Nougat 6

Guess what?! We made it through to the end of another work week. Thanks be to God. Today’s Holy Nougat invites us to praise.

“With every bone in my body I will praise him: “Lord, who can compare with you? Who else rescues the helpless from the strong? Who else protects the helpless and poor from those who rob them?”” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭35:10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Whether we can feel the bores in our bodies right now or not; can we feel our bones praising God? It could be that delicious tired attesting to a week of good hard work. Or it might be the sense of healthy well-being that comes from exercise or physical activity. Best of all, it could be our inner child getting the opportunity to dance enthusiastically before the Lord our Ged. And, should it be none of the above; I pray we are still able to praise the Lord.

I know that we might be familiar with the cliché, the blessings come down when the praise goes up; and while this may be somewhat true, I’d like to challenge us to praise God just because we can. It’s worth reminding God that God’s precious to us. We might feel better having done so.

We are probably also familiar with the other cliché, God inhabits the praises of the people (Psalm 22:3). While the cliché is more of a rough translation of the psalm, let’s understand it a bit more. We note that it is located within the body of the prophetic psalm (that captures one of Jesus’ seven last words on the cross). It may seem a bit incongruous to ‘My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken me?’, yet it also invites us to focus on God’s attributes even when life gets to be too much.

Furthermore, we may consider that there are psalms of ascent, that ushered the worshippers into the temple. In a sense we can see God being enthroned as our praises fill the temple (e.g. Isaiah 6). And since one act of worship involves bowing before the subject of our honor, then there is that sense of God inhabiting our praise AND once again, our bones are readied to praise the Lord.

So, if we wish to praise God this weekend and we consider our bodies the temple of the Lord, then not only will our bones join in worship; but we may also find God’s in residence (fully enthroned, with angelic praise accompanying our own) right there in our hearts.

Praying God’s enthronement in us this weekend!

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May all we seek be found in Christ