“I will praise you, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all your marvelous works. 2. I will be glad and rejoice in you: I will sing praise to your name, O thou most high.”
We occasionally need to ask ourselves how much we appreciate the Lord. It is good manners to offer appreciation for what people do for us, how much more should we appreciate the Lord? It is not that God needs our appreciation; rather we need to appreciate Him. The Lord doesn’t need anything from us, but He knows that we need to give to Him. This includes our appreciation as much as it does, for example, our tithes. These two verses from Psalm 92 show us how to show appreciation to the Lord. First, we show our appreciation to the Lord by giving Him wholehearted praise. David wrote: “I will praise you, O Lord, with my whole heart.” We seem to think that praise and noise are related. Some people seem to think the Louder the noise, the greater the praise. That’s not to say that loud praise is wrong, it is to say that real praise does not come from the mouth, but from the heart. David wrote that He would praise God with His whole heart. Heartfelt praise can be loud or silent. On the other hand, there are people who seem to equate praise with deadness. There is a great difference between silent praise and just plain silence. Silence can sometimes mean boredom. I think that is often what we have in churches. What we need to do is to look into our hearts and be honest about whether or not we are really praising God from there instead of just for show. Second, we show our appreciation to the Lord by “showing forth (His) marvelous works.” We should not keep what the Lord has done for us to ourselves. I know that I enjoy it when someone shows their appreciation to me for something I might have done for them. I also want to be careful to offer appreciation to people who do things for me. The Lord has certainly done great things for us. The Lord gives His great love to us. Throughout the Bible, we are reminded of the love that God has for us. Some people who do not believe think that the Bible shows a terrible God, but those of us who have experienced Him personally know better. John wrote: “We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) John also wrote in 1 John 4:10:“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” “Propitiation” means that, out of love for us, God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus for us. I certainly can’t explain why that had to be, but I know that it is biblical. I don’t know what “marvelous works” the Lord has done in your life, but if you believe in Him, I know that He has done marvelous things for you. I can’t even begin to enumerate all of the “marvelous works” God has done for me, let alone what He has done for you. The point is that the Lord wants us to tell others about what He has done for us. Out of appreciation for Him, we should do it. Third, we show our appreciation to the Lord by being glad for who and what the Lord is, rejoicing in Him and singing praise to His name. We need to pause each day and think about the greatness of the Lord. We need to ask ourselves whether or not we are really glad that the Lord is in our lives, and that our lives are better because He is in our lives. Some people refuse to believe because they are afraid that God will take something away from them. Believe me; whatever He takes away will be replaced by something much better. Because of the gladness in our hearts, and because of all of the “marvelous works” that God has done in our lives, we sing praises to Him. Does this describe your appreciation for the Lord? Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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