Extol Him

Psalm 117

“Praise the Lord, all nations!  Extol him, all peoples!  For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord!”

What a blessed life I’ve lived, I had parents that would be considered good hardworking people, they had three children, I was the youngest.  When we were children we did not understand that everyone was not like our family.  We walked or took a city bus if we wanted to go downtown.  It was not often we went to town, for we were very limited on resources.  But once more we had food to eat and clean clothes, they may have been made or patched by Mom, but they were always clean.  In that I grew-up in Corpus Christi, most places we wanted to go were not over a five-mile walk, and our small Baptist Church was only about a two mile plus walk, and if the church had services the Rice family was there.  

Did I tell you about how I did not understand how blessed I was, living in Texas, in the South at a time when we had no T.V. or computers, and we had few toys, but we always had a ball, and we played baseball at the big park or football.  We picked or got picked by those that showed up to be on their team and we got a long and worked out our problems.  

Did I tell you that Texas is a big state, at that time one respected authority, teachers could give you a whipping and you did not tell your parents, or they might give you another one at home.  You said yes sir and yes mam to anyone ten years older than you, and in our home we ate together and prayed together.

What does that have to do with the two verses above?  In the environment we  grew-up in, our parents taught us to fear the Lord, and I learned that with the fear of the Lord, is the beginning of wisdom.  Now move forward 77 years later, many families do not have the fear of the Lord, they have no respect for authority, and often have no understanding why they are unhappy, and believe if they just had bigger and better stuff, life would be great.  Most are well educated, and many have good paying jobs, but live from pay-check to pay-check.  They have no hope for they have chosen a little god to serve, one that cannot give them what the soul longs for, a relationship with God’s only Son.

Now the kicker, as a follower of Christ are you home sick, are you looking forward to seeing your Lord?  He’s coming back and maybe you need to once again read the Revelation to John, chapters 19-21.  Because when Christ returns, all nations and all people will bow and give praise to the One that is faithful and loves all people and desires that no one parish, but that all come into a relationship with the Son.  So as did the Psalmist, we close this paper with Praise the Lord and Hallelujah!

From the Back Porch,

Bob  Rice