Praising God Just for Being There Psalm 139:7–12 (NASB95)
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,”
Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.
A child was walking with his father through a department store in a local mall. The boy’s father was the manager of the store and the man had brought his son to work with him for the day. School was out and the man thought it would be fun and interesting for the boy to see what his father did at work all day.
The morning started with a long, boring meeting his father referred to as a “sales meeting”. The boy thought that was strange because there was no water, boats, or sails that he could see. Instead, all they did was talk about the things they had sold or needed to sell.
The next item was another meeting in which the father called employees in, one by one, to talk with them about their “performance”. The boy was confused because he had not seen any of their performances. The employees just looked at him strangely when he asked to see their performances so he could decide if his father was right.
After lunch, the man took the boy through another series of meetings where they watched films on safety, looked at clothes that were coming out later that year and found out what was supposed to happen during the upcoming Christmas Season. Since it was July, the boy was not all that impressed with looking forward to Christmas. It was too far away!
On the way home, the boy’s father asked him what he thought of his day at work with his father. The boy mumbled something about it being okay, but a little boring. The man, wanting to press the boy further, asked, “What was your favorite part of the day?” The little boy thought for a while and said, “It was neat to see how many meetings you have to live through! It was neat to see what was coming up. It was even a little neat to see you tell all the employees about their performances. I guess my favorite part of going to work with you today was just because you were there.”
Similarly, you and I can become so caught up in what God does for us and in thanking Him for those things that we don’t stop to think that the best part of being one of His children is just that He is our Father and He is there with us through life. As we begin to think about the God Whom we serve, we ought to be overcome with gratitude just for Who He is.
Without describing anything the person did, describe a person that you respected or remember fondly and list why you are thankful for that person or what made you respect or remember them.
Psalm 139 is a Psalm in which David praises God for many things, but basically, he is thanking God for just being there. Take some time to read it for yourself and see if you can find in it that same sense of thanking God for being there. Having read it, to whom do you need to share it so that they also can have a day of praise to God?