Praise the Lord
by Dennis Glaman

“Praise the LORD!  Praise the LORD, O my soul!  I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long.”  (Psalm 146:1-2)

The psalmist is expressing his desire to worship God all of his life.  I have worshiped God all my life, but I’m not sure that I have yet to match the psalmist’s enthusiasm for the worship of God.  The psalmist says that he will worship God all his life, but I get the sense that he also means all day, every day.  For a long time, worshiping God meant going to church on Sunday morning, Wednesday evenings during Lent and Advent, and very little else.

Even though I went to church on Sunday mornings, I often felt that there should be more to worship than that.  Jesus came closer to me and I held Him there during my stint in the army.  After that stretch, I became more active in church, working with youth groups, being on Church Council, etc.  But even though that took up a lot of my time, I still am not sure that I was worshiping God all the time.

There is much to think about when we talk about worshiping God.  Surely part of it is coming together as a congregation to sing songs, listen to sermons, take Communion, and more.  But worshiping God with our whole lives can and needs to be so much more.  We can worship God when we gather together between services to genuinely get to know one another and build bonds of the church family.  We worship God when we actively seek out visitors and new members to include them in all that we do.  We can worship God as we seek to grow in our individual faith by attending Bible Studies, small groups and other events.  We can worship God as we seek to raise godly children and take care of the sick and less fortunate among our congregation or within our community. We can worship God when we come to Him in prayer for ourselves and others.  He wants us to know Him and depend on Him.

The book of Psalms ends with these words: “Let everything that breathes praise the LORD.”  (Psalm 150:6)  During this Lenten season and beyond, let us praise and worship the Lord with every breath we take!

Lord God, take me deeper in my walk with You.  Help me to see worship as something far more than I could ever imagine.  Teach me how to worship You each and every moment of my life.  And may that joy I read about in the Psalms be mine as well.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN.