Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper Room Daily Devotional "When It's Hard To Praise" for Saturday, 31 May 2014 - Read Psalm 145:1-7

Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper Room Daily Devotional "When It's Hard To Praise" for Saturday, 31 May 2014 - Read Psalm 145: A praise psalm by David.[a]
1 I will exalt you, my God, the King.
    I will praise your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will praise you.
    I will extol your name forever and ever.
3 Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised!
    His greatness is unsearchable.
4 One generation will commend your works to another,
    and will declare your mighty acts.
5 Of the glorious majesty of your honor,
    of your wondrous works, I will meditate.
6 Men will speak of the might of your awesome acts.
    I will declare your greatness.
7 They will utter the memory of your great goodness,
    and will sing of your righteousness.
Footnotes:
a. Psalm 145:1 This is an acrostic psalm, with every verse (including the second half of verse 13) starting with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
The psalmist wrote, “My heart overflows with a goodly theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.”(Psalm 45:1 (NRSV))
From a writer’s perspective, nothing is more daunting than a blank page. When I open a new document on my computer, I know that I have to fill that page — and many more — with words. Getting started is often the hardest part. Tentatively at first, I write one word and then another and another. Once I commit those first words to paper, more words usually follow. They may not be the best I could choose, but at least they are words. I keep writing — sentence after sentence, revision after revision — until I have created something worth reading. Sometimes praising God is just as difficult for me as putting words on paper. I feel as though I have nothing to say to the Holy One. But if I am willing to utter a few tentative words of thanks and praise, then the Holy Spirit comes to my rescue. My heart soon overflows with a goodly theme: the grace and mercy and love of God revealed in Jesus Christ.
The Author: Mark M. Redfearn (California, USA)
Thought for the Day: The cure for “praiser’s” block is to start praising.
Prayer: Thank you, Holy Spirit, for helping us to praise God. Amen.

Prayer focus: Writers
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