Do you ever struggle to praise God in your prayer, as I do? Do you wander when you pray? You are not alone. Praise and prayer are crucial to the Christian life. But for some people, these come naturally, but most of them struggle. They end up repeating the same words over and over and end prayer unsatisfied. It was one of my biggest spiritual challenges and struggle. I find it difficult to find words or thoughts. Praising God with scripture, specifically, psalms is your best friend.
When I read some Davidic psalms, It amazes me how the author (David) could do such a marvelous job in praising God. Did it come naturally to him? Was it easy for him because he was a king, or was it easy because he has musical and lyrical sense? Praising God must be easy for king David because he has very few things to worry about, and he has authority over everything and everyone in his kingdom and can get anything he wanted. If I concluded my thoughts with these, I would be wrong and naive.
Because there is another side to his story that scripture tells us, He didn’t have a worry-free life. He had enemies and had king saul coming after him to kill him ( 1 Samuel 19:2) which makes his life miserable. David fled (1 Samuel 21:10) and hid his face from saul, the King; he acted like a madman. Life was not a bed of roses for David, I couldn’t imagine myself in his shoes, yet he praised God at the circumstance, David was not perfect, but he yet adored God.
So How did he exalt God in the middle of all the mess?
The answer is simple. HE REMEMBERED, he made an intentional habit or commitment to remember God’s benefits( Forgiveness, faithfulness, continued love, and protection). He informed himself ( my soul) of God’s mercies. Life was not going well for David, but he honored God with what he was good at.
In Psalm 103,
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
When David penned down this psalm, He probably got reminded of his sins he committed against God, but yet he reminded himself (my soul) of God’s forgiveness, He perhaps got remembered of his sickness (Psalm 38), but again he recognized that God healed him. He reminded of his youth and praised God. More importantly, he recalled the sinful condition of his heart and how God was gracious towards him and took his sins away( Ps 103: 9-12).
How do I praise God when I am suffering?
When struggles and difficult times come, it is difficult to be thankful; it is hard to look back and remember the faithfulness of God in the past. Our hearts must desire to praise God even in our difficult times. When you find yourself in a situation where you want to praise God and not know how to put it in words, Open up a psalm, praise God through scripture by reading through each verse, and think of a situation in your life that relates to that verse and words will surely pour out from your heart to him. You will discover the joy and power of praising Him during your difficult times.
Some of the psalms that will help you do that are,
Ps 8:1-9, Ps 9:1-10, Ps 16:5-11, Ps 18:1-3 … Ps 103 2:22
