Praise: Gratitude on Steroids

I spent my 65th birthday in the hospital. I had a serious case of covid, as had Dale. That Friday - November 19, 2021, was the first time I'd seen in him two weeks. He was finally well enough to be allowed to come see me.

Less than 72 hours later, I would be life-flighted from Park City to Intermountain Medical Center to spend the better part of the next month on a ventilator.

I didn't know what was ahead of me on that Friday night in Park City. It was the first time I remember feeling it was a struggle to breathe. I also remembered that you have to breathe differently - more deeply - when you sing.

So I sang.

I searched YouTube to find one of my favorite Tabernacle Choir songs - David Warner and Mack Wilberg's "Benediction" (from the Tabernacle Choir CD Heavensong). It miraculously modulates sixteen bars - six times - backwards - around the musical Circle of 5ths. I'm sorry if I lost you non-musicians there; I have to include this nerdy factoid because my musician friends will be scrambling to listen for it and be just as amazed as I was (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLSHUUORuqs&list=RDhLSHUUORuqs&start_radio=1).

The lyrics paired with this heaven song are the most sublime prayer of praise, and end with sixteen bars of "Amen."

Benediction

Come to us this night,

Console our souls,

Becalm our fears,

And bless our sleeping.

Come to us this day,

Awake our hearts,

Renew our minds,

And bless our rising.

Come to us this hour,

Restore our hope,

Confirm our faith,

And bless our living.

Come to us we pray,

Receive our love,

Behold our joy,

And bless our praising.

  (David Warner)

On that November night, nearly three weeks away from home, I sang that song on repeat for close to an hour. I just kept clicking to repeat and starting over - working to fill my lungs to sing, the "amens" being the strongest (I knew those words the best). I found out the next day nurses could hear me through the shut door of my room all over the floor. Oh well.

Little did I know that as I sang, I was shoring up a spiritual foundation for the next three months of trying to die, God intervening and saying, "NOT NOW," and then me trying not to die.

Fast forward to autumn 2024. It had been three years since the event that changed my relationship with God in the most excellent ways. I was at my hairdresser's and noticed a piece of graphic art on the wall - the graphic atop this post. It abbreviates this glorious thought from Psalms:

"And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God..." (Psalms 40:3)

In my mind, instantly, I was back in that hospital room in Park City, singing my sickened lungs out. I realized THAT'S what God did with that night of praise for me. He didn't just inspire me to sing to strengthen me for the long haul ahead, He taught me to view HIM differently. He taught me to view US - Him and me - differently.

He put a new song in my mouth - and heart - and taught me a deeper way to praise Him forever.

He taught me to not just be grateful but to actively praise His goodness - in every detail of living.

I learned that praise is a better way to testify, that praise makes you see every single thing in your life - good and bad - through the lens of God tenderly and precisely curating a curriculum for your good.

I learned that praise evens out the perspective of good days and bad days; with God - they're all good days.

I learned that praise is gratitude on steroids.

Right after a vacation over Thanksgiving week last fall, I started to read the Psalms in the Old Testament - one psalm a day - at the beginning of my scripture study.

WHAT an awesome idea. Translation: SO not my idea. Complete and total inspiration. The psalms take such delight and reverence in everything God is - and does - and is capable of - it can't help but delight the reader - me - as well.

C.S. Lewis said this of the Psalms:

"The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express that same delight in God which made David dance."

Delight indeed. According to the Psalms, there is nothing God cannot do. There is no hurdle great enough to stop His good work from moving forward. If we lean into Him with our need, His strength will help us do anything He requires. All superlatives lose their meaning and pale in their superiority when placed beside the God and King of the Universe, the Creator of this World, the Savior who conquered all of death and evil with His blood.

One hundred fifty songs of praise - asserting that God isn't just good - He is great. And He loves us. And all His work is to bring us home - if I will allow Him to align my will to His.

We need no other ally.

Learning to praise in the hard things (another blog last year), in the everyday things, and in the fleeting sublime things is an eternal lesson worth learning.

Learning to praise will put you with this blessed group of saints spoken of in Revelation, who will:

"...fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou has created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." (Revelation 4:10-11)

On that glorious day, we'll fully appreciate why we wear the crowns of the kingdom - Who earned them for us - and give them right back - in complete adoration and praise.