The LORD is king! Let the nations tremble! He sits on his throne between the cherubim. Let the whole earth quake!

The LORD sits in majesty in Jerusalem, supreme above all the nations.
Let them praise your great and awesome name. Your name is holy!

Mighty king, lover of justice, you have established fairness. You have acted with justice and righteousness throughout Israel.

I exalt You, LORD my God! I bow low before Your feet, for You are holy! Moses and Aaron were among Your priests; Samuel also called on Your name. They cried to You, LORD, for help, and You answered them.

You spoke to them from the pillar of cloud, and they followed the decrees and principles You gave them.

O LORD my God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God, but you punished them when they went wrong.

I exalt the LORD my God and worship at Your holy mountain in Jerusalem, for the LORD my God is holy!

              —-Psalm 99 The Message — with Lu edits

My devotional this morning was about praise and worship. Even before I read it, God led me to this passage.

I confess, I’ve been in a very dark place for nearly a week. Depression has seeped into the very fibers of my soul and I can’t shake it. It’s been there for a couple of years now, but sometimes I can hide from it. This week I couldn’t. It overtook me.

I’m not in the "mood" to praise God. I don’t have things to "shout to the Lord" about — at least not in a praise-y shout.

But I found myself reading through Psalm 98 and 99 and remembering a time in India when I couldn’t think, couldn’t focus…. I was the Research Coordinator for our team, yet I felt paralyzed in a fog and unable to lead the team in our research. I put on worship music and forced my mind to focus on God, and on Him alone. At the time I was rather disgusted with myself. All I could think was, "so much to do, and all I can manage to do is worship God. What kind of a Christian am I?!"

Looking back later I could see that that time of praise and worship was probably the most important thing I could do. Funny how I don’t think of that. The Bible says that every day the earth and all that’s in it praise God (Isa 55:12) and even the heavens pour forth speech day-to-day and reveal His knowledge every night (Psalm 19:1-4). Everything was made to praise God — not as an act of contrition, but as a natural part of their day-to-day existence. Even when the sun beats down, fields clap their hands, even when the rain and earthquakes crush them, the mountains still shout out the Glory of God. Why is it, then, that I feel compelled to do something OTHER than praise? Why is it that I feel I must have good things in my mind and life in order to glorify God?

So this is my praise to God. My focus and worship on the only One who can save me from this darkness. My heart is heavy, my soul downcast. But I will yet praise Him. Because that is what I was made to do.