I will bless the Lord at all times

Psalm 34:1 says:
I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

OK, "all times" and "continually" include "now".  And I believe it.

So, what happened to me recently.

After fighting it for a while, my tooth started to hurt so much I knew I had to have it (and the adjoining wisdom tooth) out.  But I couldn't get an immediate appointment.  What came to me was Psalm 34:1.

Well, I don't recall it easing the pain much, but it's the truth, so His praise was in my mouth (off and on) while I waited.

The two teeth were extracted and I felt better.  Two days later, Helen and I went to the second of two kindergarten graduation ceremonies, which was 35 miles from home in Morris County.  Nice.

However, when we got in the car, the "check engine" light was on.  Alas.  Well, the last time that happened it was just a loose gas cap, so we decided to see what would happen.  Maybe it was OK.

What happened was the temperature gauge went up to "hot".  So Helen and I pulled over to the side of the road, called AAA, and found a shady spot to bless the Lord.

The car got towed home and fixed that afternoon.  How nice!  We drove it about 70 miles that evening, so it seemed good.

The next morning we went down to Union County on the Garden State Parkway and, near our destination, watched the temperature gauge go up.

Time to bless the Lord again.  Well, it's always time to bless the Lord.  Even the good times are times to bless the Lord.

In the New Testament, this is written in Philippians 4:4
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
This is saying the same thing.

So how do we get to a place where we can bless the Lord or rejoice in the Lord always?
1. We need to know His love for us.  We need to really, really know His love for us.
2. We need to know He has not abandoned us, and is still with us, right here right now, walking through this trial with us.
3. We need to practice blessing the Lord at all times.  We can practice in traffic jams and traffic detours and any other annoyance that comes our way.

Larry Carroll

The scripture above is from the New American Standard Bible.