Praise be to you, Lord God, for your wonderful wisdom working consistently in the lives of your children, bringing protection, guidance, goodness, suffering and difficulties. You know what is best, you know what is right. You give opportunity for faith-responses, for glory-giving, for grace-demonstrations, for volitional praise, for clenched teeth obedience. These are the purpose for our existence: to bring honor to you, to be reflectors of your glory, to exalt your name and your Word above all other things.
I praise you for another day, another opportunity to live for you, to live by faith, to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving and thereby honor you while opening the way so your salvation can flow further into my future and that of those around me. (Ps. 50:23)
Psa 11:1 “In the Lord I put my trust;” [Yes, Lord, I willfully choose to trust you, not myself, not people, not circumstances, not power nor politicians. You alone are the One to rest in, for you are Powerful, All-knowing, All-seeing, All-loving. I choose to praise you in and for all things, for the difficult as well as the delightful. Your faithful, sinless, errorless character, displayed in the rich outpouring of your Love in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, is all the proof we need that you are good. I choose to trust you.]
“How can you say to my soul, ‘Flee as a bird to your mountain’?” [No mountain will save me, no mountain will love me, no mountain is impregnable. Only you, Lord, are an actual, adequate refuge and strength, my High Tower, my Mighty Rock. To you, Lord, I will flee when worry, fear, danger or loss threaten. To you I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving—praising you when it costs me, when I don’t feel like it. Your help is all I need.]
Psa 11:2 “For look! The wicked bend their bow, They make ready their arrow on the string, That they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart.” [If I fly to temporal help, I make myself vulnerable to attacks of the enemy. If I set my heart on a desired solution rather than God’s glory, I have made myself open to attack, to loss, to failure, pain and death.
However, if I set my heart on praising you, Lord, rather than on having my way, my desire, my plan, than You will shield my head in the day of battle. I may not got what I desire, but I will be able to exalt your name in praise, fulfilling the purpose you have for my life and live in the freedom of knowing You will do what is best.
What a privilege to live for you, my Great King, Ruler of the universe, Spinner of the Earth, Bringer of the dawn, Beginner and Ender of time. You are the One to be exalted, praised, honored and worshiped. I bow before you in surrender, I rise up to obey you this day with all my heart. May the mediations of my heart and the words of my mouth be pleasing to You, my mighty Rock and my Redeemer. (Ps 19:14)]
