In the assembly I will praise you.

Thursday, November 9, 2023


Psalm 22:1-22

2 Kings 14:1-16

Matthew 21:33-46


In the assembly I will praise you.


Praise is the highest action a human being can perform. It elevates the senses; enriches the emotions. Praise is what we were built for.


Praising the Lord God Almighty is the intended aim of our praising nature. To praise the Lord is to step out of the material and into the spiritual. Not spiritual in the sense of amorphous blobs, serenely floating through the clouds; that is fantasy. True spirituality is to recognise that this material universe is incomplete – by adding the truly spiritual, our bland matter becomes rich and magnified holy matter.


So, praise is what we are made to do. Praising the one true God makes us complete. To praise God means to infuse the material with the spiritual and make it something greater than the sum of its parts.


We can praise God doing anything – walking the dog, brushing our teeth, singing songs of worship – they are all true actions of someone acting truly human. When these things are done as praise first and whatever it is second, that is living in heaven on earth.


Today’s Psalm is a prophecy of Christ’s crucifixion. Jesus even quoted it on the cross as He died. It is a timely reminder: a reminder we need to hear every day. It is a reminder that even when all looks like hope is lost, the darkness is but temporary, and we will all eventually be brought through that darkness into God’s marvellous light.


Christ willingly went to that cross because He knew He would come out the other side praising His Father in heaven. Jesus suffered the wrath of the Father on that cross – whatever we are suffering is far less in comparison. If Jesus knew how good the good times were going to be, then we draw strength from His example. Because we will come through this present darkness, into God’s glorious light, if we love Jesus. And when we do, we will be there in the assembly of all the saints and angels, praising God, living truly and fully, forever.

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