Devotionals

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Praise, O servants of the LORD,
Praise the name of the LORD!
Blessed be the name of the LORD
From this time forth and forever more!
From the rising of the sun to its going down
The LORD’s name is to be praised.
The LORD is high above all nations,
His glory above the heavens.
Who is like the LORD our God,
Who dwells on high,
Who humbles Himself to behold
The things that are in the heavens and in the earth?
He raises the poor out of the dust,
And lifts the needy out of the ash heap,
That He may seat him with princes –
With the princes of His people,
He grants the barren woman a home,
Like a joyful mother of children.
Praise the LORD!

(Psalm 113)



Well before arriving at the end of Psalm 113:3 my heart felt the prick. My grand-daughter turns one tomorrow, and as a remnant of playing “peek-a-boo” loves to look at the world through splayed fingers. That’s what I felt my heart doing as a read, looking at my yesterdays. No grin, however, spread across my face, nor did innocent pleasure sparkle from my half concealed eyes. No! Chagrin colors the lens through which I peer, even now, for these psalmist’s words could not have flowed from my pen, not today, not yesterday, not in a world of my yesterdays.

What happened to the praise? Real praise, not the compulsory words of praise sung on Sunday morning, or the word ‘praise’ that peppers my prayers then falls, like a rock, once uttered, rather than soaring heavenward?

Does it lie entombed within four walls? Buried in the rubble of busyness? Unbirthed in a fiber-optic world that runs throughout the gamut of my days, cutting me off from the ‘rising of the sun and the going down of the same?’

Somewhere, within the life we’ve built for ourselves in our 21st century world, we’ve severed a connection, an organic umbilical cord linking our souls to heaven’s throne room. That lifeline throbbing with awe as our eyes, designed to perceive the splendor of Jehovah in the majesty of His handiwork flowing ceaselessly around us, looks with wonderment on every fingerprint of His heart left on our day. At the fingerprints visible, everywhere. Fingerprints sometimes difficult to recognize on plaster, and masonry, and steel-beamed towering monoliths, but un-missable in the budding of a rose, in the infinitesimal clinging drop of dew on the slenderest blade of grass, in a robin’s early morning song welcoming the beginning of a new day.

Praise finds new birth in that first streak of light bursting brilliantly over the furthest horizon, reminding us anew of Light ... after the darkness of night. Praise soars upon the wind, where birds gloriously riding currents overhead bring to our remembrance our own souls borne on eagles’ wings far above our worldly cares as we find our rest in Him.

Praise bubbles up in a baby’s laughter, a child’s embrace, and the setting of the sun marking a day now done, held securely in the Almighty’s hand as we lay our head down to rest at the close of day, in peacefulness and blessing.

Truly, there is none like Jehovah, the Lord Almighty, for though He dwells high above the highest heavens, He walks here below, among us, in faithfulness and mercy. He comes to the dust, to the dung-heap, to wherever His beloved lies. He comes bearing love, unconditional love, a love that raises up and restores. He bares a heart overflowing with a love, a love seeking out the ‘servant’ and serving him hope. Hope, where praise lies planted, in abundance, waiting to find utterance in a harvest that grows a hundred fold.

Where has praise gone? May it this day have found its home, from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, within my own heart.


© 23 August 2005
DeAnna Brooks

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