in worship)
Sometimes it’s circuitous to look up words like this. To proclaim is to praise, to praise is to glorify, to glorify is to extol to extol is to praise highly. See what I mean? But Proclaim is public whereas Praise doesn’t always have to be.
make known among the nations what he has done.
Testimony. That’s what this is. Tell what God has done for you. That is proclaiming His praise, His glory. Glorifying Him.
Sing to him, sing praise to him;
Yes, sing to Him, might I suggest Klove radio? It’s online too if you can’t find it on the radio dial. Two of the newest songs I’ve heard on Klove come straight out of Scripture. (These two links will send you to YouTube.) One is Kari Jobe’s Blessings the other is We The Kingdom’s God So Loved.
tell of all his wonderful acts.
Those are the ones your testimony is meant to share. What has He done for you?
Glory in his holy name;
To glory in His name, is to praise Him. To ascribe glory to Him. This is why these verses are so focus changing. Praise and glory always reset my mind on the good, pure, noble, admirable, true, lovely Lord who deserves every moment of praise and all our trust.
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Rejoice always and again I say rejoice. All over the Scriptures are encouragement to rejoice. The proper response to all He has done is to rejoice in Him. His joy is so much more than happiness, it’s power and it’s strength and it’s possible through obedience to Him. Meditate on these words of praise in Psalm 105 and your heart’s response should be to rejoice in Him.
Look to the Lord and his strength;
seek his face always.
Praise is an effective way, as is prayer, to seek His face. Focus the eyes of your heart on His Presence with you and you will be a much less fearful person. His Joy is strength and He is more than willing to drop a bit of it on us as we do what He tells us to do. Even a drop of it is more than enough strength and power to rejoice in His holy name and seek His face.
Thank You, Jesus, for handing us this short bit of Scripture to move our minds in praise. Thank You for Your Joy, Your Peace and Your Presence at all times. May we all sing your praise today. Amen.