All right, good afternoon, everyone, once again, and welcome to Daily United Prayer. If you would, please, let's get started with a little time in God's Word. You can open your Bibles, if you're following along, to Psalm 34. Psalm 34, please. Psalm 34, and I'm going to just focus on the first three verses. Psalm 34. And first I'll point out that this psalm, it starts with a superscription, as some of the psalms do, It says, a psalm of David, when he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed. And that account is recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 21, which the last time I shared a devotional here, I actually shared the passage right before that passage in 1 Samuel 21. no intent there, more just a coincidence that we happen to have that connection. But importantly, that perhaps means that that incident when David pretended madness before Abimelech is what David had on his mind when he wrote this Psalm, Psalm 34. And I'll say more about that in a minute. But here's the first three verses of Psalm 34, everybody. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. This psalm is in acrostic form in Hebrew, and I'm going to, like I said, just focus on these first three verses, which constitute, you could say, a call to praise. In fact, that's what I call this meditation, a call to praise. Now, I pointed out the opening, the superscription, because David evidently saw what happened on that referenced occasion as a great cause for praise. What happened might be something that a person would want to forget. David is on the run from Saul, and he comes to gaff of the Philistines. He's captured, and his feigning of madness causes the king to be rather unimpressed by this famous Israelite. Doesn't quite measure up to the reputation in his eyes. And so he's released, and he escapes from there. Now, trauma might normally make a person want to suppress a memory like this, but David sets a good example here in the composition of this psalm. God is going to be praised. Praising God is something that comes easy at times. Other times maybe it's not as organic. Like, remember Job, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. David's call to praise here is a great statement of intent. Note the words, I will bless. His praise shall. My soul shall. We decide, we determine, we commit to praising him. We cannot be people who praise Him only when we feel like things are going our way, when things go exactly as we hoped for, when all trouble is abated for a season. This psalm goes on to say, actually, in verse 19, many are the afflictions of the righteous. It's really something that a psalm that goes on to speak of many afflictions begins with a deliberate commitment to praise. God is to be praised. He is our exceedingly great reward, and if having Him as my God and Father is all I have, all I can cling to, when everything else seems hard, well, that is something. In fact, it's everything. God be praised. We are the most blessed of people, irrespective of life's hardships, because we have Christ. I don't know how that hits everyone, but that fires me up. I do care about things in my life, in other people's lives. I pray, I try to serve, I try to help, I try to walk right before the Lord, like you do. But this life has fewer and fewer charms for me, if I can be a little personal and honest about that. But I have Christ and he has me and it is enough. And so, yeah, even when David has to fake being insane to stay alive, I will bless the Lord. Amen. The writer of Hebrews puts this very well. Therefore, by Him, that's Christ, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. No matter what, we have Christ. We have no continuing city here, as it says there, but we seek the One to come. Yahweh be praised. Hallelujah, literally. This call to praise the Lord is inspiring and it's practical. Give your amen to it. We're praying for a revival. Revived people praise God in everything. They're committed to it. They're deliberate. It blesses God and it blesses us. And guess what? It blesses others, too. Look what David moves on to. The humble hear of it and are glad. The humble shall hear of it and be glad, actually. Have you stopped to consider how your worship, and specifically your praises, God's praise continually in your mouth, as it says, the fruit of your lips, praise to our God, how this affects others around us. The humble, that David speaks of, the humble are those who are near to the heart of God, right? He resists the proud, but he gives his grace to the humble. When the humble, the soft-hearted toward God, hear someone sincerely praising the Lord, they're lifted, they're inspired, they're edified, they're glad. The Apostle Paul wrote, when describing being filled with the Spirit, that we should be speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Praising God is like a language spoken among Spirit-filled Christians. It encourages. It builds up. And even outside the ranks of believers, Psalm 96 says, another opening call to praise not identified with David, though, says, Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord. Bless his name. Watch this. Proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all peoples. So praising God is not only the language of edification among Christians, it's part of the language of evangelism. And praising God when things are hard, is especially impactful. Hardship is actually a tremendous platform for evangelism. When a humble believer blesses God, when everyone around might expect him to complain, it's powerful. So praising the Lord blesses God, it blesses the humble who hear, and it can even open doors for the gospel. There's one more layer to this call to praise here in Psalm 34. Praising God is the ground of fellowship. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. Fellowship is sharing, true sharing. This is what makes this a call to praise. Verses one and two are really a declaration of praise, a personal commitment to praise the Lord. It's verse three here that makes this a call. I'm going to praise God, join me. Magnify means just what it intuitively infers, make something bigger. You can't really make God bigger, but you can make Him seem bigger in the hearing of others by praising Him, by speaking of Him in worshipful, honoring, lauding, glorifying speech. He's infinitely big. Our words don't enhance that in actuality, but in the perception of those around us. a hurting brother or sister, a happy brother or sister, a lost person who has no real knowledge of God. Our praise can alert them to the big deal that God is, even if they don't recognize it or recognize it yet. Magnify Him. Magnify Him with me. Exalt His name together. Praising God is the ground of fellowship. We share in our mutual faith, our love, our trials and struggles, everything when we set ourselves to praise God together. Acts 16 records Paul and Silas doing this together, and it's not difficult to get your mind around that since they were chained in prison together. But it says, at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. That prison was the ground of fellowship as they praised God together. They encouraged each other, no doubt. God was blessed, no doubt. And they had an audience. Then the earthquake, and everyone's chains fall off, and the doors were opened. And then maybe the most amazing part of that account, no one left. The jailer and his family get saved, and you know the rest, in Acts 16. Very powerful. My dear brothers and sisters, whatever circumstances you're in, praise God. Determine that you will bless the Lord. His praise shall be on your lips. And encourage one another in it, and share with one another in it. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Always. Amen.