Devotional.
I hope it’s not just me, but when I don’t know what to read in the Bible, I’ll flick to a random Psalm. You always know there will be something in there and God will speak to you.
This morning, I didn’t know what to write about, so I flicked through and ended up on Psalm 42.
It starts very familiarly. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you. But then, verse 5 takes a turn.
"Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise Him for the saving help of His presence."
There's so much honesty in that one verse. David isn't pretending everything is fine.
He is asking his own heart why it is so disturbed, the way you might sit a tired or troubled friend down and ask them how it's really going.
And then he tells himself what to do next.
Hope in God. For I shall still praise Him.
Still.
That's a word that can easily be missed, but I think it completely changes the whole sentiment of this line.
Still. In spite of. Even though this awful thing happened, or I don't feel like it.
And I've been reflecting on whether that little word is where trust and praise quietly meet.
I used to think trust and praise were different things that belonged to different days.
Trust for the harder ones. Praise for the easier ones. That the feeling came first, then the posture.
But David holds them in the same breath. I shall still praise Him.
Not because the hard thing or season is over, but because He is still there.
And it's teaching me that sometimes you have to lift your hands first, and then the heart slowly follows.
Because worship isn't really a feeling but more of a direction I'm facing.
It's my face turning up instead of down. It's me admitting, even when I don't have a tidy sentence to offer, that the One I'm turning toward is worth turning toward.
So today, if you don't feel like praising, know that we've all been there. Even David.
But maybe, together, we can let the hands go up a little. Not because anything has changed. Just because He is still worth it.
Praise the Lord.
Prayer.
Lord, praise the Lord, I lift my voice in worship, declaring Your goodness, celebrating who You are, honoring You with everything in me.
You deserve praise I haven't given, worship I've withheld, glory I've forgotten to offer while distracted by lesser things that captured my attention.
Teach me to make praise my default, my first response to waking, my reaction to blessings, my choice even in difficulty, a lifestyle not just a moment.
I praise You for who You are, for Your faithfulness that never fails, Your love that never ends, Your mercy that greets me new every morning.
Help me praise You when it's easy and when it's hard, when circumstances inspire worship and when they inspire complaint, choosing praise regardless of what I'm facing.
Remind me that praise puts everything in perspective, that worshiping You lifts my eyes from my problems to my God, that praise changes me even when it doesn't change my circumstances.
Give me a heart that overflows with praise, lips that speak Your goodness, a life that declares Your worth in everything I do and say.
Let me praise the Lord today with all that I am, holding nothing back, offering worship You deserve, celebrating the God who's worthy of endless praise.
In Jesus name,
Amen.
