Praising God isn't always about Trumpeting Delight

Scripture Verses That Caught my attention Today: Psalm 71:19b-20 You who have done great things,
O God, who is like you?
20 You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
you will bring me up again.

Observation: Essentially the Psalmist praises and hopes in God even though the Psalmist also believes that the troubles and calamities he has faced were from God as well.

Application: Real faith, it seems to me, is able to praise God even (and perhaps especially) in times of trouble. Any schmuck can praise God when things are going well, just as loving ones’ friends is a piece of cake. But since Jesus said to love ones’ enemies, it’s no surprise that the Psalmist essentially serves as an example of one who praises God in good times and in bad.

Now, this is not always easy. In today’s reading from Matthew 26, Jesus isn’t exactly happy about the journey before him. Initially he prays in the garden to avoid it. Later, however, he concedes to the impending journey by yielding to the Father’s will. So praising God is not always about trumpeting our delight in suffering, but in demonstrating our trust in God’s ability to revive us again, even from the depths of the earth.

Prayer: Lord, the ‘great’ things you have done are sometimes puzzling and don’t always seem so, well, great. Yet your creative work is still visible in all of life and especially in your ability to bring new life out of death. I’m seeing it on the farm even now as I look out over the fields. The seeds from the crops that “died” last fall are already at work greening up the universe. May the same be true of us as we die to ourselves and rise to new life in you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included: 2 Samuel 17, Psalm 71, and Matthew 26)