Bragging on Him (Psalm 71:19-24)

As relatively new parents,
Patty and I seem to spend a lot of time applauding and praising our little
children when they do something new. 
Whether it was walking or talking, building or bringing, singing or
standing, we clap and say, “yay!”  As
parents, we tell others what our children are doing and even though we know
there’s nothing outstanding about it, we are proud of them.  We tell others what they are doing.  We post pictures on Facebook about what they
are doing.  We Tweet what they are
doing.  We text what they are doing.  We want everyone to know what they are doing
because we are proud of them.

But do we tell others about
what God does?  When we are delivered or
rescued, do we tell others?  When the
Lord provides food, clothing, money, shelter, do we brag on Him?  The Psalmist in Psalm 71 ends with this kind
of praise and bragging on God.  As you
read it, notice the proud the servant is of his Master.

¹⁹ Your
righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens,

you who have done great
things.

Who is like you, God?

²⁰ Though
you have made me see troubles,

many and bitter, you will
restore my life again;

from the depths of the
earth you will again bring me up.

²¹ You
will increase my honor and comfort me once more.

²² I
will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God;

I will sing praise to you
with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.

²³ My
lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you—

I whom you have delivered.

²⁴ My
tongue will tell of your righteous acts all day long,

for those who wanted to
harm me have been put to shame and confusion.

Psalm 71:19–24

The Psalmist ends this poem
in praise of our Lord.  Even in spite of
troubles that have faced him (“many and bitter”), he knew the Lord “will restore my life
again.”  He’s saying that the death in his bones would not
separate him from the love of God.  This
is the same hope we can profess.  The
Apostle Paul writes it this way:

³⁵ Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it
is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as
sheep to be slaughtered.”  ³⁷ No, in all these things we
are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am
convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the
present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35–39)

In the end, our pain and
our temporary hopelessness has no sustaining power over us, dear Child of
God.  Our honor and comfort from the Lord
increases as we know Him more.  It’s when
we go through the times of trial and look back that we see the Lord’s hand has
been guiding all along.  We see His
purposes for us and we can exalt Him for His faithfulness.

We can shout to the world
about the goodness of our Lord; not because of a kind of academic
understanding, but because we have experienced His goodness ourselves.  Did you catch that?  We can shout about His goodness because we
have experienced it ourselves.  It is me the Lord has delivered.  I can’t tell you about your deliverance, but I can shout and sing at the top of my lungs
about mine! 

The Lord’s righteousness is
His perfection.  And this is what we are
speaking about.  The Lord’s plans are
perfect and the Lord’s purposes are holy. 
When we “tell of Your righteous acts all day
long,” we are telling the world and
other believers of the Holiness of God. 
We are proclaiming the Lord’s salvation of humanity—us—and showing the
world how the Lord cares for His children.

Verse 1

Just the time I feel

That I’ve been caught

In the mire of self

Just the time I feel

My mind’s been bought

By worldly wealth

That’s when the breeze

Begins to blow

I know the Spirit’s call

And all my worldly wanderings

Just melt into His love

Verse 2

And when my daily deeds

Ordinarily lose life and song

My heart begins to bleed

Sensitivity to Him is gone

I’ve run the race

But set my own pace

And face a shattered soul

Now the gentle arms of Jesus

Warm my hunger to be whole

Chorus

Oh I want to know You more

Deep within my soul

I want to know You

Oh I want to know You

To feel Your heart

And know Your mind

Looking in Your eyes

Stirs up within me

Cries that say

I want to know You

Oh I want to know You more

“Oh I Want to Know You”

Steve Fry

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