Praise the Lord?
Have you ever noticed that on Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and especially on Valentine’s Day there are always a few nay-sayers? There’s always a few people who feel the need to share with anyone who will listen their thoughts on how Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and the like are all just made up holidays. Holidays, they claim, that were invented for the sole purpose of boosting Hallmark’s bottom line.
Maybe I’m a naive optimist but I really don’t think that’s true. But even if that is true, even if these holidays were started for the sole purpose of making Hallmark money, they still strike a nerve with the general population. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day and the like are all so popular because many people recognize the value in their mother, father, or significant other. We also recognize that we often overlook or undervalue those people. We support or participate in the holiday because we do value those people and the special relationship we have with them. It’s not like Hallmark has somehow conned us into supporting a holiday about something we don’t care the least bit about. It’s not like we are all rushing out to buy greeting cards or flowers in celebration of “chair day” or “filing cabinet day.”
Those holidays exist, or at the very least continue to exist, because many of us know that we do not appreciate those people in our lives enough. We know that often we overlook and under appreciate all of the things our spouses or parents do for us.
Certainly we don’t mean to. We don’t intent to overlook our mother or father or significant other. We still love them a lot and want them to know that we love them. We know they do a lot for us. But often we don’t think about it all that much. A lot of times the things they do for us just happen and we don’t really notice until for whatever reason those things stop happening for awhile.
We don’t notice how often they do the dishes until they are away for a few days and we have to do them ourselves. We don’t realize how often they cook dinner or mow the grass or fill the car up with gas until we have to do it ourselves. We don’t fully appreciate how much comfort they bring us when we are sick until we have to go to the hospital alone for the first time.
And while we know that we should tell them more often and appreciate them more each day, the reality of life is that often we don’t. So, many of us still welcome a special day that is set aside for us to tell the special people in our lives that we love and care about them.
I think in a lot of ways our relationship with God is the same way. If we act this way with people we see every day or at least on a regular basis, imagine how much more we act like this towards God who we don’t interact with in a physical way. Many of us love God and know that God loves us. We know that God does a lot for us. We know that we should be more attentive to the things that God does for us. But so often we overlook or don’t even notice the things God does for us. As a result many times we forget to say thanks or show our gratitude to God.
Our scripture lesson for today is a praise psalm. Usually psalms are pretty specific. Often they will talk about being thankful for a specific thing or event. Sometimes that’s God’s creation, or for being delivered from Egypt. Sometimes they will talk about their thankfulness for being delivered from the hands of an enemy or for being healed of a specific illness.
But this psalm isn’t as specific as many of them are. It talks about general things God has done like providing food, remembering the covenant God made with us, or that God’s works are faithful and just. The psalm does give some general reasons to praise the Lord but the psalmist doesn’t seem to have one event in particular for which they are praising God. In some ways, the generalness of this psalm invites us to read and hear our own stories in this psalm.
In verse 2 the psalmist says, “Great are the works of the Lord.” Most of us would agree with that statement. We think, “Yeah, God’s works are great. God has done some pretty amazing things.” But what exactly are the works of the Lord? Be specific and think about it for a minute. What are the ways that you have experienced God at work? Maybe find a blank spot on the bulletin that you can jot down a thought or two. I’m asking you, right now, to take a minute and try to think of at least one time in your life that you have experienced the work of the Lord.
Maybe you are most aware of God when you are in nature and so you really connect with the image of God as creator. Maybe the expansiveness of the ocean or the complexity of our ecosystem leave you in awe and you can’t help but stand amazed at the work of God’s hands.
Maybe the way you have seen God at work is through healing. It could have been yourself or a loved one who was healed from an illness. Or maybe they weren’t healed physically but there was spiritual or emotional healing that took place. Maybe you resonate with the image of God as redeemer. God may have helped you or a loved one get over an addiction, or even just realize that an addiction exists and needs to be addressed. Maybe you felt God’s presence with you as you went through a difficult time or grieved the loss of a loved one.
Most of us, when we take a few moments to think about it, can pick out the big ways that God has been at work in our life, at least in retrospect. And sometimes we even remember to give God thanks for those things. But many of us are often so overwhelmed with the busyness of life that we find it difficult to recognize the smaller ways that God has been at work in our lives.
Now I’d like for you to take a minute and think about when in the last week have you experienced God at work in your life? If you are jotting things down in your bulletin, you can write that down to. When in the last week have you experience God at work?
Maybe God helped give you a sense of peace about something that has been stressing you out. Maybe God helped you recognize a problem in your life that needs to be changed. Did you feel like God laid a particular person on your heart for you to pray for? Did you experience an answer to prayer? Did you feel God’s spirit rejuvenate you while you were on vacation? Did you experience forgiveness this past week? Maybe God gave you a sense of meaning and purpose that helped guide your choices and activities this week.
The psalm goes on to tell us, “They (that is, the works of the Lord) are pondered by all who delight in them.” God’s works are pondered by all who delight in them. Besides just a minute ago, when was the last time you pondered the works of the Lord? When was the last time you even paused long enough to notice the things God has done and is doing in your life? A lot of us don’t do that on a regular basis.
Just like we don’t thank our significant other or parents enough, we often don’t take time to thank God for the little things. We celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day but we also have the Lord’s Day, Sunday, to give thanks to God. That’s part of what we do on Sunday mornings. Instead of buying greeting cards or flowers, we come together to worship and spend time with God. Worship is offering our praise and our thanks to God for all the things that God has done in our life. Coming to worship helps us intentionally set time aside to reflect on what God has done in our life and to give thanks.
It’s important for us to give thanks to God. Giving thanks for the things God has done for us helps cultivate a humble spirit within us. When we give thanks to God, we recognize that we could not have done those things on our own. Giving thanks recognizes that we are dependent on God for some things and shows that we are aware of the things God does for us.
Praising the Lord is also the first step in sharing our faith with others. Praise is the prelude to faith sharing because we first have to recognize what God has done before we can share it with others. If you’ve ever felt like you wanted to share your faith with others but didn’t know where to start, start with praise.
You can start by being more attentive to the ways God is already at work in your life. Consider starting a new practice of writing down at least one way you have seen God at work that day before you go to sleep. Or you could talk about it as a family at the dinner table. Or during the time that we are sharing our joys and concerns on Sunday morning, try to think of at least one thing you are thankful for that happened in the past week. You don’t have to share it out loud, but you can at least lift it up in your own prayers.
Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. God has indeed done many great things in our lives. Let us ponder the works of the Lord and Praise God’s Holy name.
Thanks be to God!
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