When we know God as our help (Ezer), manifested in Y’shua, our Saviour, and revealed through God’s Spirit, our Comforter, we should be moved to praise. The joy is, the Bible offers us so many points of entry for praising God, that we can stay with those before creating our own. In Today’s Holy Nougat, our favourite psalmist, David, instructs himself to praise God. His words offer us encouragement as we do likewise.
Psalms 103:2, 5 NIV
[2] Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits
[5] who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Soul-deep Praise
One of the things I love about David is his straightforward approach to life. Probably it was due to him being a shepherd, as his psalms speak to the human condition. For me, it is an invitation to be real with God. In a world that promotes mask wearing, David’s unfiltered psalms assure us that we actually can speak to God about everything.
David not only took his concerns to God, but he also encouraged himself in the Lord (see 1 Samuel 30:6). His ‘biography’ in 1 and 2 Samuel along with his psalms bear testimony that David faced a lot of challenges in life, especially after being anointed king. He remained humble, choosing to focus on God’s goodness, and often reverted to that in times of trouble.
Self-Check
Who is our ‘go-to’ person for the issues we face in life?
Application
One can surmise that life was not perfect when David penned this psalm, or perhaps things were running too smoothly. Hence the psalm began with instructions to his soul to bless the Lord. He didn’t stop at commanding his soul to do what might have felt impossible in that moment. Rather, David gave himself instructions on making that praise a reality. He reminded/instructed his soul to count his blessings.
The ‘little’ things. Those that we are likely to take for granted. Life. Not just life, though he mentions healing from disease, but stress-free living. How about that? Yes indeed. That’s what I heard in his statement that God satisfied his soul’s desires to the extent that David was as carefree as a child. (Remember the saying that some species of eagles disappear when their feathers and beaks need revitalising, and up on the mountain, they pick away every last feather and get rid of all the burdens until they are able to defend themselves and hunt once again? That’s what Ithink he’s referring to). It’s as though being stress-free took years off David’s life, as we would say in Jamaica.
Of course, living a stress-free life suggests that we have handed our problems over to God when they come our way.
Not if, but when.
For problems, trials, temptations are as guaranteed as death and taxes. But when we remind our souls that God IS our Ezer, then it becomes far simpler to say, ‘Lord, take the case, and give me the pillow‘ (i.e., we hand the case/situation over to you Lord, resting assured that You’ve got our backs).
David understood this from personal experience. It was as though he had anticipated Y’shua’s word of hope in Matthew 11:28-30: ‘Take my yoke (burden) upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you WILL FIND REST for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light‘.
Those are words to live for. Beyond that, those are words that should lead us once again to praise.
Soul deep praise.
For no matter what we face, we have the assurance that God’s got us covered, and it is well.
How do we get there, you ask. Let’s start like David did. We can count our blessings. Whether we check the little things item by item as we recall them, or challenge ourselves to find different things to use the alphabet in being thankful, it doesn’t matter. We might get a gratitude journal – I’m told they’re trending these days – and remember to tell God thank you. Or we might use the model prayer taught by Y’shua as a guide to thanksgiving. What matters is that our soul keeps score and credits all these blessings to God.
Can we do it siblings? We sure can.
Point to Ponder
According to David our system renews when we offer soul-deep praise to God. How badly do we wish to revitalise ourselves? It’s time to remember all God’s done for us and respond with praises.
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May all we seek be found in Christ
