Praise the Lord.
How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
Psalm 147:1 NIV
Pleasant and Fitting
Point Pleasant Park is a large, mainly forested municipal park at the southern tip of the Halifax peninsula. It once hosted several artillery batteries, and still contains the Prince of Wales Tower – the oldest Martello tower in North America (1796). The park is a popular recreational spot for Haligonians, as it hosts forest walks and affords views across the harbour and out toward the Atlantic. Plays are performed in the park every summer by a professional theatre company called Shakespeare by the Sea.
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It’s at this time of the year that we start to long for pleasant, warm summer days. We all love pleasant times and pleasant thoughts, and the challenge is that we live in a world that is often far from pleasant. There is one place we can go where joy and peace is always present. Psalm 147:1 says “Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!” Have you noticed how times of praise draw us away from the challenges of life and the unpleasant times? As we lift our focus off the things of this world, and onto the things of God, we soon find that the old song is correct – “the things of earth grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” So many people in our world are longing for pleasant thoughts, pleasant places, pleasant dreams. We know that we always find this as we lift our hearts and minds in praise to the One who created us, loves us, and fills our lives with His peace and joy. It is pleasant and fitting to praise Him.
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley