Speaking well of others and God is a Praise

Psalm 134:1-3

“Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord!  Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord!  May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!”

We all need praise, and it is something built deep in our DNA, the desire to have someone, especially parents tell us, great job!  When that happens, you feel the pleasure of accomplishing the task.  It does not end with mom and dad, it is something we seek from our spouse, our boss, and those we have as friends and family.

As I looked at this Psalm and because I’m not Jewish and often as one studies the Bible, I find I need to understand words, culture, and what is happening at that time in history, I referred to my HCSB Study Bible. These are a few of the jewels I came away with, the word praise and bless are the same word in Hebrew.  When we bless a person by speaking well of them, and when we speak well of God it’s a praise.

I also found that after the exile the people had for a time a heart attitude of servants and were designated the faithful community.  In the evening hours they came together for congregational singing at the temple.  Today often the word servant is looked down on and we are too busy with important tasks like select sports, T.V., computers, and video games or cell phones to make it on Sunday morning, much less congregational worship.

Where have we gone with the congregational worship, when we turn down the lights on the congregation and put lights on a stage with some dudes with a micro-phone singing so loud it hurts your ears.  We have come a long way it may be the social trend but is it worship?  Maybe, but it is also noise, and in my life I’ve found it’s hard to hear from God in the noise, I’ve heard His voice in the still of the morning and in bed after I’ve turned off the noise in my home.

Let me give you a thought to ponder on, the person who cleans your house, cooks your food, and washes your clothes or the husband that goes to work each day to give you a lifestyle that you enjoy, praise them!  Or it may be the person who cleans the table at the fast food places you eat or the older lady that is working tables at the restaurant or older gentleman who cleans up your mess.  They probably never planned on doing so but life had a turn they were not expecting.  Will you take time to notice them, to thank them for the service they have rendered to you and your family.

What about the staff at church?  Will you stop and praise them for doing the work of ministry, and let’s not go there, but as long as we are pondering; is that not what God calls all of us to do?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice