Sing Praises

Psalm 69:34-36

34 Let heaven and earth praise Him, The seas and everything that moves in them. 35 For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah, That they may dwell there and possess it. 36 The descendants of His servants will inherit it, And those who love His name will dwell in it

Examine / Explain

At the end of this Psalm, David reminds us that everything will praise God. He is the God of salvation for His people. Those who serve the Lord will inherit the Kingdom of God, for they love his name and dwell in it, as well as their descendants.

How do I apply this in my life?

Where do I dwell? Do I sing praises to the Lord? Do I only sing praises when things are going my way? Do I only thank Him when I see a blessing that benefits me? Where does my heart dwell? Only in the things that make me happy? That seems very temporal. There are things that deal with eternity at play here. And all I can focus on is where my car is about to fall apart or how much I must spend on my van to fix it. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and gives freely. Not that I don’t have to steward what He has given us, but if I am doing my part and everything around me still falls to pieces. God is God, and He is still good. I should still sing praises to Him through the hills and valleys. He is the keeper of my salvation and my eternity. I am still in this old battle of I can trust Him with my eternity, but I question His judgment when I think I don’t have enough temporal things. How dare I? I am regaining focus. I am taking off my blinders to see what is important around me. Relationships! Loving one another in truth and grace. I look out at culture and see that the value of treating each other with respect and dignity no longer exists. Everyone wants to yell and scream, and if the opposition can’t see or agree with their point, then the opposition should be annihilated. Whatever happened to “agree to disagree” and move on with life? Where is the civility of knowing that even in if I don’t believe what you believe, we can still talk, have conversations, and still be around each other? I can think that someone is wrong in their beliefs and still see them as an image bearer of God. They are human. If they don’t have Jesus, they need Him, AND they can reject Him, AND we can still hang out together. Again, I ask, where do I dwell? Do I really live in the place that I see loving others? How about just loving other believers? We are to be known as Christ’s followers by the way we love other Christ’s followers. How “Christians” treat fellow believers is a stumbling block for non-believers. Why would anyone who doesn’t believe in Christ want anything to do with a faith where we treat our own so poorly? They are already hurting and looking to fit in somewhere. Why would they come to us if we look like everything else in culture?

What is my response?

Father, I want to be a reflection of Your Son. I want to love others well. I want to share the truth of who You are and do it in a loving way. I want to do that in a personal way. Not yelling and screaming at people, which You already know is not my character anyway. But I want to lose the fear of sharing the gospel. I want others to know You like I do. Not that I have it figured out or ever will. I what others to have a personal relationship with You. I want others to see the value of dwelling with You. To have a heart change and stop focusing on the temporal things and lock eyes on the eternal. For us to understand what joy really is and sing your praises forever and ever. To know that our circumstances doesn’t dictate our joy. To know that even in what we consider to be chaos around us. The God of everything still shall be praised because He is God, and He is good. Amen