I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.—Psalm 145:1-2
I will exalt you, says the Psalmist.
What if I said you do not need to say a word to exalt the Lord? That’s right. You can exalt the Lord by saying nothing.
Exalt means to hold someone, or something, in very high regard. You can do that without ever saying a word. You can hold the Lord, which I hope you do, in very high regard. Because of God’s greatness and the magnitude of His wonderful deeds, you can value Him.
Exalt also means to think or speak highly of someone, or something. Here again, you can exalt the Lord without speaking. You can hold the Lord high in your heart and never say a word.
Using words to praise the Lord is an option, of course. Most likely, you will express your regard for God with words. It seems almost natural to do so, as if you could remain silent. This certainly seems to be the sentiment of the Psalmist. Because he held the Lord with such high regard, he couldn’t help but praise the name of the Lord, for ever and ever.
Every day he praised God the King. He extolled Him. To extol means to praise enthusiastically. Enthusiastically, he praised the Lord. What images come to your mind when you think about praising enthusiastically?
I don’t know about you. While I certainly have high regards for the Lord in my heart, when I praise him enthusiastically, I cannot help but verbalize it. I find it hard to praise the Lord enthusiastically sitting still and without saying something. Even when I praise the Lord while meditating, I find my hands raised and my mouth moving. I can’t help it. One leads to the other.
So, can you exalt the Lord by saying nothing? Maybe. Guess it is not impossible. But for the life of me, I find it hard to do so. Besides, I guess I am like the Psalmist, my high regard leads me to extol, praise enthusiastically, my God the King.
How do you exalt the Lord? Does it lead you to extol our God the King?