What if?

Psalm 145 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

The Lord Extolled for His Goodness.  A Psalm of Praise, of David.

I will extol You, my God, O King, And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
² Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
³ Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, And His greatness is unsearchable.
⁴ One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts.
⁵ On the glorious splendor of Your majesty And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.
⁶ Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, And I will tell of Your greatness.
⁷ They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness.

⁸ The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.
⁹ The Lord is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works.
¹⁰ All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord, And Your godly ones shall bless You.
¹¹ They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom And talk of Your power;
¹² To make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts And the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom. ¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

¹⁴ The Lord sustains all who fall And raises up all who are bowed down.
¹⁵ The eyes of all look to You, And You give them their food in due time.
¹⁶ You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds.
¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.
¹⁹ He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them.
²⁰ The Lord keeps all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy. ²¹ My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.

As I read and meditated on today’s text, this psalm of praise extolling the Lord for His goodness, I couldn’t help but to think; What if? What would happen? How would my life be different, if I, like the psalmist, would:  extol You, my God, O King, And I would bless Your name forever and ever?    What if: Every day I would bless You, And I would praise Your name forever and ever? What if more than taking some time each day to acknowledge God, to worship Him, to thank Him and give Him praise, I would live my life for Him? What if I truly followed the first and great commandment: and loved the Lord my God with all my heart, soul and mind?  What if, as Paul in Romans 12:1, urges us by the mercies of God, I did present my body as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is my spiritual service of worship? What if, like the psalmist says in Psalm 37: 3-6, I did: Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.  Delight myself in the Lord?       Would He give me the desires of my heart?
If I did Commit my way to the Lord and trust also in Him? Would He truly: bring forth my righteousness as the light?   How different might my life be if I lived to praise God, to thank Him and to bless His name every day forever?

The psalmist says:   One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts.     What if that were true of the generations living today? What if we truly taught our children about and praised God for His marvelous and mighty works, not relying on schools, the  government or media to teach our children? In Deuteronomy 11:18-21, God commands the Israelites saying:   “You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,  so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them.”     Sadly today, in our culture, many people’s knowledge of the mighty acts of God and His commandments, is limited to the presentations of Disney or other Hollywood entities. The result is that God is viewed as comparable to others depicted in movies and shows. He is viewed as a fictional concept, sometimes depicted as good and sometimes as evil. How different would our society and culture be if:   Men would speak of the power of Your awesome acts, And I will tell of Your greatness? What if: They would eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness And did shout joyfully of Your righteousness?

What if:   All Your works did give thanks to You, O Lord, And Your godly ones did bless You? What if they did speak of the glory of Your kingdom And talk of Your power; To make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts And the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom? They would know:  The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. They would know: The Lord is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works. They would  know: Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations. If we would, live as the Psalmist says, then they would know:  The Lord sustains all who fall And raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to You, And You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing. They would know:   The Lord is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. They would know:   He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them. That He will:   keep all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy.

Our culture and society may call it karma or what goes around comes around. In truth it is God’s principle of blessings and curses. There is one outcome for one decision or action and a different outcome for the other. As I meditated and pondered the words of the psalmist, I have decided and determined that as this year ends and as we move forward into the next year and beyond, I will live to see what if? As for me, I have determined that with God’s help, yielded to the Holy Spirit:   My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever. I will extol You, my God, O King, And I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, And His greatness is unsearchable.    Amen.