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The Wonder Of Wilderness
March 19, 2012

The psalmists had an advantage in praise because of their closer tie to the natural world. David began life outdoors as a shepherd, then spent years hiding in the rocky terrain of Israel. Not surprisingly, a great love, even reverence, for the natural world shines through many of his poems. The psalms present a world that fits together as a whole, with everything upheld by a personal God watching over it.

Wilderness announces to our senses the splendor of an invisible, untamable God. How can we not offer praise to the One who dreamed up porcupines and elk, who splashed bright-green aspen trees across hillsides of gray rock, who transforms the same landscape into a work of art with every blizzard?

The world, in the psalmist’s imagination, cannot contain the delight God inspires. “Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises” (Ps. 98:4). Nature itself joins in: “Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together before the Lord” (v.8).

The psalms wonderfully solve the problem of a praise-deficient culture by providing the necessary words. We merely need to enter into those words, letting God use the psalms to realign our inner attitudes.

All creatures of our God and King,
Lift up your voice and with us sing, Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam, Thou silver moon
with softer gleam! O praise Him! —St. Francis of Assisi

In praise, the creature happily acknowledges that everything good comes from the Creator.

Read: Psalm 98

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises. —Psalm 98:4

Bible in a Year:
1 Samuel 17-20

King James Version (KJV)

Psalm 84

” 1.How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!

2.My soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

3.Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.

4.Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.

5.Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.

6.Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.

7.They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

8.O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.

9.Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.

10.For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

1.1For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

12.O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.”
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When we are joyful at heart,
it is natural to sing to our LORD!