#DailyDevotion Bless & Praise The Name Of The LORD
Psalm 113 Praise the LORD! Praise Him, O servants of the LORD; praise the LORD’s name! 2Bless the LORD’s name from now on and forever! 3From the rising of the sun to its going down, praise the LORD’s name!
It’s a nice Trinitarian invocation here for praise. Three times praise of the LORD is called for. The last one calling for praise of His name. When you hear praise for His name your mind should immediately go to Ex. 34:6, “the LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, slow to get angry, rich in love and faithfulness, 7continuing to show mercy to thousands, forgiving wrong, rebellion, and sin, without treating it as innocent, but disciplining children and children’s children to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their fathers.” That is certainly something worth praising the LORD’s name for.
We see this fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the LORD in the flesh. In the face of Jesus we see the LORD’s mercy, grace, patience, love, faithfulness and forgiveness. We see this played out on the cross. We see this as He sends apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers into the world to proclaim this name to all peoples so they may join in its praise and receive all its benefits.
We are called to bless the LORD’s name forever. We bless the name by thanking Him. We thank Him for revealing His name in Jesus Christ and for placing that name upon us in baptism. We thank Him for this name in which we find the mercy, kindness, steadfast love, grace and forgiveness of God the Father. Every waking moment we are called to praise His name and to bless His name that calls us into the life of God.
4The LORD is high above all nations and His glory above the skies. 5Who is like the LORD our God, seated on His high throne? 6He bends to look down on heaven and earth.
There is no god like the LORD our God. He is high above the nations and His glory above the skies. That is to say, we cannot reach this glory of our own power and strength. We cannot approach Him based on our merits. The gods of the people of the earth are of our own making, made in our own image and likeness. They are fallen just as we are. But not the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are so different than us. They are our Creator and the Creator of all things. We are made in His image and likeness, yet we so often fail to exhibit this because of our own selfishness and greed. But as high as He is above us, He sent His Son into our flesh to lift us up into the heavenly places and to be made partakers of His divine nature.
7He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts up the needy from the manure pile. 8He enables him to sit with noblemen, the noblemen of his people. 9He makes the childless woman live in her own home, as the happy mother of children. Praise the LORD!
The poor always have the heart of the Almighty. We are called to be His hands in lifting them up with the gifts He daily gives us. The LORD does not leave the poor forever. He became poor with them in Jesus Christ. He humbled Himself to be like them. He was born in a stable. He had no place to lay His head. While the LORD gave children to the barren women, Sarah, Rachael, Hannah, Mary as a virgin was just as barren and He caused to conceive and bear Himself in her womb. Jesus gave her into the hands of John. The Church, the once barren one, has been made the happy mother of many children. We are those children of the Church who have been given faith in Christ Jesus.
O LORD our God, may we always praise and bless Your name, for You have shown us mercy, kindness, steadfast love, grace and forgiveness in Your Son, Jesus Christ. Grant that through faith in Your name, we may be like You in all our ways. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen