Focus

Experience silence in the midst of your busy day. Take some time to relax into a time to be with God.

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Read

Psalm 145:1-8 (NRSV)

I will extol you, my God and King,
and bless your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless you,
and praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall laud your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.
On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed,
and I will declare your greatness.
They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness,
and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

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Reflect

I love words. When I’m reading something, I often stop to look up the definition of a word, the meaning of an idiom, or the origin of a quote. I Google information about an author I’m interested in. What begins as me reading a novel often turns into a research project, which I actually enjoy. I’m a Google geek.

I researched Psalm 145 and found a lot of tidbits of information that I think are fascinating. For example, the 145th psalm is the last one that historians can say with a strong degree of certainty was written by David. Also, each line of the poem begins with a chronological letter of the Hebrew alphabet—except for 13! Part of that verse (called 13b) doesn’t begin with a Hebrew letter, which prompts the argument “are all of the lines that David wrote actually in the Bible, or were some left out?” Did a scribe goof? Or did someone decide that the Bible would be better if it were left out? And so it goes, on and on…until I find I need to go back and re-read the original passage to remember what it says.

There is a saying: “The devil is in the details.” In all my research, I lost the most basic element of the psalm. It is a song of praise—pure and simple. David felt the need to praise God and he stated it in several ways in this psalm. We should follow David’s example and take time to tell God how much we appreciate all the beauty and glory around us every day. Don’t overthink it, just do it.

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Pray

God of all creation, there is beauty in every day, if we just remember to look. You are majestic and mighty and all-powerful, and we praise you. Amen.

Go with God.