Starting Up The Praise

Praise the LORD!
Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
  -- Psalm 106:1

We enjoyed such a wonderful snowfall of wet snow yesterday that a "Praise the Lord!" seems quite the thing to say this morning. So, my inquiring mind wanted to know when this little phrase began in the Bible. In the NKJV, it seems to have begun with Leah, the first wife of Jacob. Leah had a little problem of going unloved in her marriage. As it is in these days, love and marriage were not always a matched set. However, sexual activities were a part of this marriage, and the scripture reports that God opened Leah's womb and the sons came. At the first son, Leah says that her husband will now love her. That does not seem to have happened, as with the arrival of the second son, Leah reports that the Lord saw that she was still unloved. By the third son she is just going for 'attached to me', love it seems has no hope. And by the fourth son, Judah, Leah has changed to something quite different: she will praise the Lord!

Love, as we see by Leah's testimony, cannot be forced, not even with sex and babies. However, we must give the woman credit for deciding to praise the Lord God, even as an unloved wife.

For all those feeling a bit unloved today, Praise the Lord! If you feel loved, then say it twice.

Bucky