Week 10 Psalm 63
If I chose one line to summarize this psalm it would be: all who trust in (the Lord) will praise him.
I don’t see any hints in the psalm that praise is circumstance-specific. David doesn’t say: “when things are going okay people who trust in the Lord will praise him”.
The subtitle says the events happened when David “was in the desert of Judah”. He called it: a dry and weary land where there is no water. So David is saying “I’m in this dry & weary land and I’ll trust the Lord and I’ll praise him”. Desert Situation? I praise the Lord.
I draw a square box on the back of an old cash register slip. Divide it into three compartments:
1) Good Circumstances
2) Neutral Circumstances
3) Bad Circumstances.
About 2-inches to the right of the box I write the word PRAISE.
I ask myself: When do I praise-the-Lord? And I draw one mental line from Good Circumstances to PRAISE
I ask myself: When does David praise-the-Lord? He has three lines:
Good Circumstances —> PRAISE
Neutral Circumstances —> PRAISE
Bad Circumstances —> PRAISE
One defect with the diagram is that it gives a (visual) impression that David is praising the Lord for Good & Neutral & Bad Circumstances.
But I think that for David PRAISE is part of a completely separate class of practices that isn’t modified by any Circumstances at all. It’s independent.
Note: quotes from Psalm 63:11 1 (NLT)