Psalms 119:62 At midnight I rise to praise Thee because of Thy righteous ordinances…
This verse and this prayer challenges me. The intentionality stuns me. Would I set my alarm clock to get up at midnight just for a season of praising God? I am bugged by the overt, public ‘piousness’ of the ‘Call to Prayers’ by Islam. I am haunted by the New Testament’s high standard to ‘pray without ceasing’. I am equally challenged by the verse later on in Psalms 119:164, “Seven times a day I praise Thee because of Thy righteous ordinances.”
The Christian ‘call to prayer’ can be both scheduled, but also unscheduled. The quest is to maintain 100% connectivity with God. Unlike a cell phone that keeps dropping the signal, we are to be so connected with God at the heart and spirit level that we never ‘drop sync’. We are to ALWAYS be in the spirit of prayer. We are also called to be intentionally in our praying.
Yet this verse talks about a specific type of prayer: PRAISE. I have been a participant and then a leader/ facilitator at numerous ‘PRAYER RETREATS’. When the topic of PRAISE if brought up, most men seem somewhat unsure of how to pray prayers of PRAISE. Even after having been given instructions and examples, the session invariably turns into THANKSGIVING or Petition/ Intercession.
Praise is NOT asking God for things. Praise is distinct from thanksgiving, but naturally leads into thanksgiving. Praise is purely delighting in the name, character and works of God. It is reciting back to God and recounting and remembering that He is GOD and that we are not. We were made to worship. We are always worshiping something. Once we are ‘in the faith’, we need to train ourselves to focus our praise and worship on God.
Notice the Psalmist’s practice. He must have known it was midnight; therefore there was some type of timing device to awaken him. Secondly, he did NOT just lie in bed to praise God. It says, “At midnight I RISE to praise Thee…” He got up out of bed. Thirdly, the object of affection and praise was God Himself. Fourth, he was aware that the knowledge of the Holy came as a result of the ordinances of God.
Several years ago, a mentor challenged me to grow in the area of praise. He told me to memorize one of the PRAISE Psalms such as 145. I memorized it. Then, I would work through each verse, each phrase and note what it was telling me about God. There are over 25 different praise-worthy qualities or characteristics of God mentioned in this Psalm. My lingering over each one, it naturally focuses my attention to God, leading me to mouth words of praise for each characteristic.
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