Written ~ 09-01-2023
Psalm 145:1-7
“I will exalt You, my God and King, and praise Your name forever and ever. I will praise You every day; yes, I will praise You forever. Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure His greatness. Let each generation tell its children of Your mighty acts; let them proclaim Your power. I will meditate on Your majestic, glorious splendor and Your wonderful miracles. Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on my tongue; I will proclaim Your greatness. Everyone will share the story of Your wonderful goodness; they will sing with joy about your righteousness.”
When I get up each morning, I try to thank the Lord for the new day as soon as I get up. Some mornings, however, I might feel a little tight lipped, not grumpy per se just not quite ready to talk to the Lord. Today was one of those days. Then I open my Bible and I am greeted with this awesome Scripture reading! It’s like the Lord is saying to me, “I’m going to make you Praise Me whether you want to or not!” Well, it certainly made me smile and got my lips moving. I read the verses out loud a couple of times and felt much more energized and ready for this new day!
What does your morning typically look like? Do you have an alarm that wakes you? Are you one of those types of people whose inner body clock wakes you? Or is your morning more relaxed where no alarms are needed to begin your day? Whichever way your day begins do you utter a word of thanks to the Lord before your feet hit the ground? As we sleep, the Lord watches over us, cares for us and is excited to get the day started with us as soon as we rise! When your feet hit the floor does that begin the go, go, go of a busy and stressful lifestyle? Do you have family to attend to? A job to be ready for? Errands and household duties that demand your attention? How does the way you rise out of bed affect the rest of your day? Why not start out by praising the Lord, even when you don’t feel like it! Reciting our verses for today would be a perfect way to get our hearts, minds, and souls ready for the day ahead.
Acknowledging who God is and praising Him for who He is, would be the perfect way to begin each day.
Psalm 145:1
“I will exalt You, my God and King, and praise Your name forever and ever.”
When we bow our hearts to the Almighty God and exalt His name and give Him lordship over our lives, it means we are recognizing that He is King above all kings and Lord above all lords. We are allowing Him to rule our hearts with His Holiness. So, when we give Him praise, we are inviting His power and His glory to enter our lives and guide us throughout our day. In the second part of verse 1 it says, “…praise Your Name…” Have you ever wondered what the names of the Lord are? Well… Here is a brief list of some of those names and their meanings:
- Elohim – Powerful God
- Adonai – LORD
- El Elyon – God Most High
- El Shaddai – Almighty God
- Yahweh – Israel’s Covenantal God
- Jehovah Jireh – The Lord Provides
- Jehovah Raphe – The Lord Heals
- Jehovah Nissi – The Lord Is My Banner
- Jehovah Me Kadesh – The Lord Who Sanctifies Me
- Jehovah Shalom – The Lord Is Peace
- Jehovah Tsidkenu – The Lord Is Our Righteousness
- Jehovah Rohi – The Lord Is My Shepherd
- Jehovah Shammah – The Lord Is There
As you read through the list of God’s names, think about our verses for today, starting again with verse 1,
“I will exalt You, my God and King, and praise Your NAME forever and ever.”
When we are exalting the Lord and praising His Name, we are exalting and praising each of the names that represent who the Lord is! It’s a powerful realization! So, I when I lift my praises to the Lord and I praise His NAME, it’s not just one name, it’s all of them! Awesome, right?!
Verse 145:2
“I will praise You every day; yes, I will praise You forever.”
I will Praise YOU! Every day we can rise with the praise of our God on our lips! Praising the NAME of the Lord! So, why do we praise the Lord? Do you know why you feel compelled to exalt and praise God even when you might not feel like it? Well, let’s look at verse 145:3 for one answer,
“Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure His greatness.”
Seems like a good enough reason to me! See how The Message (MSG) expounds even further,
“God is magnificent; He can never be praised enough. There are no boundaries to His greatness.”
Magnificent – what an awesome way to describe our Almighty God! This is why we praise the Lord. So, when we rise from bed each day, the praise and exaltation on our lips should be so automatic that we don’t even realize we are doing it. The Lord God is our everything! Look at the list of His Names again if you need to be reminded.
Verse 145:4 gives us even more instruction, not only are we to Praise the Lord, but we need to be teaching our children, our grandchildren to Honor and Praise the Lord.
“Let each generation tell its children of Your mighty acts; let them proclaim Your power.”
When we teach our children at a young age to worship and praise the Lord God Almighty, the Lord will become the most important thing in their lives. Generation after generation would give Honor to God if we would take the time to teach our children who the Lord is. If you’re not quite sure yet who He is to you, then find out! If we grow in our faith and trust in the Lord, if we teach our children to do the same, they will proclaim who God is to the next generation. Can you see how powerful that is? If we don’t teach our children to love the Lord and to know the magnificence of the Lord, there will be a breakdown of their proclamation to the next generation. Each generation could become less and less aware of who God is and why He should be praised. It all starts with us rising from our beds each day and giving praise to the Lord for all He has done and by proclaiming His Mighty acts, His Majesty, His Greatness.
Verse 145:5
“I will meditate on Your majestic, glorious splendor and Your wonderful miracles.”
By reading the Word of God, digging into the Scriptures, we learn more and more about who God is, when we think about the Lord, by mediating on the Word, we shouldn’t be able to stop praising Him. Look at the descriptive words used in verse 5, “Majestic, Glorious, Wonderful.” If you have the talent to draw or paint, how would you illustrate these words? If you were a photographer, what kinds of images would you capture to portray these words? Creation can give us the inspiration we need to find examples of these words, it’s up to us to look for it! Look around you, be aware, what do you see that is magnificent, glorious, wonderful? Give God all the Praise, He’s the Creator of all things.
Verse 145:6,
“Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on my tongue; I will proclaim Your greatness.”
We have a God who cares for us so deeply that when we see Him begin to move in our troubling circumstances or He ignites joy in our hearts when something wonderful happens, we need to proclaim it! When we witness something that brings about awe, what does that mean to you? It can mean that something happens that absolutely stops you in your tracks and causes your jaw to drop in amazement. You may wonder how in the world that just happened? God has a way of showing us His greatness throughout our lives, we’re the ones that need to be aware of that greatness and tell others what we see Him doing, help others open their eyes to His greatness. What will happen then?
Verse 145:7,
“Everyone will share the story of Your wonderful goodness; they will sing with joy about your righteousness.”
Good news travels fast! Right? If we are sharing what God, in His Infinite Glory, is doing in our lives… the risk we may run into is that others will join in with Praise to the Lord too! And that would be an awesome thing to happen!
Give your exaltation, your honor, your praise to the Lord God Almighty. Start your day with His Praises on your lips. If there is one guarantee, by doing this each and every day, your heart will begin to anticipate the praising of the Lord with the sound of your alarm.
~AMEN~