When Your Soul Needs a Reason to Praise
Some mornings the praise just comes on its own, easy as breathing. The coffee is hot, the light is coming in low and gold through the window, and a man doesn’t have to reach for gratitude, it just finds him.
Other mornings are not like that. You wake up and the weight is already sitting on your chest before your feet hit the floor, and praise is not a feeling waiting to happen. It is a decision you make on purpose, jaw set, before the day talks you out of it.
David knew both kinds of mornings. He was a man who had danced before the ark and also a man who had hidden in caves wondering if the next sunrise would be his last. In the middle of all that living, he sat down and had a talk with his own soul. He didn’t wait for someone else to preach him into praise. He preached to himself.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” Psalm 103:1 (KJV)
That is not a man offering God a tired little nod on his way out the door. That is a man calling every last piece of himself to the table, his heart, his memory, his aching muscles and his worried mind, and telling every piece of it to get in line and bless the Lord together.
There is something in that for anyone carrying a full plate right now, a hard season at work, a decision that won’t resolve, a future that will not hold still long enough to get a good look at it. Stop where you are and breathe. Set that worry down like a sack you have been hauling too long, and start remembering instead.
Remember the prayer that got answered when you had nearly quit praying it.
Remember the door that opened after you had already made peace with it staying shut.
Remember the strength that showed up right when yours ran out, strength that was not yours to begin with.
Praise is not a man pretending the trouble is not real. Praise is a man standing in the middle of real trouble and declaring, out loud if he has to, that the Lord is bigger than all of it.
So today, have that same talk David had. Tell your soul the truth. God is still good, His mercy has not run dry, and His love has not shifted an inch. And when you are done telling it, do not stop at a whisper of thanks. Give Him everything you’ve got.
Bless the Lord with all that is within you.
Today’s Reflection:
What is one thing God has done that you can praise Him for today?
