Psalm 138

1I will praise You with my whole heart;
Before the gods I will sing praises to You.
2I will worship toward Your holy temple,
And praise Your name
For Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.
3In the day when I cried out, You answered me,
And made me bold with strength in my soul.
4All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Lord,
When they hear the words of Your mouth.
5Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
For great is the glory of the Lord.
6Though the Lord is on high,
Yet He regards the lowly;
But the proud He knows from afar.
7Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
You will stretch out Your hand
Against the wrath of my enemies,
And Your right hand will save me.
8The Lord will perfect that which concerns me;
Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
-Psalm 138

The ways of the Lord should lead us to a whole heart of praise. So many times I have heard it preached and preached it myself that the celebrities that people commit their lives to follow, teams that people are die hard to cheer on, and so on, do not care for you. This is just the fact. They may proclaim that they do, but they never are actually there. For those who are too high up, those who are too low rarely receive attention. Not the Lord. For though He is on high, He regards the lowly.

In my time of being in church, I have heard many testimonies. A very common trend through the majority of them is that the Lord met them at their lowest state. When it seemed life itself rejected them, the Lord was receiving them with abundant joy. Now the Lord did not only receive the lowly. He also seeks to cause that who is lowly to excel. Revived in the midst of trouble and saved from their enemies, the Lord causes those who are lowly to rise up. I love the response in verse 8. The Lord will perfect that which concerns me. He continues to work on us.

This leads me to consider Phil 1:6,

"6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."

See that the Lord does not settle with just good enough. His desire is to perfect us as His heavenly Father is perfect. He does not want us to stay at a lowly state, destitute in sin, He wants to exalt us in righteousness.

What cause to praise the Lord! What great reasons we have to rejoice in Him with a whole heart! Give praise to the Lord who met with you are brought you up. Praise the Lord!