"Leaving The Weight of Empty Things"

"I will praise You with my whole heart; Before the gods I will sing praises to You.  I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name. For Your loving-kindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name."  Ps. 138:1-2

The Poet has come to know the Face (presence) of Yahweh within his leb.  The Leb is the Hebrew word for heart or what was called at one time in the west the "Ghost in the Machine."  We are well pass such nonsense these days.  The Poet knew no such nonsense. He knew that he was more than the mere firing of neuro-circuits.  He knew that Yahweh had given him the breath of lives, and that he was a living soul.

It is very interesting that in the primal documents of Genesis breathe is prominent.  Breath is life, and without breath life vanishes.  So, we will not speak of the spiritual here we shall leave that term alone, and concentrate upon breath.  It takes breath to praise Yahweh.  The Poet has determined to praise Yahweh in a manner that befits his august personage.

Praise is a sacrifice. Praise is a sacrifice with the lips of breath.  There is a unity of being given by the sacred writer.  The entire soul (personality) of the poet must express praise to Yahweh because it is most appropriate as a continual act.  Praise is the answer of the soul to its primal calling.  This is the highest form of worship.

The poet is not in perplexity nor is he lost in a sea of bewilderment.  He understands the power of transcendent experience and has been surrendered to the power of praise.  He is beyond words and their symbolic power.  He has come into the presence of God through the vehicle of praise.  His whole heart is lifted up.

He knows the freedom that praise gives.  He has surrendered to praise and he shoots or throws praise toward God.  The poet moves toward the magnification of Yahweh within his soul.  He sings praises to God. He is compelled by the presence of God to shoot praise to him.  Praise, sing, and worship have taken over his personality because God is worthy.

He is cleansed of pornographic lust, he is cleansed of power lust, he is cleansed of money lust, he is free of insatiable greed, mere acquisition for the sake of acquisition.  He is free from the sin of pride and its deceptive ways. He has checked his ego at the door, so that he could praise God unencumbered by the weight of empty things.

How cumbersome the weight of empty things can be?  They intoxicate us with a vile elixir called the self. Listen to the divided praise that some singers give to God.  They cannot worship Him out of a pure heart because they are in love with self.  Their songs do not edify because they have bowed to the secret praise of the self that becomes most evident when they offer tainted praise.

Believing one, real worship is filled with the witness of the Un-created One who is the I AM THAT I AM. We are free when we possess this fertile knowledge.  Praise is prescriptive.  A fellow believer who was dying from cancer and who was placed on hospice told me that when her pain would become to much bear even through her medication she would turn her pain into prayer.

She taught me so much.  Beloved let go of affairs, let go of meaningless recognition, let go of anger, and revenge right now.  Get close to God and learn the power of praise.

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