Praise Enthusiastically
“I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.
My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.” Psalm 34:1, 2
I’m memorizing Psalm 34 this year and read this every day. I’ve been thinking about what these verses mean.
What does extol mean? I looked up the definition online which said this is a verb that means “praise enthusiastically.”
What will it look like in your life if you are praising the Lord enthusiastically at all times? I think many times we let the cares of this world weigh us down and we are doing anything but praising. Instead of praising we are complaining, worrying and grumbling. We seem to be enthusiastic about many things in our society. Is our Lord one of those things? We should be the most enthusiastic about Him! And did you notice the word always? I’ll admit that it is hard to be praising all the time.
Why does it matter if we are praising God or not? When we aren’t praising, we are not being a good example. Reading the next verse is a good reminder of why it IS important to be praising God. When we are praising Him for what He has done, we can be an encouragement to the afflicted. Then they will rejoice because of what they hear from our lips.
I know in my own life when I hear or read of an answer to prayer or something God has done, it encourages my heart. Because the other person is rejoicing I then rejoice also. It is like a domino effect of praise!
This verse has made me think about what things are on my lips and if they are truly praising the Lord. It is hard to always be praising, but this is where our focus needs to be. I hope you will consider what is on your lips today and think about how to enthusiastically praise the Lord this week.
Have a day of blessings!
Good post my friend.
Very nice post! My life would look a good bit different if I were to “Praise Enthusiastically”. Thanks for the encouragement to do that. I want to be part of that “domino effect”!!