A Prescription for Praise
We have all become familiar with the symptoms of coronavirus. Medical professionals tell us that the most common ones are dry cough, high fever, and shortness of breath. I am not a doctor, but I believe there are other symptoms of coronavirus like fear, anxiety, and a sense of dread. Even though everyone is not infected with coronavirus, everyone has been affected by coronavirus. I know for me that I do not currently have it in my body, but it is constantly on my mind.
Here is what I want. I want someone to assure me that I'm not going to get it. I want someone to reassure me that my family is not going to get it. Or, if I get it, I want someone to set my mind at ease that it isn't going to be that bad.
You would probably like to have those assurances as well. But no one can give them to us.
God doesn't even give us these assurances, but He does have something for His people. God prescribes praise. The Bible says that it is good for us to give thanks and to praise the Lord.
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night, to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.
Psalm 92:1-3
Morning and Evening with Music
Whenever the doctor prescribes a medication, it comes with instructions. I recently had a prescription that called for the medication to be taken morning and evening, with a meal.
When it comes to praise, Psalm 92 says we should praise the Lord morning and evening and that it goes well with music.
Morning and evening is one of the Bible's favorite devotional phrases. It does not mean that we should constrain our times of praise to morning and evening. It means that we have inexhaustible reasons to praise the Lord. "Morning and evening" means that we should fill our days with praise.
But the phrase does point us to an essential spiritual discipline. It is one that would be especially helpful during the coronavirus pandemic. It would be good for us to begin and end our day by thinking of reasons to praise the Lord.
How do you begin and end your day during this pandemic? News? Social media? That is a prescription for worry and anxiety. Encourage your mind in the morning with praise. Ease your mind in the evening with great thoughts of God.
If you can, do it with music. Music breaks down barriers. It releases emotion. There is something about music that makes things memorable. No one "says" the ABC's, you sing them. There is something about putting the great truths of God to music that makes them stick.
When it comes to praise, take two a day with music! Praise the Lord!
Bible Study
Read Psalm 92:1-5.
- What does this passage teach us about the nature of praise?
- List any principles in the passage that you can apply.
- What does this passage call for you to do?
Challenge
Begin and end the next 7 days with praise. Write out 3 reasons in the morning to praise the Lord and 3 reasons at night. Meditate on those reasons and express them to God in prayer.
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