Day 65
Psalm 47:6,7
"Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding."
God is our King! People of other nations show respect to kings and presidents of nations other than theirs, but there is a difference in the way they react in the presence of their highest official. Unless they are rebels, disloyal or unpatriotic, they are more proud and excited about the appearance of their country's top official than they are of any other leader. If heads of countries are being introduced to a crowd, they will applaud for each one, but there will be a louder, more vigorous reaction to the introduction of their own. Well, although we have earthly citizenship and earthly leaders, we see these as temporary. We have permanent citizenship in another kingdom that is higher than the kingdom of our temporary citizenship. So we are most excited about our permanent King who is the King of kings!
There are many rulers on the earth, but they are all sub-rulers. Our God, Our Father, is the King of all the earth. That should motivate us to not only give louder and more vigorous praise to Him, but to be intelligent about what we do or say.
The psalmist said we should sing praises with understanding. We should understand what we are saying when we speak in our language. Otherwise, how can we mean what we say if we don't know what we mean? It is bad enough when we are in a crowd, but it becomes even more crucial when we are alone.
The more a child grows up, the more unnatural it is for us to listen to them repeating things they don't understand. The older they get, the more we expect them to speak intelligently. When God asked me one day what I meant by "I praise you, Lord," I realized then that I had limited understanding and was somewhat mimicking what I had heard. I vaguely understood what I meant, but after that, I was forced to think it through, and study, or meditate, upon it. Now it is more meaningful to God and me when I praise Him.
I will vigorously praise my God because He is far above all kings. I will praise Him with understanding. I will praise Him.