Don’t Let Your Praise Go Down with the Sun

From the rising of the sun to its going down
The Lord’s name is to be praised.  (Psalm 113:3, NKJV)

This psalm, only nine verses long, begins with a proclamation, moves into exhortation, slips into a question, then finishes with glorification. It is akin to what we would now call a worship chorus, not delving into deep theology but touching on one particular aspect of God’s glory.

Focusing on the verse at hand, there is much to be said about its message. Where I am today saw sunrise at 6:18 am. Being the first day of summer, the sun will not set until 8:38 pm. After today the sun’s presence each day will wane until the mid-December beginning of winter, when the waxing of the day will begin anew. If we take this psalm at its face value, that means that the Lord’s name is to be praised today for 12 hours and 20 minutes, right? Wrong.

There’s a country song (really a drinking song) which says, “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.” The same holds true for the rising and the setting of the sun. The fact of the matter is that no matter where you live, the sun is rising, blazing forth the day or setting somewhere at all times. Even when the polar regions have months with no sunrise, our globe is nonetheless impacted by the great orb of fire at all times.

True, in our own experience, unless we are going to race the sun via air travel and always stay in the daylight (sounds like a cool action movie idea, huh?), we will generally see sunrise and sunset on a set schedule. In our own lives there is a regularity to the pattern. I believe the divinely-inspired point is that the name of the Lord is to be praised in all places at all times.

This concept was the inspiration of a song I wrote years ago, titled, “Psalm 151.” (I found out today there are a couple of others which have used that title.) Probably only five to ten people have ever heard my version. The gist of the lyrics is this – God’s praises do not end with Psalm 150. Our lives are to be the 151st Psalm of praise to the Lord; at all times and in all circumstances we are to live lives which bring glory and praise to our KIng.

So, from the rising to the setting and then again from the setting to the rising of the sun, at all times and in all ways, let His name be praised!