May 2

This importance of praise

Psalm 103 starts off with the repetition of the command to praise the Lord. “Praise the Lord, O my soul.” Why the repetition? The Psalmist wants to make sure that the community of faith makes praise a priority in every day. One of the commentaries says concerning this command, "There is nothing the soul of man is so prone to forget as to render thanks that are due, and more especially thanks that are due to God."

The importance of praise can be seen in a story that came out of the history of Napoleonic France. Leonard Griffith has given us a moving story of a political prisoner by the name of Charnet. Charnet was thrown into prison simply because he had accidentally, by a remark, offended the emperor Napoleon. Cast into a dungeon cell, presumably left to die, as the days and weeks and months passed by, Charnet became embittered at his fate. Slowly but surely he began to lose his faith in God. This eventually caused him to forget to praise and remember God. And one day, in a moment of rebellious anger, he scratched on the wall of his cell "ALL THINGS COME BY CHANCE," which reflected the injustice that had come his way by chance. He sat in the darkness of that cell growing more bitter by the day. There was one spot in the cell where a single ray of sunlight came every day and remained for a little while. And one morning, to his absolute amazement, he noticed that in the hard, earthen floor of that cell a tiny, green blade was breaking through. It was something living, struggling up toward that shaft of sunlight. It was his only living companion, and his heart went out in joy toward it. He nurtured it with his tiny ration of water, cultivated it, and encouraged its growth. That green blade became his friend. It became his teacher in a sense, and finally it burst through until one day there bloomed from the little plant a beautiful, purple and white flower. Once again Charnet remembered God and praised him. He scratched off the thing he had scribbled on the wall of his dungeon and in its place wrote "HE WHO MADE ALL THINGS IS GOD." Through the guards, and the gossip grapevine, the story of this man’s love for a flower reached the ears of Napoleon's wife. She was so moved by it and so convinced that a man who loved a flower that way could not possible by a dangerous criminal that she persuaded Napoleon to release him So Charnet was set free.

We can be set free from our prisons today if we just remember to praise the Lord.

Congratulations to all you radials who are continuing on this incredible Bible reading journey ... you have made it to the month of May.