Psalm 150: Praise Ye The Lord - Hallelu Yah

Psalm 150

¹Praise ye the LORD.
Praise God in his sanctuary:
      praise him in the firmament of his power.
²Praise him for his mighty acts:
      praise him according to his excellent greatness.
³Praise him with the sound of the trumpet:
      praise him with the psaltery and harp.
⁴Praise him with the timbrel and dance:
      praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
⁵Praise him upon the loud cymbals:
      praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.

⁶Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD.

Praise ye the LORD.

Hallelu Yah, which is hebrew for Praise the Lord.  This past week marked the third anniversary since I started my journey through psalms.  For that I am grateful to God and praise the Lord.  My anniversary was not marked by fanfare or celebration - I simply went for a quiet walk with my son.  It's amazing the change that is in my life in three years.  I don't even know where to begin.  Secrets, lying and cheating have been replaced with honesty, serving, and contentment.  Porn, Drugs, and Alcohol have been replaced family, leadership, and community.

And there is much more work to do - God's transformative power continues to work in my life.  Just as life is one journey made up of smaller journey's.  In the same way, so is recovery.  Just because my journey through psalms is complete that doesn't mean I've completed my journey of recovery.  In fact, I still have several steps in the 12 steps which remain.

I want to thank all of you who joined me in this journey.  Thank you for all of your support.  Thank you for all of your prayers.  Of course, I would like thank God for bringing all of you into my life that could make this journey possible.  I want to wish you all the best in your personal journeys.  May you experience all the joy and relief that recovery has to offer - and may God always have His hand on you.  If you ever need support you can always reach me here...and, of course, you can always let God know what's going on.  If you need help finding God you can always make a prayer request.  Thanks again and God Bless.  Hallelu Yah.  Praise the Lord.

Thanks for letting me share.

Psalm 149 (KJV): Sing to the LORD a new song

Psalm 149

¹Praise ye the LORD.

Sing unto the LORD a new song,
      and his praise in the congregation of saints.

²Let Israel rejoice in him that made him:
      let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
³Let them praise his name in the dance:
      let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.
⁴For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people:
      he will beautify the meek with salvation.
⁵Let the saints be joyful in glory:
      let them sing aloud upon their beds.

⁶Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
      and a two-edged sword in their hand;
⁷To execute vengeance upon the heathen,
      and punishments upon the people;
⁸To bind their kings with chains,
      and their nobles with fetters of iron;
⁹To execute upon them the judgment written:
      this honour have all his saints.

Praise ye the LORD.

I remember in the first few months of my recovery my radio dial found its way to new stations.  I would find myself listening to Contemporary Christian music or even pastor sermons.  It was quite literally a, or many, new songs in my life.  And similar to other things in life music becomes an important context in which things happen.  Having those songs in the background, in my head when I woke up, humming them in the shower, all of these were part of my new outlook in recovery.  It was new and it was liberating and it was inspiring.  With God's support anything was possible - and still is.  Months and Years into recovery the trick is to continue to raise the bar.  Ways to be more sober, ways to to be closer to God, ways to serve him better.  If I stop looking for new ways to stay close to God I tread on the slippery slope that leads, inevitably, back to my addiction.  So, here's to a new chapter where I look for ways to stay close to God.

Dear Lord, Praise be your name for you have given me sobriety and recovery.  You have given me a whole new outlook on life.  God, you know me well, and you know how I get distracted and how I procrastinate.  You know I allow these distractions from building a stronger relationship with you.  For life gets busy and and its easy to get distracted from what's important.  You know I procrastinate in my recovery and in my 12 steps.  Forgive me and be with me.  Help me overcome these distractions and procrastination that I may become stronger in my recovery.  That I may build a stronger relationship with you.  That I may serve you more effectively.  That I may, like Psalm 149 says, sing to You a new song.  That I may sing You a song, that others hear and will want to sing-along to.  For your work is glorious and long to pay tribute to You.  Praise Ye the Lord.  Amen.

Thanks for letting me share.