“Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever.”
~ Psalm 111:3
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you praise God every day? Why would you want to praise God every day? What does it mean to you to praise God? What does it mean to you to praise a guy, gal or kid or to have a guy, gal or kid praise you? Praising a guy, gal or kid is applauding him or her for what he or she has done. To be praised by a guy, gal or kid is you being applauded for what you have done. Praising a guy, gal or kid is thanking him or her for the help that he or she has given you. Being praised by a guy, gal or kid is being thanked by a guy, gal or kid for the help that you have given him or her. Have you ever applauded God for being the creator and designer of all things? Have you ever applauded God for how He has been helping you? Your grandmaa and grandpaa have been in Christ-follower fellowships of guys, gals and kids where the guy or gal who was leading the singing time asked the guys, gals and kids in the fellowship to applaud or clap their hands to God. Are you sensing that God is taking care of you? Ask your dad and/or ma if they sense that God is taking care of them through ensuring that they have what they need to have to live their lives on planet Earth. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know that they have a lot of reasons to praise God. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know that God has blessed them by allowing them to be sent ones, missionaries or servants of God in ‘foreign’ countries. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know that God has blessed them by having their lives be an encouragement to some of His specially elected guys, gals and kids who are living in Bolivia and Guatemala. It what ways do you know that God is blessing you today? Is there always food in your house to eat? Is there a bed in your house for you to sleep in each night? Do you have the opportunity to go to school? Do you have the opportunity to go to church? Are you living in a home with a dad and ma who are your biological parents?
If you had been exiled for fifty or so years in a country that was not your birth country, would you praise God for having had you exiled? 586 years before Jesus came to planet Earth as an incarnated baby boy, God exiled many of His specially chosen guys and gals from the country of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. Judah’s land area was the land area allotted to the Judah tribal clan. The Judah tribal clan’s land area was in the land area that God promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that their extended families would always have to live in as their very own land. Judah’s tribal clan was one of the twelve tribal clans that made up the Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids – God’s specially chosen guy, gals and kids. God had many of His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem exiled to a foreign country because they did not do what God had told them to do – which was to put their trust only in Him. God had His specially chosen guys and gals exiled to a foreign country because they trusted in things such as idols and false gods that were made by hand from wood, stone and metal. God had His specially chosen guys and gals exiled to a foreign country because they were doing everything to please themselves instead of doing everything to please God. God had His specially chosen guys and gals exiled to a foreign country because they were giving praise to themselves and to things – such as idols and false gods that were made by hand from wood, stone and metal. God gave His specially chosen guys and gals a wakeup call when He had a foreign country march into the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem to take away to live as exiles many of His specially chosen guys and gals. Do you think that God’s specially chosen guys and gals got the message from God that they were to worship only Him, praise only Him and lives as servants for only Him or He would . . . do you think that God’s specially chosen guys and gals got the message from God that He was not at all pleased with them that they were putting making themselves happy before everything else and that they were praising and worshipping inanimate idols or false gods that were made by hand from wood, stone and metal?
God’s specially chosen guys and gals woke up to God’s wakeup call to praise and worship only Him. When God’s specially chosen guys and gals began arriving back in the land of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem from the country of Babylonia – the foreign country where God had His specially chosen guys and gals exiled, after having lived in Babylonia as exiles for fifty or so years, God’s specially chosen guys and gals scribed psalms that are now referred to as Hallelujah psalms. A Hallelujah psalm is a praise psalm that praises God for Who He is and what He has done. Psalm 111 is the first Hallelujah psalm recorded in the Psalms Book that was chanted by God’s specially chosen guys and gals after God had them return to the city of Jerusalem after having exiled them in Babylonia. This Hallelujah psalm is the next Hallelujah psalm’s twin. These two Hallelujah psalms are praise chants to God for His unfailing righteousness. Verse 3 says, “Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever.” Both Hallelujah psalms are alphabetic acrostics psalms that are framed by their first and last verses. In spite of having lived as exiles for fifty or so years, God’s specially chosen guys and gals now only wanted to live their lives praising God versus blaming God for what they had to go through as a punishment from God. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know what it is like to not have money. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know what it is like to have hardly any food in the house to eat. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have never felt that God was punishing them. What your grandmaa and grandpaa have sensed during the times when it was really difficult for them to go on in life is that God was teaching them to trust in and praise Him for the help that He already had and would always give to them.
Psalms 111 (385)