January 24 – The Discipline of Acclaim (Psalm 89:14-18)

“Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim You, who walk in the light of Your presence, O Lord.”(Psalm 89:15)

IN WORD:
Many of us are pessimistic by nature. The glass is always half empty — at least half, if not more. We see our areas of need far more easily than we see how God has met them. We know He has blessed us, of course. We just don’t dwell on those blessings. We dwell on what is yet lacking in our contentment.
Those of us for whom this pessimism is true rarely see it for the sin that it is. We consider it one of the weaknesses of our human nature, a personality trait rather than a spiritual problem. But it is, in fact, deeply spiritual. And it is quite a problem. It fails to acknowledge God’s goodness as often as it ought to be acknowledged. It is the root of the same sin of complaining that so angered God about the Israelites in the wilderness.
This psalm gives us the wisdom to change our attitudes. It shows the way out of the wilderness of discontent. Instead of affirming our areas of need, it turns our focus to our blessings. It tells us to acclaim Him, to verbally acknowledge who He is. When we do, His presence becomes a greater reality to us — greater than it once was, and greater than all of the sources of our dis-satisfaction. Those who learn to acclaim Him, learn the reality of the God of all sufficiency. In short, we become joyful creatures. Or, as the psalm says, we are blessed.

IN DEED:
Human beings tend to be caught in one of 2 cycles: a downward cycle of disappointment, or an upward cycle of blessing. When we focus on unmet needs, we lose sight of God’s goodness and we are unprepared to receive more of it. When we focus on our blessings, not only do we feel more content, we actually receive the greater blessing of knowing God. We expect to receive more, and He is happy to give it to those who acknowledge Him faithfully.

“If worship does not change us, it has not been worship.”
-Richard Foster-