Some days it’s just hard to be excited about God. We wake up and it’s raining outside, or we’re feeling depressed or overwhelmed, or we’re facing a major tragedy. Or worse yet, our fantasy football team just got crushed for yet another week. In fact there are far too many days that I find it difficult to be excited by God. Intellectually I want to worship him, but emotionally I just can’t seem to drag myself out of my rut. I feel tired and I think I lack the energy I need to take another step.
This is usually where I want to give up, or at least take some time off. Sometimes I say, “God won’t really notice.” Or, “I deserve this, I’ve been faithful!” Of course neither of these are actually true. And if I am really honest about it, the challenges in my life are often totally insignificant in the overall scheme of things. There are billions of people who have it far worse than I do. One of these people happened to be David, King of Israel You know, of David and Goliath fame.
David had this knack of always finding himself in trouble. His life was characterized by people wanting to kill him! I have yet to face a single death threat, so I think he probably had a few more things to worry about than I do. And yet what do I find David doing in the midst of yet another assassination attempt? Praising God.
That’s right, he was actively praising God despite his circumstances. I’m really struck by the words he uses in Psalm 71 to describe his actions. He doesn’t say, “I’m thinking about worshiping you” or “sometimes I will praise you.” He says, “I will praise you more and more” (v. 14), “I will proclaim your mighty acts” (v. 16), “I declare your marvelous deeds” (v. 17), “my lips will shout for joy” (v23).
Proclaim. Declare. Shout. Those are all active words. David may have been suffering. He may have been heartbroken by more people wanting him dead. (You know that has to mess with your self esteem after a while…) But through it all, and to his core, he actively praised God.
God is worthy of our praise no matter what’s going on in our lives. We shouldn’t hold back from telling people how awesome he is no matter what we feel like.
God – You are so awesome that sometimes I forget just what you’ve done for me. I know my heart is often fickle and I’m easily distracted, but you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I am so grateful for you!
