I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together! Psalm 34:1-3 (ESV)
There is a word in this passage that gives me all kinds of trouble? Is there a word that challenges you there?
“Continually…”
What I have found is that I can worship God sometimes. Most notably when everything is going great. God has been good. He’s awesome. When life is good, it’s easy for me to worship Him.
Continually says that our lives are to be a seemless cord of worship. On a Sunday and a Wednesday, in the morning and the afternoon, on a bad year and a good year, when everything went just like we thought and absolutely nothing went like we had hoped. We are to be continually offering a sacrifice of praise to God.
Now that doesn’t make any sense at all. When life falls apart why in the world would I worship God? I see these Christians saying “Well, so you wrecked your car. Praise the Lord!” You look at them and you think they are insane! You have some big illness, well just praise the Lord. You don’t have money to pay that bill, just praise the Lord. Just run around and whenever pain and disappointment and sorrow come in your life just praise the Lord. And it always seems to have that little ring to it.
“Why?” Why would I want to do that? If God is so great and so wonderful and so mighty and so powerful then why am I having a bad year and why should I worship Him?
Because when life is falling apart, we need the presence of God more than ever. And Psalm 22:3 says that God inhabits the praises of His people.
Might I encourage you, magnify the Lord today!
