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(presented by Lisa Bishop)
Have you ever felt in a slump—in a rut in life? Even in a spiritual rut? Maybe you feel rundown, depressed, or discouraged. You may even be in a long season of despair perhaps feeling hopeless or know someone close to you who does.
No matter where you are in your faith, following Jesus for five days or fifteen years, you will go through seasons and a series of highs, lows, and everything in between. For some reason we don’t talk about it. It’s almost as if it is taboo to talk about being a follower of Jesus and battling with doubt or despair at times.
I came to faith 23 years ago. A co-worker from my first job out of college and I became friends and as she shared her life with me, she expressed genuine interest in me. Through that relationship, I was introduced to Jesus.
In over two decades of following Jesus I have had highs and lows and everything in between. And I work at a church! I think sometimes we look at pastors and church staff as if they are immune to doubt, wavering faith and feeling downright spiritually depleted. We can believe the lie that lie, “If you are holy and really a follower of Jesus, if your faith were really real you would not feel spiritually dry or despondent.” Well, that is not true.
The other day I was experiencing a mild state of feeling depressed. I felt down and blue. The concerns and unknowns of life just started weighing on me. I am someone who likes control and certainty and on this day of feeling out of control and uncertain, I found myself in a slump. Sometimes in an effort to find relief from feeling out of sorts, it can be easy to binge on reruns of my favorite show, scroll through Facebook and Instagram or reach for food as comfort. But on this particular day, instead of checking out, I tuned in. I put in my earbuds and started to worship. When I worshiped, everything shifted.
Did you know that you are wired for worship?
God in his glory designed us so that worship literally impacts our brains and our minds—ultimately, our lives. Studies have shown that when we worship, God created us so that dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin are released that induce happiness and joy and boost our immune system. God designed us so that when we worship him, we experience decreases in depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. We experience more joy!
We often wait to worship until we feel like it but we are actually wired to worship. This is not positive thinking or a pep talk, this is a posture. God is worthy of our worship, and when we worship and praise him for his magnificence, our lives transform even if our circumstances don’t change. Worship changes us.
As my friend Becky, and author of “The 30-Day Praise Challenge,” says, “Praise is your intentional offering of worship, strengthening your faith and unlocking the key to joy no matter what your life circumstance.”
I want to talk about having a posture of praise and preaching the truth to yourself. Psalm 103 will be our praise guide.
Psalm 103 is a Psalm of David, the second King of Israel, God’s chosen king, and known as a man after God’s own heart. Some have attributed the Psalm to being written in David’s later years because he knew the grace and deliverance of God many times throughout his life. If you have never read through the Psalms, I highly recommend it. For the past two years I have been reading and dwelling on a Psalm a day.
One thing that stands out in Psalms is that the Psalmists bless God no matter their circumstance. A Psalm may begin with crying out to God in anger, frustration, fear, feelings of being forsaken by God, but the Psalmist remembers and declares truth. God, no matter what your circumstances try to tell you, is worthy of your praise. He never forsakes you. He is always faithful.
Psalm 103 demonstrates David’s pure worship from beginning to end. Let’s look at David’s posture of praise as he preaches the truth to himself and let it be our guide.
Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord oh my soul (Psalm 103:1). David opens by instructing and disciplining his heart to praise.
In Hebrew the word bless means to kneel, to praise. It gives us a visual of David’s posture of praise.
David is not giving God a holy high five. He is not giving God a half-hearted blessing. He is not squeaking out a praise like I can find myself doing at times. He is praising God in a way that says,
“With my whole heart, with my whole life, and with my innermost being, I bow in wonder and love before you, the holy God!” David is practicing some very intentional self-talk!Even in the midst of hardship David’s speaks directly to his heart, he is determined to discipline and to train his heart to praise. When you find yourself in challenging or uncertain circumstances, what is your self-talk?
As David blesses God, I can only imagine him recalling all of the ways he cried out to God throughout the years, all of the ways that he experienced the nearness of God in times of need, in the midst of his own failings and shortcomings, in suffering and difficulties, trials and troubles. David’s blessing God was not based on his circumstances, it came from a deep and personal knowing of God.
In verse 2 David tees up a long list of reasons to praise God and he starts by saying, “and forget not his benefits.” He is saying do not forget, do not ignore his benefits. Remember every single blessing. Remember that the benefits of God are based on the character of God.
As David says, “May I never forget the good things he does for me,” it is a reminder for us of how short term our memories can be when it comes to remembering God’s blessing and provision. I don’t know about you, but I can have a tendency to be forgetful. I can be forgetful when things aren’t going the way I want or when I am in the middle of a hard situation. I can become short sighted and focused on what’s missing rather than on the blessings before me. We can tend to forget. Our memories can have a tendency to hold onto grievances and what we don’t have rather than our blessings and we withhold praise from God.
