The God in the desert Part-2

 Now, after we have determined that the  God in the desert is a personal God and a God who walks with us in our difficulties, we come to the next verse in Psalm 63 that teaches us that the God in the desert is a God whose love is better than life! (Verse 3). I have always loved this part of the Psalm. It is such a deep statement. It is so majestic! What David is trying to say is that God's love is better than life itself; God's love is better than any awards, any great deeds or anything you might be able to accomplish in your lifetime. God's love has no comparisons. You can attempt to compare it, but you'll never come close to finding somebody who loves you more than God does.  You will never comprehend the magnitude of God's love towards us. Nothing is better than His love. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son..." John 3:16 says. God loved you so much that He willingly allowed His only Son to die on a Cross for you and me! "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends" Jesus said in John 15:13. That's a God who is better than life! An awesome God!

Now, because "His love is better than life", it causes us to have four attitudes towards God  and His greatness.

First, we have an attitude of praise (V3). David says "my lips will praise you". The word "praise" in the Hebrew means "to address with a loud voice". In other words, David is telling us to shout at the top of our lungs how great God is, how awesome He is, how marvelous He is. He is telling us to praise Him with all we've got because He is worthy of it. Worthy is the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world! Psalm 150 mentions the word "praise" 13 times in 6 verses. Now, wouldn't you think that praising God should be one of the most important things we do each and every day? The answer is a resounding yes! The challenge is to have an attitude of praise all the time, and why is that? It is because we still have a sinful nature that pulls us back into doing what we think is important instead of doing what it is of great importance to our God; that is, to praise His Holy Name.

Second, we have an attitude of blessing (V4). David expresses " I will bless you as long as I live". The root Hebrew word for "blessing" is "to kneel in adoration". David is telling us we should kneel before God and adore Him because of His great love for us. His love should cause us to bless His name over and over again. We should do it tirelessly. That's the least we can do for the great love He has poured into our lives. As the song goes: " Blessed be the name of Lord, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord, glorious name". Psalm 103:1-2 eloquently describes how we should bless God: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits". Blessing God should come out of the very depth of our soul, and not only blessing God is the right thing to do to honor Him, but blessing God is a manifestation of  our gratitude because of all the benefits we reap from Him and His goodness.

Third, we have an  attitude of being fully satisfied. (V5) The word satisfied means "to have enough". Because of His love for us, we have enough grace, enough love, enough protection and enough material blessings. Because of His love, we should have a sense of being fully satisfied because God always gives us what we need and not necessarily what we want. Satisfaction should depend on what He does for us and not on what we think He should do for us. Just remember, His thoughts are higher than ours and He always knows best. Maybe our sense of satisfaction for some us has been out of wack for quite some time and now, it is the time to get it where it needs to be.  That sense of satisfaction provided by His goodness should encourage our hearts to praise Him even more for "our mouths shall praise Him with joyful lips."

Fourth, we have an attitude of Remembrance. (V6)

If we follow David's train of thought, we can clearly see that he's saying: "If I'm satisfied by You, I will praise You and I'll remember You! In this case, David remembers God when he goes to bed. In no way, shape or form, David is implying that we only remember God when we go to bed. But, isn't interesting that he remembers God "in the watches of the night" when everything is supposed to be quiet? I think this a great opportunity to talk to God with no distractions and "meditate on Him"; meditate on what His Word has taught us throughout the day; meditate on the events of our day and ask God for His input. Meditate on His great love for us which, in fact, is causing us to remember Him in a special way. There's no better way to finish the day than remembering God and the great things He has done.  I think having an attitude of remembrance helps us "remember"( no pun intended) who is really in charge. It helps us remember that there's somebody bigger than us always watching over our lives, somebody who cares for us, somebody whose main interest is making us closer to Him as we live life.

The love of God should cause us to have these four attitudes: an attitude of praise, an attitude of blessing, an attitude of being fully satisfied and an attitude of remembrance. When we develop these attitudes, God's love will shine through us unto others and the impact you'll have on them could be so effective, that many lives could be changed and therefore, God will be glorified.

Stay tuned for the last part of this series and may God bless you on this New Year's day.