A Saturday Evening Post

Amid inflation concerns, I found myself thinking about praise this week.

Praise Him in the morning, Praise Him in the noon time, Praise Him when the sun goes down.  

I have been to the grocery store several times this week. Every time I go, I come away with a little storm cloud over my head. It seems like the cost goes up several times a week. As I pay more at the pump and my paycheck does not go as far, I find that I have not been as much in the mood to praise God. It’s quite possible that I might have taken my eyes off Jesus. Oh, I have been spending plenty of time in prayer, beseeching the Father’s mercy. but I’ve been praying the needle on my gas gauge will not drop to “E” quite so fast.  

I recently read an article last night about a horrible sex ring that was uncovered, and I was horrified to think how broken our world is. It seems like everywhere I look I see our world crumbling. Of course, my mind always returns to Ukraine and Taiwan where I’ve been.

Praise, prayer and, worship 

Praise is different for everybody. We found that out when we went to Ukraine. Many of the songs in the songbooks were translated from English, so we were familiar with them, but their favorites were traditional Ukrainian and Russian composed music with spiritual words.  These are sung almost always in a minor key, and slowly…verrryyyy, verrryyy sloooowwly.  

Nina was the first Christian in our congregation in Nikopol. An older lady, her favorite song was this very slow song, “God is easy to seek”. She always joked with my husband that he played too fast. Even after 10 years, he could not play slowly enough. Think funeral dirge.

As I thought about my small view on the world, I found myself thinking about Paul and Silas.

“And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison. Commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet into the stocks. But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.”

– Acts 16:23-25.  

Recently beaten, having their feet placed in stocks, in the inner prison, at midnight, and we find them singing praises? Maybe high gas prices do not feel like quite as much of a problem.  

We often separate praise and prayer. On the other hand we usually treat praise and worship as synonyms. In reality, there is overlap in all three.  Much of what we do in prayer we also do in song. 

“Our Father in heaven, let your name be glorified” The opening words to the Lord’s prayer are just as easily the lyrics for a praise hymn. 

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

– Matthew 5:16 

Here, actions eventually lead to praise on the part of non-Christians.  We were created for praise. When we praise others, we do it to bring up their spirits, but praising God is done for a different reason: to lift our own spirits. 

Whether in prayer or in another form of praise, we are worshiping, and yet, worship is not tied to an activity, a location, or a particular time. It is the attitude in which we do a thing. I can sing the songs or recite the words and still not worship in my heart. Worship requires the humbling of my will to His. 

If you take your Bible and let it fall open in your lap, There is a good chance that the first words you see will belong to David. He composed many songs throughout many different circumstances in his life: after commiting sin, or while living as an outlaw as he dodged Saul’s attempts on his life, and even as a refugee, forced to flee after his own son turned the country against him. Throughout these events, he found comfort in praising God. Many of his songs, are about the magnificence of God and His mercy. Maybe his songs were the way he reminded himself that God is in control when he did not feel that way.   

Here is a rough translation of the first two verses of the Russian song I mentioned earlier: 

God is easy to seek. God is easy to find. God , He is grace, He is light on the way. This is my love, this is your good, The lighthouse in the midst of storms, the rest at the end of wars.  

God is the very first breath, the cry of a newborn child, The threshold to new life, and alluring moment to eternity. God, He is our judge, the eternal guardian of truth. God is my everything, and our conscience’s voice. 

As the conflict in Ukraine rages, the first verse rings true more than ever. I am not there, however. I am here, fighting my own battles, just as you do, wherever you are.  I hope that, together, we will find comfort in these words.