Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Why Should We Praise God? Psalm 107:8

God has been good to men, many see it and many do not.  It makes the heart of the poet cry out saying...

"Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men." Psalm 107:8, KJV.

THE POET'S LONGING
The first three words, "Oh that men..." expresses a longing for mankind to do what they ought.  It is the voice of one who longs for it to be so and wonders why that it is not happening.  To read these words you hear the psalmist saying, "If only men..."   He is aware of something that is being missed by the multitudes of men.  If we would do this thing one wonders what would happen.

TO PRAISE GOD
To praise God is the right thing to do and is the best response to our blessings.  Here we are faced first with God himself being the blessing; it says, "praise the Lord for his goodness." In other words praise God for God.  Of all the right things there is to do there is none more right than this, to praise God for his goodness.

GOD IS GOOD
That God is good is something we should be thankful for because what if God were not good?  If God were anything else he would be wicked.  As the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present God who has all authority to command the entire universe to be anything but good would be too horrible to imagine. We should thank God that he is good.

GOD DOES WONDERS
God is good and is doing good, he is not idle as if being good alone was enough; indeed, if God was idle he would not be good.  God lavishes His goodness on us; He gives us the air we breathe, food we eat, the world we live in, the abilities and talents we possess.  God not only spares us from immediate punishment for our sins but sent his One And Only Son to pay for our sins by dying in our stead on the cross.

GOD'S WORKS
Work is effort, costly, and involves risk; this is true of God's works for us.  He is active on our behalf: he is planning, watching, and seeing to it that the goal is met.  We might think that our lives are a chance but God is working in every detail.  This alone is a marvel, but more amazing is that he is doing wonderful works on our behalf and for our good.

To praise God is not to manipulate or ingratiate ourselves to God, but to do what is right. When someone does something nice to you then you express gratitude, why do we treat our Creator less well than strangers?

(c) Adron 7/18/12