PSALM 66

To the Chief Musician. A Song. A Psalm. Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! 2 Sing out the honor of His name; Make His praise glorious. 3 Say to God, “How awesome are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies shall submit themselves to You. 4 All the earth shall worship You And sing praises to You; They shall sing praises [to] Your name.” Selah

PSALM 66:1-4

MAKE HIS PRAISE GLORIOUS

What is your standard of worship? Are you phoning it in? I’m not just talking about Sundays either. I mean what kind of worship do you offer God throughout the week? Is it all out? Is it full of life, joy, and celebration or is it barely there, if there at all?

Sometimes in life we are tempted to put off things. We’ll say something like, “I’ll get to that tomorrow.” or we’ll satisfy ourselves with less than our best effort. We may say something like, “That will have to do.” We do just enough to skate by. We do just enough to check the box that says present, but we didn’t really learn anything from class that day because while our body was there, our mind was somewhere else.

Sometimes we do have to put something off or put in less than our best. Hopefully in each of those scenarios whatever fell short on was worth the sacrifice. Maybe we put off a chore for the sake of sleep because we came in tired from a long day.

But the one place we don’t need to cut any corners on is the praise of God. Because He is so worth it. Indeed one of the things we miss the most when we fail to praise God is we lose sense of His weightiness (and our relationship to Him). When we worship casually, distracted, or as an afterthought we tend to miss the big picture on who God is (and who we are). Our day, our week, our month, our year becomes all about us instead of His Kingdom come, and will be done.

The Psalmist reminds us today at the beginning of this psalm that we are to make His praise glorious! He is worthy of our best effort. He is worthy of a little more time. He is worthy of digging in past our skeptical attitude and finding the joy that He brings to our lives. If we really want to be honest with ourselves, we need it too! We were created to worship God and when our private and corporate worship flounder it’s a good indication that we are broken.

So I challenge you to make His praise Glorious. There are practical ways to do this. We can plan for corporate worship to help us be fully present. We can make sure our schedules allow us enough time to sleep so we will be refreshed on Sundays. We can lay out clothes the night before so we aren’t rushed to get there. We can meditate on the songs we sing and scripture that is read. We can discuss the sermon. We can come prepared to give and give sacrificially. We can offer our humble voices in the singing of the congregation or choir. We can amen the points of sound doctrine that the pastor offers from the pulpit. We can share with others what the Lord has done in our life that week. We can be prepared to fellowship with others and have them to our house (hospitality) or meet them somewhere.

Privately we can read his word. We can pray. We can work as unto the Lord. We can sing songs. We can seek to share about God’s goodness with others. We can use the gifts he has given us. We can simply recount the things we saw God do each day in our lives.

PRAYER

Father, Thank you for your word today. You are truly worthy of great praise and worship from me for all you have done. Though my body is often tired and my mind is prone to wonder, I pray that I save the best of me for worshipping you! You have done mighty things in my life. Your hand has been on mye from even an early age. You have been my sure foundation. You have guided my steps. Everytime the enemy thought to destroy me, you preserved me. I have been sick, but you have made me well. I have been sad, but you have restored my joy, I have been tired, but you have given me strength! You indeed are worthy or worship! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

I’m reading and blogging the Psalms Through The Summer. I’d love for you to join me. You can find out a little more here.