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By: Anneke de Jong
You may listen to this devotion in audio form via podcast here.
I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart, before the “gods” I will sing your praise.
- Psalm 138:1
There’s a phenomenon in social media known as a shout-out. A shout-out happens when a social media user promotes another user on their account. For example, my family owns a goat dairy where we bottle and sell goat milk to retail stores. When a customer posts a picture of our goat milk, and raves about how amazing it is on their Instagram account, we have been given a shout-out.
Psalm 138 is ancient Israel’s version of a shout-out. King David is praising God and he’s letting everyone else know about his loving and faithful God. It’s a psalm that gives a rich picture of how we are to live in praise of God.
When David bows down toward God’s holy temple, he is acknowledging God’s presence over his life. The tabernacle was the dwelling place of God as he lived among his chosen people. God is not some distant, impersonal god, like those of the nations around Israel – He is real and He is present. A God of unfailing love and faithfulness.
This psalm establishes God as the ruler over all – over all the ‘gods’ of Israel’s neighbors and over all the kings of the earth, including David. David wants all the world to see God’s glory, so that they may know they are living in the presence of the one and only true God. Then they too may praise and worship God; this exalted God that looks kindly on the lowly and the humble.
David looks back and gives thanks because when he called on God, God answered. God heard his cry and gave David strength. We don’t know why David cried out, just that God, as He always does, answered. As David looks forward, he trusts that God’s love and faithfulness will continue, in spite of the trouble that is bound to come. Echoing Psalm 19, David concludes with the request that God, his Creator, will not abandon “the work of his hands”.
We see clearly in this psalm why David was called ‘a man after God’s own heart.’ In spite of his sins and failings, David’s life was a living testimony to God. Psalm 138 gives us the words to voice our praise as we also live lives devoted to God. When we humble ourselves in the presence of God, when we share how God has heard our prayers and strengthened us, and when we trust in God’s unfailing love and faithfulness, we proclaim His glory for all the world to see. A shout-out to God through the lives of his people.