“I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.  For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!  Let you glory be over all the earth!” Psalm 57:9-11

Sharing Jesus with others can be really hard.  It can be scary because we don’t know how others will react or if we will be able to handle all the questions.  It can be time consuming and we are not sure if we are ready or able to make such a commitment. 

Another thing that can be hard in the life of a Christian is worship.  When life isn’t going the way we want or we feel so stressed at keeping everything going the way we need to, worship very easily takes a back seat.  Which makes Psalm 57 incredibly profound.

In the midst of a very difficult period of his life, David the soon to be king of Israel is praising God!  While he is on the run from the current king who is trying to kill him, David worships God!  Amazing!

A great temptation I have in my life in the midst of hardship is to not praise God.  It seems quite easy due to my constantly wandering heart to note the slightest discomfort and surmise that either God is against me for no reason or that God is rightly handing out justice concerning something I’ve done wrong.  When these thoughts take root, they lead me to run from God. 

But by His mercy He reminds me of His mercy.  I can then call out like David, “be merciful to me, O God, be merciful.” (Psalm 57:1).  “And He will send from heaven and save me.” (57:3) And He has done this through His Son Jesus, who came from heaven and has taken all my punishment upon Himself through His suffering and death.  I can therefore hear again the joyous truth that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1) resting assured that whatever comes is for my good (8:28) and rejoice once again like David: “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over the earth!” (Psalm 57:5) Amazing!

But let’s go one step further because the Psalm takes us there.  In the midst of hardship it is possible to praise God.  And out of our praise of God comes evangelism; the sharing of the good news of life through Christ to those marked by sin and death, not yet knowing and believing this good news.  Psalm 57:9-11 declares that the cure for our struggle to share Christ with others is worship of God.  As we see how great God is and how gracious He has been toward us, that leads us to worship.  And the arena of that worship is in the midst of the nations.  “I will sing praise to you among the nations.”  God’s encounter with David is so profound to him, even while hiding in a cave, a desire of declaring God’s name among the nations begins to take hold of him.  This is how great and awesome God is! 

So may the God of heaven and earth so encounter us His people that we will be in awe of His grace toward us and our worship will overflow the walls of our homes and church buildings, and be heard and seen in the streets, workplaces, restaurants, stores, and all the other places our feet take us.  Let our hearts be moved and may the world hear: Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise!