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 praise over and over or end prayer unsatisfied. It was one of my biggest spiritual challenges and struggle. I find it difficult to find words or thoughts. Though I desire to praise God, I often find it challenging to express it.
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 on his kingdom and can get anything he wanted. If I concluded my thoughts with these, I would be wrong and naive.
Our hearts must desire to praise God even in our difficult times.
Because there is another side to his story that scripture tells us, He didn’t have a worry-free life. He had enemies; he had king saul coming after him to kill him ( 1 Samuel 19:2) and make his life miserable. He fled (1 Samuel 21:10) and hid his face from saul, the King; he acted like a mad man. Life was not a bed of roses to David, I couldn’t imagine myself to be in his shoes, yet he praised God at the circumstance, David was not perfect, but he yet adored God. 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 of the sinful condition of his heart and how God was gracious towards him and took his sins away( Ps 103: 9-12).
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 that you want to praise God and not know how to put it in words, Open a psalm and read through each verse, and think of a situation in your life that relates to that verse and pour out your heart to him. You will discover the joy and power in 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
