30 Days of Praise - Day 11

The Psalms are an excellent place to find a starting point to worship. They are filled with the heart expressions of people focused on the Lord. What is fascinating is that they are people who find themselves in all kinds of circumstances, from joy and elation to absolute darkness and despair.

Today as I worked through my Bible study I did an exercise that I highly recommend. Choose and Psalm and paraphrase it into your own words. As I took the time to do this exercise today it really blessed my heart. It was a reminder of many attributes of the Lord that I tend to lose focus on or even take for granted. It gave me thought to consider so much more about the Lord than my own mind could contain.

I've been considering the attributes of God, and I am beginning to think that a big part of worship is expanding those perceptions. What I am saying is God often reveals Himself to us individually in very specific aspects. For example, coming from my testimony of abortion with all the guilt and shame I held for many years I truly learned the truth of God as my Redeemer. It is a truth of God's attributes that I know that I know to the depth of my soul. For someone else they may be very confident and secure in God the Provider, someone who has been made well from a devastating sickness or disease, no one is more certain about God the Healer.

Is He any less my Provider or Healer because I have not had such a dramatic experience of it? No. He is just as much my Provider as my Redeemer. He is my Peace, my Strength, a Mighty Fortress, my Comforter, Father, Lord, Savior and Friend and so much more. Part of growing in worship, I believe, is growing in both the understanding and acknowledgement of all the attributes of God, and their truth in our personal relationships with Him.

How incredible would it be as I seek to learn and recognize these innumerable facets of our God, that my eyes would be continually opened to not only Who God is, but Who He is to me. A wonderful beginning is to see Who He has been to those who've gone before. The Psalms are an excellent place to start.


I will extol You, my God, O King; and I will bless Your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.
I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works.
Psalm 145:1-5