Beyond Common Sense

Psalm 56:12b I will render praises to You,

 

David wrote Psalm 56 when the Philistines took him in Gath. He is still running from Saul. It’s not a happy time in his life. I call it his second Goliath. When I read verse 12, that word render stopped me.

( I love doing my Bible reading on my iPad and having the dictionary at my fingertips!)  —To render means to cause something to become, to provide or give something, or to create a digital or artistic image from data.

However, that is not what I was thinking of when I saw this word. I was remembering the year I “rendered” fat into lard. I had asked for lard when our daughter and son-in-law butchered pigs. What I got was the fat!

It’s not that difficult to make. You just cut it into little chunks, slow cook in with a little water until melted, and strain.

Cut, Cook, melt, strain. “I will render praise to You.” Praise is easy when life is a breeze, but when you are being sliced and diced by circumstances or people (especially when they are loved ones in your home!), when you are in the slow cooker and there is no end in sight, when you are melting in the heat of life’s difficulties, or you are strained—pushed through those tiny holes—by life’s pressures, can we praise God?

Oh, yes, we can! Because we do what David did:

Psalm 56:8-9 (NKJV)

• He knows that God sees his life—You number my wanderings
• He knows that God hears his cries—Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?
•  He knows that God will deliver IN HIS TIME—When I cry out to You, Then my enemies will turn back
• He reminds himself that God is on his side— This I know, because God is for me.

We can do the same, praise God! Thank you, Jesus!

So, go out there and make lard out of the rough spots of life—allow God to render what seems useless and difficult to you into praise.

Psalm 56:11 In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

 

James 4:9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

 

John 16:22 “Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.