Praising God during Tough Times

“I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.”
Psalm 34:1.

We hear the phrase, “God is good” during sermons, worships, or even during personal conversations. We all know that He is good but we rarely tend to yield ourselves to experience his goodness. We say God is good because we have the essence of salvation within us. This joy of salvation surpasses all our understandings and helps us to place our faith in his goodness.

King David says, “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). To taste the goodness of the Lord, we need a deep understanding of His goodness. It is not difficult to pronounce that God is good when we are in a comfort zone. But it needs an extraordinary faith to declare His goodness during tough times.

David loved God and expressed his deep gratitude towards Him through Praises. Though he was a king, he too faced many problems, troubles, betrayals and humiliations. David fled away from Saul and wanted to have a sojourn at Gath. For no good reasons, people started to develop envy upon him. He had struggled all through his life but we can say that no one else had celebrated and worshipped God as he did.

His own son planned to slay him in order to capture his throne and he was recognized by his enemies in a far-off place. When he pretended to be a crazy man to find his way to escape, he was rebuked and chased out. However, this incident did not make him revile against God in his heart rather made him sing, “I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips” (Psalm 34:1).

Good circumstances make us delighted and remind us to praise God. But in this instance, David did not sing praise while enjoying in his palace or in front of a congregation. He praised God when He was chased out by the king of Gath for pretending to be a mentally challenged person in his court.

What made David praise God even during these tough times? It is his relationship with God! This relationship was beyond all human understanding and wisdom, where the joy of Salvation continually reverberated in his heart. He valued his relationship with God more than anyone or anything in this world. He relied on God alone, even while he was shepherding the sheep and while ruling all the Israel.

David never forgot the truth that God is always with him. He believed in his heart, that God does all things for good. To kindle his own faith, he says to himself, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits” (Psalms 103:1,2).

Like David, shall we also ponder upon the Lord irrespective of our situations? May the joy of Salvation make us cheerful in all situations!