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5/10 Reading Portions: Numbers 19; Psalms 56-57; Isaiah 8:1-9:7; James 2
Psalm 57:5
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let Your glory be over all the earth!
EXALTED
In his classic and helpful work, The Treasury of David, Mr. Spurgeon points out that these two verses are the psalm’s chorus of “glorious praise.” If indeed it is praise, and I believe it to be so wholeheartedly, this blessed chorus provides us another insight into what praise of God is. For the most part, many of us think of praise as exalting God for who He is and what He has done; and rightly so. Yet here we may see praise as a request to God. Following the ravishes of his soul, which “is in the midst of lions” and “amid fiery beasts,” who are actually “the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords” (Psa 57:4), the sweet psalmist of Israel praises God to plea for the strength to praise Him. David makes no pretense concerning his weakness. From the very beginning of this Miktam, he pleads for God’s mercy. We should praise God amid our temptations, tribulations, and persecutions; nevertheless, the corruptions of our flesh may rise to remove praise from our lips and exaltation from our hearts. Even when we have determined to give thanks to God through the Lord Jesus, and sing praise to His name among the nations, as in the ninth verse, recognizing His great mercy and exceedingly high faithfulness, as in the tenth verse, our mortality still cannot rise to the exaltation due our heavenly Father, to that which is worthy of the person and work of His Son. We must praise Him by crying out for His power to aid our praise. Yes, Lord Jesus, in my life today,
Be exalted above the heavens! Let Your glory be over all the earth!
Hallelujah!
I cry out because I am weak,
My praise does not exalt You as it should;
Yet, today, one thing do I seek:
To exalt You, for You alone are good.