Psalm 30:1-3

            Today as we move into the Christmas Holiday season and as we come to the end of another most eventful and seriously challenging year, I am just praying that the Almighty keeps us focused on Him and sanctified. Honestly, there is something about this time of year that if we are not careful, can throw us off course, where we become so taken up with the festivities and with the trappings of the Yuletide season and celebrations, that we, the saints, even forget to worship and keep our minds stayed on Him. However, can we truly forget how gravely dramatic this year, 2021 has been?

            For so many, 2020 was a most dreadful year and little did we think that 2021 could be as heart-wrenching and dramatic. Almost on every hand and side, we were rocked and assaulted with one bad news after another.  However, through every disappointing calamity and setback, I believe we can all testify that Jehovah – Jesus sustained. Ain’t that right, Church? Can I get an Amen from the saints right here! We can surely attest to the fact that in all our various tribulations – Jehovah, the God who was and is, and is to come, gave blessed consolation! We kept going through, but we also kept coming out, and so today we declare as His body, corporately and individually, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

            In our deliberations today, I would just like to propose that we do like David did in Psalm 30. After all the trials of his most colorful and eventful life, David declared and remained determined to give God praise, but not only to praise God, but to praise God profusely, extravagantly, and intentionally. He says at the outset – “I will extol thee, O Lord…” (Psalm 30:1).  He was so firmly resolved to do this, that one gets the impression that his mind was so made up that it couldn’t be changed or dissuaded!  He was uncompromising, unflinching, and unshakeable in his pledge to praise, acclaim, celebrate and eulogize Jehovah. In other words, he was not ashamed to make much of his God, to pay tribute to Him or to brag about Him. May God help us to make much of our God today, especially in these last days of 2021!

            There are those who feel that this Psalm was sung at the rededication of David’s house after he had been driven out of it by Absalom, his son, who had so shamelessly defiled it. It is a thanksgiving for the crushing of that rebellion. Yet, whatever the occasion, David is giving praise and sanctifying the private quarters of his home again with a song of praise and psalm of intense gratitude. He is worshipping at home, sanctifying his home through prayer and praise, excommunicating every evil spirit, by deliberately choosing to praise God even after one of the most harrowing trials of his life.

            Church of the living God, may we do the same today, after one of the worst years of our lives. Choose to make a decisive declaration like David – “I will extol thee, O Lord…” (v. 1). Then follow him intently, as He methodically outlines some of the mercies for which he is grateful. He passionately states “…For thou has lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. O Lord, I cried unto thee and thou hast healed me. O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive. That I should not go down to the pit” (vv. 1-3).

            He lifted us, healed us, brought us up from the grave and kept us alive! Should we not therefore extol Him? This Yuletide season, it is imperative that we praise Him and do so most vigorously, proportionate to the blessings He has so liberally bestowed upon us – “I will extol thee O Lord.”

Leroy V. Greenaway

Presiding Bishop – Northeast Region

December 4, 2021