MUSINGS

THE CONTINUAL SACRIFICE OF PRAISE It is lovely to reflect that there is never .a moment, day or night, when “the sacrifice of praise” (Hebrews 13: 15) is not ascending to God. To quote an old hymn—

As o’er each continent and island

The dawn leads on another day,

The voice of prayer is never silent,

Nor dies the strain of praise away.

What cause we have for continual praise! Day by day we are surrounded by divine grace and mercy, experienced in a thousand ways in the simplest and tiniest matters of life, as well as in greater matters. The verse in Hebrews 11 flows out of references to the work of Christ— “his own blood”, and His having suffered without the gate. And while we bear His reproach here, as going forth to Him without the camp, we have in view the coming city. What themes of praise these are—the wonder of Christ’s work and the depths of love expressed in it, and then the glorious prospect before us, which makes us thankful to be praising pilgrims here. Nor have we only a future prospect, for Hebrews 12 sets out the magnificence of what we have already come to in the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem.

Let us imbibe the spirit of the psalm writers. David says, “I will praise Jehovah with my whole heart; I will recount all thy marvellous works”, Psalm 9: 1. The psalms abound with praise and when we reach the closing psalms there is a glorious, universal outburst to which “everything that hath breath” contributes. Let us seize the holy privilege of having our full part in it now.

FCM