Psalm 111

¹Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. ²Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them. ³Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. ⁴He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and merciful. ⁵He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever. ⁶He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the inheritance of the nations. ⁷The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy; ⁸they are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness. ⁹He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name! ¹⁰The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever! If you read my previous post, you may or may not be assuming that my father preached on this passage from Psalms today. Of course I couldn't just announce he was preaching and leave you hanging on the message. Please. Disclaimer: This is my interpretation of my dad's sermon. I didn't take any notes (a-cuz I don't do notes), so keep in mind that I really cannot do his words justice. I'll just start with my favorite dad joke from the sermon: "I haven't always been the social giant you see standing before you today." (my dad is a hermit) He opened with an anecdote about having taken a biology course back in the day during which he simply learned biology through a textbook without the aid of hands-on lessons, such as dissections. He compared this to a biology course he took later at college during which he got to dissect all kinds o' crazy stuffs. He absolutely loved being able to dig in and see and be part of the lesson he was learning. This is much like our appreciation of God's works. We have to wonder how much we're getting out of God's Word, and on an even broader spectrum, this world, unless we're actually cutting it open and pulling out the organs for closer examination. Dad also likened this to the improvements to speech made by a thesaurus. Remember in 5th grade when you'd write stories and everything was either "bad" or "good" (i.e. "The bad kid took the test and he did a bad job on it.")? The teacher would return the paper with suggestions to use words other than "bad" in order to enhance the story. Get a thesaurus, kid. Thesaurus is, quite literally in Latin, "treasure," which parallels the treasury that is the Bible in that the Bible enhances our story. Sounds corny when I write it, but I promise it was much more eloquent and poignant coming out of my father's mouth. My dad even went on to make a solid point for those of us who are students wondering, "Why am I even taking this pointless algebra test?" Because the knowledge required to pass that test is a part of God's magnificent creation. He made this world interesting and worth trying to understand. "Great are the works of the world, studied by all who delight in them (v.2)." Of course, there was more to the sermon, but I give you these snippets to say that this is what I know I need to work toward. It's easy to simply say, "Praise the Lord!" from the mouth. But really, it's just as easy to say, "I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart," because He reveals Himself in every facet of existence. I don't mean to bring up thankfulness just because it is a season of thanksgiving (though that's not a bad reason to do so). I bring it up because it's what I haven't had for the longest time. I've wallowed in my doubts, and I've been diving in the deep end of a depression pool. It's just about time to bring my head above it all and breathe in God. I know He's there. He's everywhere. "He has shown his people the power of his works," and "the works of his hands are faithful and just."