I sat back with a sigh and thought about how good life was.”
“But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God, That I may declare all Your works.”
–Psalm 73:28 (NKJV)
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There are many things I don’t pretend to understand, but there is one that is not reasonable–that people would deny there is a God. I don’t mean they have to be Christians, but creation shows God, and the intricacies of the human body show there is a “Master Designer.” Yet man, in his foolishness, would try to create a better idea with evolution or try to make man autonomous–his own god. This next portion of Psalm 145 should be of great comfort to us. God is here, now, in the present. Contemplate the greatness of these few passages.
8 — The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy.
9 — The LORD is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.
10 — All Your works shall praise You, O LORD, and Your saints shall bless You.
11 — They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk of Your power,
12 — To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
13 — Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations. (NKJV)
Right off the bat, I am filled with awe and thankfulness. Those words of verse 8 should be a comfort to every Christian. Thank the Lord for His marvelous and wonderful grace. Thank the Lord that He does not strike us down for our foolishness and our sins. Then verse 9 puts forth the truth to everyone living. God is gracious to all. Look at the cross and His Son hanging on that wooden structure. Grace for all! Mercy for all! Yet, man is blind and foolish and refuses to look or believe in the great gift the Father gave in His Son. We can go further, if He would diminish the amount of oxygen in the air, man would die. God is keeping His creation in check for the good of man. There are many other examples that we could use here. Gregory the Great said, “It is a marvel that people are not always praising, since everything around us is continually inviting praise.” See, even Gregory could not understand the foolishness of mankind.
How do we bless God? Besides recognizing the gift of Jesus Christ, perhaps the best way is to make proper and good use of the things He has given us. In other words, be good stewards of all that comes our way. Use our time wisely, use our bodies and minds properly, make our gifts and talents count for the Lord. Someone said, “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything You gave me.'”
We tend to complain about the weather. What if God made changes to the weather? What kind of catastrophes would result? Some gripe when they have to get up in the morning, but don’t stop to realize that there is a day coming when they won’t get up. Death will have overcome them, therefore we should be rejoicing that the Lord has given us another day. There are those who walk around with the mully-grubs with swollen bottom lips from stepping on them. Shame, that should never be the plight of the believer. “Rejoice, and again I say rejoice,” can’t you just hear Paul shouting that when he got up in the morning?
Life itself should be a blessing to the Lord. He gave it to us to use for Him and His kingdom. Let’s be about the Lord’s business from the rising of the sun to the moment our eyes close in slumber. Instead of worrying and fretting we should be giving God the glory for the things He has done and for those things He is about to do. A good little saying to remember is, “Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night.” How do we make that happen? By making the most of our time, by working with our minds and hands for the Lord. “God is ‘faithful in all he says…gracious in all he does’–even when we are tested by fire.”
(Some translations, the NLT, NIV, ESV, NASB, HCSB, RSV have the following at the end of verse 13, or something similar — “The Lord is faithful in all His words and gracious in all His actions.” HCSB)
“And so through all the length of days
Thy goodness faileth never:
Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise
Within thy house forever.”
–Henry W. Baker