Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Where do you turn to during trials or suffering? Maybe you're the type of person that freezes up. You just get anxious and you lock up and you don't know where to turn next. Maybe you just like to hide away. You're the type of person that grabs a blanket and wraps it around your shoulders. You get your snack, get your book, and you just want to be transported to a different world.
Maybe you find yourself fighting back against your problems. You get angry and you get worried, and you start throwing solutions and hoping just something might stick. The Bible offers us a better alternative to all of those things when we're going through times of suffering. It's found in our Verse of the Day, Psalm chapter 44, verse 8.
Praise in the Midst of Captivity
The psalmist writes this: "O God, we give glory to You all day long and constantly praise Your name." This psalm of praise was actually written during a very incredibly difficult season for Israel. This was during their Babylonian captivity. They had been ripped from their homes. Their families were hurting. Their ancestry seemed to be dwindling and dying, and there was seemingly no hope for the future.
This psalm was written to give them a source of encouragement. Throughout this psalm, the psalmist takes the reader back to God's faithfulness through the generations of their people. He reminds them of the victories that God had secured for them, the enemies that He had driven out, the conquests and bringing them into their land. Even in the midst of questioning and wondering what God might be doing, why He seems to be waiting to do that again, in the middle of all of that, he gives them this verse, encouraging them to give God the glory all day long, to be singing His praises constantly.
God Deserves Glory All the Time
In the middle of my trials, it can be hard to find that sense of praise in my life, but this verse reminds us that God doesn't just deserve glory. He doesn't just deserve praise when things are great, or when it seems like He's doing everything the way that we want Him to do it, or He's pulling us out of a trial on our timeline. God is good all the time, and He deserves glory all day long. He deserves constant praise through the ups and downs.
That begs the question, how can we give God glory all day long? Now, it doesn't look like sitting in a service with your hands raised singing worship songs, though that does sound like a good day. The reality is, we have things to do. That's the whole point. We can give God glory through our every day. As we go about our business, we can pray for our families, pray for our friends, and pray for our children.
As we check off things on that to-do list, we can speak love to the people that we encounter. We can uplift them with words of encouragement. We can consider the little things that bring God honor and glory and praise His name before the world.
Whether you're in a valley or you're in a wonderful season of life, remember that through it all God is good and He who has begun that good work in you is going to be faithful to complete it. Let's get to work together.
