Crisis Praise
The conference wasn’t supposed to start with such alarm and concern. As more than 3000 people assembled, news had spread of a summer thunderstorm that became a flood passing through Big Thompson Canyon just south of the conference sight. The day before, 35 women in the leadership of Cru had gone into the canyon for a pre-conference gathering and were caught in the flash flood. As the conference started the following evening, no one knew much more than that the women were caught in the flood. Later it became clear that 7 staff women lost their lives.
As the Bill Bright stood up to begin the conference he knew there was only one thing to do: Praise the Lord.
He began reading psalms of praise. He led the staff in praise to God for His greatness and awesome presence even in the uncertainty and grief.
Bill knew that in the midst of crises, there’s only one appropriate response for Christians and that is to worship the LORD - to praise Him and adore Him for who He is and ask for His glory to reign.
David had a similar response in the midst of terrifying circumstances. He wrote, ""My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts—the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.”
And he followed it with:
I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth! (Ps57:9-11)
This lesson is simple but hardly natural and on one level doesn't make sense, right? We so instinctively go to fear, anxiety, anger or retribution when negative things happen to us. Yet, when we praise God we direct our heart to His beauty, His love and His power. There are numerous examples of God’s power moving in response to this type of praise. Just a few psalms later David repeats his steadfast response amidst trial:
"But I will sing of your strength;
I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.
For you have been to me a fortress
and a refuge in the day of my distress.
O my Strength, I will sing praises to you,
for you, O God, are my fortress,
the God who shows me steadfast love." Ps 59:16,17
It is instructive that David carried this attitude of praise in bad and good times. He practiced praising God all the time - at least that was his desire. And this is why we must cultivate an attitude of praise throughout the “normal” days of life. When we are grounded in authentic knowledge and praise of God in normal times it is much easier to worship Him in the bad.
David wrote in Ps 34, "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
When our praise is focused on the character of God, which doesn’t change, we can still worship Him even in the midst of circumstances that do change.
If you are a worship leader don’t miss this lesson! It is our role to call his people to worship at all times… and certainly in times of crisis or change! I wonder if the church has lacked power to respond to crisis appropriately precisely because we’ve failed keep a "first response" heart of praise and worship. As worship leaders, we must call people to continually cultivate a heart of praise personally and corporately.
How do you respond to tragedy or negative circumstances? May we keep cultivating a heart of worship in ourselves and others.
"Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!”
And as we remember Who it was that invaded our world and our lives this Christmas, let's let our praise abound!
“Glory to God in the highest!"
Archives
Old blog posts can be found here.April 2024
June 2019
March 2019
November 2018
October 2018