But praise puts things in the proper perspective. In Psalm 103 David reminds us to preach the truth of the Gospel to ourselves. As he lists the reasons to bless God, he remembers bless the Lord, “who forgives all your sins.”
David wasn’t perfect. In his lifetime he committed murder and adultery, amongst many other sins against God and others. Here he instructs his soul to bless God for the forgiveness of his sin. When we see our great need for forgiveness we are more inclined to pour out praise to God.“ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Forgiveness is immediate through Jesus. This alone should cause our hearts to break out in gratitude and praise! Often, I don’t fully live from a place of being forgiven. If you are like me, I can feel like God is just waiting for me to screw up so that he has a reason not to love me. It’s like I am just waiting for him to say, “Ahh, you finally pushed me over the edge with that sin. I’m done with you.” If you ever feel like you can out sin God’s love for you, that my friend is false theology.
God loves you because he chose to and keeps on choosing to no matter what. Unlike human love, which is often fickle and temporary, God’s love never fails, no matter what! This is why we keep fighting for the Gospel to take deeper root in our hearts. We grow in our knowledge of the character of God and seeing God for who he is really. We put ourselves in a posture of praise and preach the truth to ourselves so that we experience the fullness of the life giving, life transforming benefits of God.
It really feels like a fight sometimes, doesn’t it? We do have an enemy who is the father of lies so we need to rehearse truth. We need to praise God and preach the truth, preach the Gospel to ourselves, daily. As a line in one of my favorite songs says, “My weapon is a melody. My weapon against fear, doubt and a faulty view of God is praise.” God is not waiting for you to screw up so that he can have a reason not to love you. He forgives all your iniquity. He forgives you when you mess up.
Then the Psalm goes on to list more benefits of God. He “heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion” (Psalm 103:3b-4). This word crowns means surrounds! God’s love and mercy cover you! They surround you!
“Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed (Psalm 103:5-6). David reminds us that God satisfies your life with good things! Ask him to help you see and experience satisfaction in him. God is a God of righteousness and justice and we can count on him to bring justice and right every wrong. It may feel as though evil is winning but Jesus will be victorious over oppression and darkness.
He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him (Psalm 103:7-8, 10-13).
Do we see God as an angry judge or for who he really is to his children—a compassionate Father who shows tender affection to his children?
As David preaches the truth to himself in this Psalm, his mind, his heart and his soul are disciplined to remember the character of God and be ushered into praise. He intentionally positions himself to recite and remember who God is and all that he has done. And this Psalm is for you, for me, to remember to do the same.
How often do you remember the benefits of God and position yourself with a posture of praise? How will you instruct your soul to bless the Lord and forget not his blessings especially in the midst of difficulties, disappointment and trials? How would your life, your relationship with God and others be different if you lived from a position of loved, forgiven, redeemed, chosen, and took a posture of worship and praise? Bowing down in wonder before God?
Blessing God comes from believing God and knowing who he is. Perhaps there are some things you need to unlearn about God. As Psalm 103 reminds us:
He does not:
- Easily anger
- Hold grudges against us when we sin.
He is Holy and He does:
- Forgive
- Heal
- Redeem
- Surround and cover you with unceasing love and mercy
- Satisfy you with good things
- Renew your strength and invigorate you with his life
- Right all wrongs and brings justice when you and others are oppressed
- Make his ways known to you through his Holy Spirit
- Act on your behalf
- Show you unending mercy and grace
He is your Father who shows you compassion.
Which God do you know? What do you need to unlearn about God to hold onto and experience who he really is? Ask him to help you know him. Blessing God comes from knowing you are loved by God, that he is for you.
We need to train our souls to remember to have a posture of praise as we preach the truth to ourselves. I want to invite you to take on a “praise challenge.” For the next five days spend ten minutes a day in pure worship and praise. You can turn on your favorite worship songs, write a list of all of the ways God has blessed you and been good to you. Take a walk and take in the beauty of God’s creation. Ask God to help you see his glory and all of the ways he is revealing his love and care for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see his work in your life and to help you have a posture of praise.
If you are in the midst of a trial, thank him that he is with you in the trial, bless him for his strength, wisdom, refuge, and grace.
If you desire a fresh awakening to the Holy Spirit’s voice and power, put yourself regularly in a posture of worship. Blessing God is a choice, not always motivated by feeling but a response to a Holy God. He is worthy of all of our worship and praise. Put yourself in a posture of praise and worship and see what happens.