Recording Praises

Psalm 57 was a part of my reading for today, and the organization stood out to me.  Lengthy praise, a brief lament, a brief praise, one more brief lament, and lengthy praise to close it out. 

So often my prayers feel like just the middle of this Psalm: laments of being overwhelmed with a sudden remembrance that I should be praising.  So, I lift up a quick praise before falling back into the laments and pleas again.  But, that is only a small portion of David’s Psalm.  Out of eleven verses, only two are true lament.  And the praise in the middle splits even those two apart.  The focus of my prayers are often the laments.  The focus of this particular prayer of David is the praise. 

As I look back through my journal, I realize how little I actually write out my praises.  I freely lament and ask.  And, I know I praise in the midst of that, at least a little, but I just don’t record it. 

I am challenged to record praises.  To make myself lift up His Name not just in my heart, but in what I write as well.  I want to keep a record of whether or not I am truly growing in keeping my focus in the right place.   I want to know if I am really praising in the middle of it all or if I just think I am because occasionally I lift up a word or two of praise.  My prayer is that through this I will truly grow to the point that my laments and requests are truly only a small portion of my prayers.