Praising: Reminding God of who He is
VERBAGE: Develop a long list of verbs that characterize God’s activity: You are the God who redeems, restores, regenerates, forgives, pardons, completes, fills up, heals, sustains, carries, loves, cares, seeks, holds, supports, embraces, surprises, rejoices, etc…
ALL OF CREATION: Read through Psalm 148 a couple of times. Then take a full page of paper and draw symbols / pictures of the whole cast of creation (from angels in heaven to the sea monsters of the deep….and everything in between) that this psalm illustrates. Make sure you draw a picture (or symbol) of yourself. Then read through the psalm again. “Let them praise the name of the Lord”
LITANIES: Create your own litanies of praise with short phrases that highlight and list the names of God or the attributes of God – such as: “God, you are ________.” (fill the blank with an adjective about God); or “Lord, you name is __________.” (name of God). Say these aloud, struggle to go beyond what is on the surface of your mind. Later you can become poetic with these litanies, linking the ideas by similarity, by contrast or by alliteration.
THREE WORDS: Start with the letter “a” and try to write down three words which you associate with God that start with “a”. They can be verbs, nouns or adjectives. You may find that one is more meaningful to you at that moment. Keep going down through the alphabet. Admittedly you may need to skip some letters. After each word, give a little thought or say a little prayer using that word. This kind of exercise can seem tedious and cerebral….but when you least expect it, a certain word can touch you deeply in a special way. (check out this blog post, for example)
TUMBLE DRY: Jot down some simple phrases like: I PRAISE You! I BLESS You! I GLORIFY You! I EXALT You! I LOVE You! I TRUST You! I EXTOL You! I HONOR You! I REVERE You! I LAUD You! I ESTEEM You! I TREASURE You! I MAGNIFY You! I CHERISH You! Let them tumble randomly and quietly off your lips as you taste the subtly nuanced flavor of each. (read more)
VERBAL REMIX: Read through Psalm 147 for yourself. Write down the verbs and verb phrases. (builds up, gathers, heals, binds up, counts, gives names, supports….) Read through the Psalm again aloud, this time emphasizing each verb phrase. Now give this Psalm a remix by keeping the same form but changing the phrases and verbs to reflect the divine actions you’ve seen in your own life adventure. (read more)