"Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:  Sing forth the honour of his name:  make his praise glorious.  Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.  All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name.  Selah" (Psalm 66:1-4). 

It hit me!  Sometimes I am a little slow to realize, but I finally did.  I was reading Psalm 66 and saw the word, "Selah," and stopped to consider what in that verse caused God to have the psalmist to tell us to stop and think.  That is when it hit me:  the Bible didn't originally have verse divisions, so it could have been anything previously written in this psalm.  Now, I have known for a long time that the Bible didn't have verses originally, but I had never thought about it for this blog, so today I am writing from that "new" perspective.

In the first part of this psalm, we find several options for praise:  making a joyful noise; singing about the honor of His name; gloriously praising; and telling God how amazing and awe-inspiring His works are, that the greatness of His power will cause His enemies to submit, and that ALL the earth will worship Him and sing to Him and His name.  I want to focus today on the second option:  singing about the honor of His name. 

I have found it helpful to choose a name of God for praising when starting my prayer time.  You can choose one, read what the Bible says about that Name, and praise God for that name, perhaps even using God's own words to praise Him!  It causes Him to inhabit that praise (Psalm 22:3), and to be very close to you in a tactile way:  you can actually feel His presence!!  It also helps you to know God better, which increases your faith in Him, as you know more about Who He is and What He can and cannot or will and will not do!!  That helps you pray more succinctly, thoroughly and boldly!!  There is no downside to this!!! 

For example, if I am praising God for His name, Jehovah Jireh, The Lord Will Provide, or according to www.bible.org, "The Lord Who Sees, or The Lord Who Will See To It,"my faith is increased simply by knowing what this name means!!!  Then I find verses like Romans 8:32, which says, "He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" and Philippians 4:19, which says, "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus"; and stories like the one about God's providing a ram for Abraham to sacrifice in the place of his son Isaac in Genesis 22.  There is also Ephesians 3:20, which says, "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us".  I might praise saying, "Jehovah Jireh, I praise You because of Who You are!!  I worship You as Jehovah Jireh, The Lord Who Will See To It!!  You are able to do exceeding abundantly above all I ask or even think, and you will withhold no good thing from me!  (Psalm 84:11)   You have all power and are not only able to see all things but can work out all things, and I am so thankful You can see my life, my needs, my hearts desires and can even answer before I ask (Matthew 6:8).              
I could go on and on!!  There are so many verses that pertain to our Jehovah Jireh!  I am thankful for this "Selah," which caused me to stop and think about praising God for His Name.  Now, go find a song that celebrates a name of God, and sing!!  LOUD!!!