MAY MY LIPS AND MY MOUTH PRAISE THE LORD GOD

Proclamation:

“May my lips overflow with praise, for You teach me Your decrees.  May my tongue sing of Your word, for all Your commands are righteous.  May Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts.”  Psalm 119:171-173 (NIV)

Explanation:

The words of this psalm were written by King David under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  This is the twenty-second and last part, Taw, of this twenty-two part psalm.  David ends this conversation with The Lord God with a series of personal requests.  He asks that God would hear his cry, give him understanding, hear his supplications, and deliver him according to His promises. (Psalm 119:169-170)  Then he asks that The Lord would help him praise God, that his lips would overflow with praise and that his mouth would sing songs of praise. (Psalm 119:171-172)  Then, recognizing that he would need help, he asks that The Lord God would be ready to help him to follow His word. (Psalm 119:173)  He asks that God would let him live so that he could give Him praise. (Psalm 119:175)     

Application:

David essentially ends a very long prayer by asking The Lord to help him praise God.  As believers we know that we need God’s help in all that we do.  However, if we are honest with ourselves, we also know that we do not pray, praise God, or thank Him enough or as often as we should.  He has done so much for each of us, most of which we take for granted and we appear to be ungrateful.  We should not need to be told to praise and thank The Lord.  In Psalm 107 the words “O that men would praise The Lord for His goodness and His wonderful works to the children of men” are repeated three times. (Psalm 107:15, 21, and 31)  Let us pray that He will help us to praise Him and to thank Him more often that we are presently doing.  Every breath, every heartbeat, every movement, and the fact that we are aware of who we are, where we are, and that we can respond to those around us, are all blessings that we sometimes take for granted.  Let us remember to praise Him and thank Him for all that He has done.