Big Promise

“I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.” (Ps 104:33-34 AV)

 

This is quite a commitment.  This commitment would span all sorts of circumstances of life. The writer promises to sing and praise the LORD as long as he is alive on this Earth.  His meditation will be sweet as long as he lives.  Imagine what that would take to keep that promise through life’s most difficult of times.  When you are unemployed and you don’t know from where you can get food for your family, can you praise the LORD as long as you live?  When the dearest on Earth to you has been diagnosed with a terrible disease, can you sing praises to God?  When you are on the receiving end of hit after hit from serving the LORD, can you still meditate sweetly on the LORD?  When you know all of life’s circumstances could be changed in a moment by the omnipotent hand of God, yet He requires these things of you, can you still sing praises to Him?  Do you understand?  The promise above is not a light one.  Dare I say very few could keep it.  In our frail existence, we would complain or be full of fear and anxiety.  To take it on the chin and still praise the LORD takes a great deal of faith, patience, and humility that few can achieve.

Intent does not necessarily mean performance.  In other words, just because the psalmist promises this does not automatically mean he feels like doing it no matter what.  I think that is the takeaway this morning.  A promise is a promise.  A vow must be paid.  If the writer is going to make this vow, regardless of what God allows, He will require it.  My mind goes to Job.  Of all the people in the Bible, Job had the most to complain about.  He lost his entire family, save a spiteful wife, to tragedy.  He lost all his material wealth to thieves and robbers.  He lost sound health to a supernatural disease.  All he had remaining was his life and a wife that wanted him dead.  Even his three friends were of no help to him.  Through all their musing, Job and his friends could not discern the purpose of God in all of this tragedy.  If there was anyone who would find the above promise impossible to keep, it would have been Job.  He had nothing to live for and wondered about his very existence.  He could not understand why the LORD would allow what He did and saw no upside to any of it.  He was as miserable as one individual could be.

If anyone needed to keep that promise, it would have been Job.  It is easy to keep that promise when things are to our liking.  But turning our world upside down and praising God for all things becomes impossible to do.  It is in these times the impossible needs to happen.  Our eyes must shift from what we wish were not the case to the character of God.  Our spirit must change from dismay to gratitude.  Our whole demeanor must transform from one of hopelessness and depression to one of deep and somber love for the only one who can do anything about our situation.  To sing praise to God with our whole being as long as we shall live on this Earth is a good promise to make.  It will make the dark times a little bit brighter.  As it does, our load becomes a little bit lighter.  The promise above comes with benefits.  But it also comes with knowing we have done what we should regardless of what God will or will not do for us.