Psalm 113

Psalm 113:1 "Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord."

Since this devotional is about one of the Hallelujah Psalms it should come as no surprise that it starts like all the others so far, with the words, Praise the Lord. So much has been written in these devotionals by many contributors over the years about praising the Lord. We should, we do, we need to keep learning why and how. Today, as I write this where I am in my spirit, I was totally mowed over by another couple of words in the first verse. I literally was moved to tears by the two words 'O servant'. There is a good reason why, and I share with you now, hoping that you will not only capture some deeper meaning from this Psalm, but also a piece of my heart.

From the beginning of my walk with God I have been working on being simply this......'a servant of the Lord'. Sounds kinda simple in its own right, doesn't it? Shouldn't we all just want to do that? Isn't that the calling of all believers, to serve the Lord? Of course it is. We all know that the call to believe is also a call to receive and what we receive is the personal desire for discipleship and spiritual maturation that includes, serving Him and 'praising the Lord'. Let me draw the two together for us. When you are truly a servant of the Lord, praising Him is what you must do. Not out of obligation but out of desire. The desire to appreciate the privilege of serving Him, the joy of serving Him, the fulfillment of serving Him. It is like nothing else is important and everything else is included in doing that alone.

Now for a totally personal point. I share this with great vulnerability and humility knowing myself to the degree that I understand many of my own weaknesses. When I die, somebody please say that Pastor Fred was just a servant of the Lord. Not to brag or to bring notice to himself, but because He loved Jesus that much. I can think of no more meaningful definition of my life than that I only wanted and meant to serve Him. That is why my ministry is based on servant leadership and why my goal has been purely to pastor and shepherd His sheep by serving Him.

Needless to say, the serving of the Lord in Grace Harbor has been both a rewarding and challenging experience. I have known both the tremendous satisfaction of seeing God at work in the lives of hundreds of people and also the overwhelming discouragement of lives broken, visions un-actualized and attacks from within and without, seemingly trying to crush His work, this servant-pastor's heart and the viability of this ministry. As challenging as that is and may be, still the reward and tremendous satisfaction comes from 'serving the Lord'. That is the bottom line. Whether it is rewarding or discouraging, cyclical or challenging, up or down or in between, I just plan on continuing to 'serve the Lord' until He tells me differently.

So like the Psalm says...... we serve and praise Him from sun up to sun down. We serve and praise Him because there is no one else like Him. We serve and praise Him because He raises the poor and lifts the needy. We serve and praise Him because He heals the brokenhearted, restores the downtrodden and even heals those who are barren. I praise God for the fruit I see in our ministry. Though there be more challenges ahead I will serve Him and praise Him, because of who He is and because that is who I am. I am a servant of the Lord.

Praise the Lord. Pastor Fred

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