According to Your name, O God, so is Your praise to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness. (Psalm 48:10)
When it comes to human beings and our likes and dislikes, we so often try to present those we love and respect in the best of light. For instance, we gloss over the obvious imperfections of our preferred politicians and accentuate their attributes we are inclined to embrace. Taking this to an extreme, we might laud a leader as mighty and brave when they are, in fact, weak and cowardly; we might say someone is beautiful when, actually, they are quite homely. A real life example that comes to mind is a deceased, iconic singer/songwriter who is hailed as being a warrior for peace and love when, truth be told, he was cruel, abusive and just plain nasty to most people in his life.
The point is this: the best of humans will fall short of what we want or believe them to be. Furthermore, without God’s guidance and favor, we ourselves will never attain the heights we wish to pursue for ourselves because we are frail and prone to failure. For instance, just because the title “apostle” or “prophet” is on your calling card doesn’t make it so. On the other hand, the Almighty has been described with numerous titles and exalted names such as Elohim (Sovereign God, Creator), El Shaddai (All Sufficient One), Elyon (God Most High) etc. More importantly, as the psalmist declared, the God of Israel is true to His Name. He alone matches the titles that have been ascribed to Him; only He is worthy of the praise that is bestowed upon Him. He, and only He, lives up to the reputation that Scripture and His mighty works present to us.
There is no place on the earth that is void of His righteous handiwork. There is no place in the world where His Holy Presence could be not be found; as it is written, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there” (Psalm 139:7-8). Consequently, were we to travel to the ends of the earth, there is no place nor circumstance whereby He would not be worthy of our praise and thanksgiving. He is true to His Name, and so, we should be resolved to give Him the glory that is due Him. With that thought in mind, we will close with the words of David who said, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1).
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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