This psalm/prayer was written by David after he left the palace of the king of the Amalekites.
Here is the story in brief: This event happened in the middle of the 8 years when Saul was chasing David all around that part of the world to eliminate what he thought was threat to his kingship. David thought that he could offer his military services to the Amalekites in exchange for a place to live. He had not been in the palace for long when he realized that the king was terrified of him and was going to look for a reason to kill him.
So when David was brought before him, David acted crazy. He had spittle and drool all over his beard, face and clothes. He also talked with great fervency about strange things.
The king listened for few minutes that said to his guards to throw him out of the city because he had enough crazy people in his kingdom without adding a crazy Jew to the mix.
You have to admit for a little while David was facing the junkiest thing possible – death. In this life we all have junk that weighs us down. It sometimes mounts up to a huge pile that seems to overwhelm us and often leads to depression. In these three verses David gives us a very useful tool to use when faced with all the junk that naturally comes our way. He says:
I will praise the Lord all the time. That’s pretty much all-inclusive.
His praises will be the dominant thing that I say. That covers just about all of life.
As a matter of fact my whole life will be praise to the Lord. I will do it so much that even those who are poor (in spiritual matters and economic matters) will also praise Him.
Then David talks to you and me when he says: Come on glorify the Lord with me and let’s praise His name together.
If you are being overwhelmed with the JUNK of life, let me suggest to you with David to praise the Lord.
In my father’s latter years he and I used to play golf. Every time as we were on the first tee, he would say: “What a beautiful day the Lord has given us. It’s so good to be alive in it.” I could never understand his unabashed optimism because some of those days were lousy, cold, rainy, sleety and miserable days. Yet there he was praising God for the great day. Now many years later I understand why he was praising God for everything. It was because he knew that without that praise the biggest piece of junk in life was staring at him would overwhelm him. He was in the last half of the stages of terminal cancer.
As I was writing these words to the song Praise the Lord by Russ Taff flooded over my mind:
When you’re up against a struggle, that shatters all your dreams
And your hopes have been cruelly crushed by Satan’s manifested schemes
And you feel the urge within you to submit to earthly fear
Don’t let the faith you’re standing in seem to disappear
Praise the Lord, He will work through those who praise Him
Praise the Lord, for our God inhabits praise
Praise the Lord, for the chains that seem to bind you
Serve only to remind you that they drop powerless behind you
When you praise Him
Would you join me in prayer and praise to the Lord. He lives in our praise. If that praise in coming from us as a lifestyle then the Living God moves in and inhabits us even more. That means that something is forced out and that is the JUNK of life.
Praise the LORD!
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