How Boring is Praise?

“Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.” (Ps 84:4 AV)

Psalm eighty-four is the psalm of the tabernacle.  The entire theme is the blessings of personal and corporate worship.  It speaks of the people of God desperately and with great anticipation, journeying to the tabernacle for the purpose of public worship.  It is quite an event.  Leaving their homes, they journey for days, spending the time in fellowship around their common faith.  Once arriving, they would share in the experience of the day of atonement, praising God for His wonderful grace.  In the verse above, the writer expresses the greatest blessings of those who are employed in the service of the temple to spend their time in activities whose main purpose is to praise the very God who created them.  They dwell there.  While they do, their time is spent in praise and worship.

A preacher is often asked of what activities the saint will be busied with in all of heaven for all of time.  Our human minds cannot fathom a lack of needful activities in order to sustain life.  We are busy with our careers.  We are busy raising a family.  We are busy maintaining a household.  We are busy creating and providing a life for those around us.  We are busy serving the LORD in the house of God for the purpose of winning the lost and discipling the saved.  Of what will we be occupied when there is nothing that is needful for life?  There will be no place to be or no thing to do in order to survive.  Of what we will be occupied?  The above verse gives us a clue.

One of my desires for glory is the ability to be a perfect musician or be able to sing in perfect harmony with others.  Although I have sufficient ability to make myself of some use, I will never possess enough talent to be able to contribute in a meaningful way.  One of the most pleasurable times I spent was with good friends of mine who played hymns in the bluegrass style.  The fellowship was greatly appreciated.  But what really made those times special was the songs of Christ which we played.  There is something about singing and playing music that seems so completely joyful that it wouldn’t matter if it went on for all of eternity.  What a day that will be when we can stand around and sing without every growing tired, weary, or bored!  When all of the lyrics of all of the songs we will sing are not about our trials of life, but rather, purely about Christ and Him alone!  What a day that will be!