by Pastor Douglas Brauner

The Only Way to Find Out Is to Try

“Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!”
Psalm 150:6

I was more interested in taking pictures than I was in shopping when I captured this photo, but I wonder if the owners priced everything under $50. To be fair, my guess is that they did price everything under $50 even if the tag read, $49.99.

Is the psalmist using hyperbole when he writes, “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord”? My guess is that he is and is not. Animals are not aware of God’s presence. They cannot reflect on their existence like we do. Yet, I am breathing as I ponder this verse and wondering what it means to praise the Lord. I couldn’t consider what it means if I stopped breathing.

When the psalmist writes everything he means everyone, But wouldn’t God understand if I were not able to praise him because of my circumstances? Of course! God understands us better than we do ourselves. He knows us intimately and knows how pain keeps us from praising him, but maybe we are shortchanging ourselves when the pain is so great that we feel like we can’t praise him.

Does praising God change my perspective?

I am tempted to give a Sunday School answer to this question. However, the only way that we discover what praise does to us is to praise God when it makes no sense to praise him.

I’m suggesting that you praise him in the pain that you experience. While you suffer (and when you don’t), lift your eyes to the One who saved you and suffered for you. Let praise flow from your heart despite how you feel and see what that praise does to your perspective of God’s presence in your pain.

I’m at a point in my recovery from surgery where it is much easier to praise God. It wasn’t easy four weeks ago. Whether life is good and we feel blessed, or life is cruel and we feel forsaken, may we fill our lungs with praise for the God who never changes and is always present.

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado