June 20 | Psalm 95:1-7

David Thompson
Jun 19
3 min read

DAILY READING

REFLECTION

Give Praise

by Dave Thompson

Today's scripture passage is one of praise and joyful emotion. It covers all that the author (anonymous) could raise to lift up the name of the Lord.

I have been told that we should start our daily prayers with the thankful expression of our love for God. I must admit that this doesn't come naturally for me. I find myself feeling that I am reading off a script and being repetitive. I have looked at the great prayer that the Lord gave us called the "Lord's Prayer." It was spoken 2000 years ago and is found in Luke 11:2-4. It was written and has been edited since. It begins with "Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be your name..."

So the first myth of my prayer life is to think that "reading from a script or speaking from memory" is not any good. All I have to do is to get to "Forgive us our debts, (no trespasses) as we forgive the debts, (no trespasses) of others." You see even the many denominations after 2000 years can't agree on what the prayer should say. For clarity, our church says "trespasses."

Then there is the affirmation of who He is and why we honor Him. It says, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." Here we are telling God that we understand that we are people of His will. We continue by asking finally for His support in our lives. "Give us this day our daily bread (manna) and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us." I am a bit confused by the next piece, "Lead us not into temptation," as I have been taught that God doesn't do any bad things to us like leading us into temptation. The prayer goes on to say, "but deliver us from evil." And ends with "for thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the glory forever. Amen"

You see all praise and supplications grow off of this magnificent root prayer. The praising as in Psalm 95 and evidenced in "The Lord's Prayer," is crucial. We are His flocks of the fields and He will care for us, comfort us and never leave us. For that, He deserves all of the praise that can be formed by our mouths or thought in our heads. It can be somewhat repetitive, but when you are praising everything God has done, it will be repetitive in a sense. So, relax and let it flow. Get emotional at times and perhaps have goosebumps as you realize through your prayers of praise that He is worth it all.

Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you for your very being. You are the one who continuously tried to give your people a way out of being condemned, but until you gave yourself on the cross, people being human, always failed you. Give us thankful hearts and help us when our prayers begin to feel dry. It is the trick of the devil and we need to praise through that and accept and praise the great Savior that You are! Amen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DAVE THOMPSON

I am the administrator of the Daily Worship Blog. My wife, Carla, and I have been attending UALC for seven years at the 9 o'clock service at Mill Run. We have two children, Catherine and Aaron. I have been a Christian for 53 years and am thankful that my Savior has given me two spiritual gifts that have carried me both spiritually and vocationally all my life: they are teaching and administration. I look forward to spending many years here at UALC to serve my Lord and Savior.