Music Blog

Praising in Suffering

Psalm 113:1-3 says:

Praise the Lord!
Praise, O servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord!

Blessed be the name of the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore!
From the rising of the sun to its setting,
the name of the Lord is to be praised!

Interestingly, this particular chapter of the Bible doesn't nuance the command to Praise the Lord.  It doesn't indicate acknowledge any extenuating circumstances under which we might not Praise the Lord. In fact, it seems to indicate that there is to be no time in which God is not to be praised and his Name be blessed.

But as we've heard in our study of I Thessalonians, the Bible is not naive toward the reality if suffering. There is certainly awareness and compassion in the Word of the God for the plight of the suffering, needy, and brokenhearted. In fact, a majority of Psalms reference the various sufferings, afflictions and trials of their writers and the people of God. 

And so, we, as the people of God, live within the tension of a reality of a wide range of less-than-ideal circumstances, while our God remains unchanged in his glory and goodness toward us. It seems clear, then, that we are to be praising God in the midst of, even in spite of, our circumstances. 

This is one of the beautiful things about our Sunday gatherings...they are an opportunity to join together with our brothers and sisters -  aware that each of us comes with various trials and temptations we're facing - and lay all those burdens down at the foot of our good and great Father in heaven. We get to praise his Name together, because He is worthy of praise, and because praising Him is why we were created. Each week, we all need that reminder that He is worthy of praise...some weeks more than others...and He has provided us a wonderful context to receive that reminder and respond with appropriately joyful worship!

Here are the songs and Scriptures that will make up our service this week. We hope you'll be encouraged and reminded as we Praise the Lord together.

Call to Worship from Psalm 113:1-3

And here's the Spotify playlist for this week!

According to His Own Mercy

Titus 3:3-7 says,

When we gather on Sunday mornings, we do so as heirs of God's promises. We do so as children of God. We do so as those justified by the grace of God. We do so as those regenerated and renewed by the Holy Spirit. We do so as former slaves now set free. We do so as former haters now able to love one another. We do so as those rescued out of darkness and washed clean by the blood of Christ. And all of this is not by anything we did for ourselves, but only by the the mercy of God.

Is that how you think of yourself when you hear that alarm go off on Sunday mornings? Is that how you think of yourself as you try to find your kids' shoes? Is that how you think of yourself as you iron your clothes (or throw them in the dryer on the dewrinkle cycle) on Saturday night? 

All to often, that's not how I think of myself. I swing back and forth from being more aware of my weakness and failures than the mercy of God to being more confident in my own merits than I ought.

God has made abundantly clear that there is nothing I can do to earn His favor or lose his love. It's in the unmerited, undeserved mercy of God through Christ that we stand, that we come to worship each week. It's the free mercy and grace of God that we celebrate each week. And this Sunday is no exception, as we'll be led by a band of young adults from Oklahoma Baptist University coming of Dare2Share weekend. Here are the songs and Scriptures that will make up this week's service:

Here's the Spotify of this week's songs. We hope you'll listen so you can worship the Lord in an undistracted way on Sunday!