Praise the LORD .

Praise ~ Halal (Hebrew) : to shine; hence to make a show; to boast; and thus to be (clamorously) foolish; to rave; causatively to celebrate. “Praise.” There’s a certain train of mind, thinking that when we come before the Creator of the Universe corporately we must tame ourselves. We must present ourselves as dignified. And for some it’s not God who they imagine they must appear dignant, but rather their neighbor in the room with them. Praise is to the contrary. The maker of us knows our innermost being down to the deepest flaw, weakness, and spiritual pimple. He knows well the extent of our fallen nature. Sometimes it’s so easy to be willing to lay one’s self open and honest in the quietness of worship, but maybe not so in the clamour of praise. God invites us to get a little crazy…even to the point of foolishness in the eyes of the world. This indignant act is to create havok in our innermost, we might stick out a little but we’re sticking out to declare God…not ourselves. Besides. What kind of relationship is it if we can’t get a little crazy every once in a while?

Praise, O servants of the LORD ,
praise the name of the LORD .
Let the name of the LORD be praised,
both now and forevermore.
From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
the name of the LORD is to be praised.

Not just in distance of the physical globe, but in the stretch of every human heart. Let the name of the Lord be praised. In the rising of good times to the setting in the desolate valleys, let the name of the LORD be praised in the heart of the one who’s heart is devoted to Him. Let my life be a chorus of foolish love, sung with the crescendos and decrescendos of life. With emotion and honesty let the timbre of my life be a heart in love with the God of the universe.

The LORD is exalted over all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.
Who is like the LORD our God,
the One who sits enthroned on high,
who stoops down to look
on the heavens and the earth?

The natural universe cannot contain its Creator, who is beyond the bounds of our imaginations, comprehension, and knowledge. But this unreachable One has reached us, created us, and has made ever so apparent that He wants everything to do with us. He who is so pure, good, just, perfect, and surpremely powerful, loves us in our impurity, badness, unjustice, imperfection, and weakness, and has openly invited us to a friendship in which we will be made more like Him if we respond. While there is none like Him, He created us to be known, and to know Him.

He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
he seats them with princes,
with the princes of their people.
He settles the barren woman in her home
as a happy mother of children.

The burnouts and the spiritually bankrupt usually have a better chance of answering God’s call to the ethereal relationship with Him, because they know that they need Him. Sometimes the best connection with God is face down on the dirt, and the best posture to hear Him is in the ash heap. It’s those that He chooses to lift up, maybe not to public honor but to a place even higher. A place with Him, a place of autority, a place of Glory, but not of a glory of ourselves but of Him. What may be the world’s idea of a scary judge of talent, sometimes is God’s top choice for leadership. Go figure. God doesn’t look at the posture of stature, but the posture of the heart.

Praise the LORD.