“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
“In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?’ tell him: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the LORD sent signs and wonders— great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors. The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness’” (Deuteronomy 6:20-25).
Our praise of God flows from our love for him. Our love of God is inextricably linked to the story that we tell as God’s people. As Israel is delivered from the hand of Pharaoh, and begins a long and hard journey through the wilderness, the people are reminded that their obedience flows from their love for God who has delivered them. They are to tell their children of the decrees and commands as they retell the stories of God’s deliverance.
To be sure, the story is not always a pleasant one for Israel to tell. The Scriptures are brutally honest about Israel’s sin, as well as its faithfulness; the disasters that befall it, as well as the triumphs. Israel praises God in the midst of prosperity. Israel also praises God in the midst of tragedy, even as the people question God’s faithfulness in those moments. It is that love that forms the foundation of Israel’s relationship with God, and that allows the Psalmist to offer authentic declarations of praise in the midst of life’s complexities and adversities. The stories of God’s deliverance allow Israel to have hope as they seek to be faithful to the covenant. “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalm 42:5).
It is this love that forms the foundation for our authentic expression of praise; a praise that does not ignore our trials, but a praise that can even place our trials in the midst of our praise as we worship God together.
