A Simple Daily Routine

From Psalm 92
No matter what is swirling around us we can still take some simple steps that help ground us and that God will look at and declare, “Good job.” In Ps. 92 we read, “It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night…” Starting the day in praise and ending it in thankfulness, is this possible when most of what has happened in between seems to have gone wrong?

If our focus is on ourselves and that is how we evaluate the day, the answer is no. With this perspective, God is only good when he is good to us and we judge that goodness relative to his meeting our expectations. So in the end, we are god and he is our servant and not a good one if we don’t get what we want.

Praising God in the morning and thanking him at night reverses this perspective. We don’t always understand his ways but we know he is good and there is an ultimate goodness even in our difficult day. Taking these steps each day takes us off the throne of the universe and declares God to be in charge.

The psalmist says that this is a wonderful way to live even into our older years; it will keep us young and fruitful. I like that. He ends up saying, “They will bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright, he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.” Or in my own words today, “Praise God, I can always trust him and he is always good.”