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All times? Always?


            I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the LORD! let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together. (Psalm 34:1-3)

            When you're happy, hopeful or excited, it's easy to praise God. When you're angry, sad or anxious, it's harder to praise Him because of your negative feelings, but those negative feelings provide energy you can draw on if you can only turn your focus. It's when I am neither up, nor down, that I find praise most difficult. There's no emotional component to motivate the expression. This is one of the reasons I sometimes say that I don't like peace - if peace is the lack of conflict it can feel like being "dead" - there's nothing there. Better a little drama than the emptiness of that kind of peace. Fortunately, that's a reductionist version of peace, not the whole and real peace.
           This is sort of the lack of feeling that I have this morning, just sort of comfortably here. Then I find my passage of the day is about extolling the Lord at all times. I don't like the artificial "pep rally" sort of excitement. My dislike of "rah rah, sis boom bah" was one of the reasons I didn't like working in retail. So how does a person extol the Lord at all times, how can His praise always be on our lips without being mechanical?
           Yesterday's passage comes to mind. Science shows that music can change our brain waves. I've felt the effect. The first time I think I noticed it was when I was ice skating in college. When a "fight song" was played, not only did the rough and tumble guys skate more aggressively, but so I, and I could stay on my feet, but not much more. (This is why fast food places play faster music, and fine dining places play slower music - they understand the effect it has on our psychies.)
          That's one of the things I have always liked about Christmas time. There's lots of music, and the best of it draws on positive emotions. Songs like "Mary, Did You Know?" (playing right now) not only provides the emotional energy, but even suggests some content.  Music is a way we can extol the Lord at all times, even without focusing our complete attention on the act. It is  a way that his praise can always be on our lips. And the best of the music out there also has theological content, which also gives us a basis for our praise.
           

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