I will sing praise to God as long as I live.

 

Saturday, October 28, 2023


Psalms 143; 146

2 Kings 8:16-29

Matthew 17:14-27


I will sing praise to God as long as I live.


This Psalm displays to us a cross-section of the body of believers.


We open with a double statement of praise, an emphasis on the purest state of being. Praise is what we are made for – we are designed to worship God. Praise is a stance, a posture; it is the direction in which our souls are facing. We do not look inward, because we are finite. To look inward is to find a dead end. Instead, we look outward, at God, who is infinite. Praising God is to look at the One who is never-ending in His attributes and gifts, which is help, hope, faithfulness, food, freedom, sight, honour, righteousness and sustenance. This is what the body of believers looks like: all these individuals, each being blessed according to their needs, by God personally.


Throughout this Psalm we can sniff a hint of eternity. In the closing words, the whisper becomes a public announcement: The Lord reigns forever, for all generations.


If we each are individuals, every one of us having been given our own adventure story personally by God, we still walk in the footsteps of our ancestors who, having finished their own journey, feast at the heavenly banquet. We are the body of Christ; collectively, we all form His bride together. Not only those who went before us, either: our children, their children, and all the way down to when Christ returns, will these same prayers be prayed, the same scriptures be studied, the same God worshipped.


I will sing praise to God as long as I live. Not only will I personally live forever because of Christ’s work on the cross, but His blood also sustains the lives of His lovers past and His lovers future. Forever as an individual, and forever as one of many.

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