Fill ‘er Up
As I walked through my neighborhood this past Christmas holiday, I admired so many beautiful decorations. Wreaths, bows, angels, snowflakes, and garland adorned several houses, and I soaked in the beauty of Christmas. Some families took a more whimsical approach and shared their Christmas spirit with large inflatable Santas and Reindeer. While fun to enjoy along with their twinkling lights after sunset, they were deflated and lifeless as I walked by in the daytime.
I saw one such deflated Santa on the grass and thought, “I feel like that sometimes!” His body lay crumpled in a useless heap, his arms splayed lifelessly, and his legs askew. The sight made my back hurt just to imagine it. And yes, I feel like that sometimes.
Perhaps many of us feel this way as winter holds us in its grip, the fun of the holidays is over, and the challenges of the year seem to be accumulating way too quickly. If only there were a remedy, something to fill us up again, that to which we could plug in and feel power and buoyancy pervade us once again …
I’d like to suggest a remedy from Scripture, a prescription to address and combat a tired, deflated, and discouraged spirit:
Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Psalm 150 (ESV)
These admonitions, these prescriptions for praise, do not leave room for our feelings. Our praise to God Almighty is not based on our feelings, circumstances, convenience, or preferences. The Psalmist says specifically to “praise him according to his excellent greatness!” We do not praise him according to our own mood or feeling, according to how much time we can spare, or according to how much we like the songs chosen by a designated worship leader. We do not praise him according to how our work is going, how the children are behaving, our feelings of loneliness, or our hurt. We are to praise the Lord according to His greatness, which is excellent, or, as some translations read, “exceeding.” Indeed, the greatness of the Lord exceeds any human measure we can imagine.
The Psalms provide many examples of praise and worship. We are admonished to “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits” (Ps. 103:2, ESV). The Psalmist also extols the Lord, saying, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable” (Ps. 145:3 ESV). When I shift my attention to the greatness of God, His majesty and excellence overwhelm me and inspire pure praise for Who He is and all that He has done. The benefits I receive from Him result in a list that has no end.
Whether in corporate or private worship, we praise God based on His ultimate worthiness, His mighty acts, His gracious and redemptive character, His patience, kindness, and love toward us—His excellent greatness. When we focus our praise on God’s greatness instead of on ourselves and our feelings, our praise connects us to God, and His Holy Spirit infuses us with power and life.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31
Even the strongest among us experience fatigue of the body, mind, and soul. But spending time in God’s presence strengthens us and fills up the empty, deflated places in our spirit. So if you feel tired, deflated, or worn thin today, don’t wait until your strength returns to praise the Lord. Let praise be the very thing that lifts you. Praising God according to His excellent, exceeding greatness is honoring to the Lord, and of great benefit to us, so much so that I pray each of us will fill up on praise today!