Tuesday, December 1, 2009

7 times a day

In Psalm 119:164 David states the facts;
"Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws."
So I've been stuck on this since last night, this morning I woke up early, scarfed down my cheerios with pineapple floating in soymilk, dropped off my enormous sketchpad in the art building and found a secluded corner to read and pray and think alone. I found this verse and looked over it again, and I wrote, asking myself where 7 times a day would fit in. I came up with these times for myself:
1= as soon as I wake up
2= when I eat breakfast
3= after my first class
4= before/during lunch
5= mid-afternoon
6= at/before dinner
7=before I go to bed
So there are seven distinct times throughout the day. Seven seems to be used a lot throughout the Bible, so I decided to do a little research... The number seven occurs 392 times in the Bible (which also happens to be the sum of 7 squared and 7 cubed!) That is tangential, the important thing is that seven is fullness or completeness. Then is David really saying, "I completely praise you throughout the full day"? Is he saying he lives and breathes a life of praise? It seems so.
Back to praising God 7 times a day- if I am going to do that I need to know how to praise God - what different ways can I do this (according to the Bible)? So I checked out my Bible's concordance. I found some interesting stuff (of course - this is the Bible we're talking about!)
Psalm 69:30 talks about praising God's name in song
Psalm 71:22 David will praise with the harp
Luke 19:37 says to praise God in a loud voice
James 3:9 says with the tongue we praise our Lord
Acts 10:46 talks about speaking in tongues and praising God
1 Corinthians 14:16 praising God with your Spirit
There are so many nuances in the verses I have just listed - it's hard to pick apart scripture and make lists, it's meant to be read, for one to see the whole picture, which is why I suggest you dust off your own Bible and READ it!
I have soooooo much more to say on this, but for now I have to return to busy college-kid life - I will be back though,sometime...
I still want to write about what we praise in God, expound on how we do it, if there are better ways for different people, or at different times and places, what does God like most about praise - does praise differ from worship, can a non-Christian praise God? So many ????????????????????????'s
Praise God today!

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