Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

I wanted to start off this Monday praising God for a great weekend away! I went away to a men’s retreat for our church, where Voddie Baucham was the speaker, and man, he was a challenging and exciting speaker. I’ve still got a lot to process from the weekend, and hopefully I can share some of it in the coming weeks.

One of the things I like to do as part of my personal worship time is to take an old hymn that is written in a lesser known style of English, and paraphrase it. It helps me to dig deep into the words of the hymn, and put them into a language that’s more easily understood. It’s sort of like The Message paraphrase of the Bible - you get the essence of the hymn, but maybe not the exact translation. This morning I was listening to ‘Praise to the Lord, the Almighty’ from the Hymns Ancient and Modern CD, so here’s my paraphrase of the verses:

Praise the Lord, who is almighty and the Creator of everything! My whole being praises you, because you save me and heal me. If you’re within the sound of my voice, come to Him, too, and join me in praising Him!

Praise the Lord, he reigns over everything! He keeps me going, he protects me like a mother hen does her chicks. Can’t you see? Everything you need and desire has been given to you By what He has created!

Praise the Lord! He fights your enemies and makes you prosper; Every day, I’m sure that his goodness and mercy are with me. Think about this again - if God is on your side and loves you so much, What could be possible in your life?

Praise the Lord! Let my whole being give Him praise! Everything that lives should come before Him and praise Him. Let all those who love Him praise Him forever and forever, AMEN!