Psalms 118:17
I shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of the Lord.
Tag: Praising God
The above text is taken from a Psalm of pleas and praise. The writer is seeking God’s help and recognizing that God will not only answer him, God has in the past, and for that He wants to recount God’s faithfulness. He is seeking God’s protection from someone who is threatening to hurt him. He knows God will deliver him and he has no need to fear man:
Psalms 118:5-6
Out of my distress I called on the Lord;
the Lord answered me and set me free.
The Lord is on my side; I will not fear.
What can man do to me?
He is not saying he will never die, but that in this situation he will survive and, as a result he wants to make known the “deeds” of God. God has, in times past, rescued the writer and now he wants to live in order to sing those praises and to “recount” God’s deeds done on his behalf. The basic meaning of this word in the Hebrew is to “tally.” We might think of putting hash marks down on a paper as we count the boxes of a shipment, or the like. He is not excluding the idea of recounting, as in calling to mind, but it is expanded it. It means to actually count them. The first time the word is used in the OT is in Genesis 15:5. In that verse God is speaking to Abraham and telling him his children will be more than the stars in the sky and Abraham won’t be able to “count” them. This is the same word. We can rejoice in the glory of God and His care for us as His positive deeds toward us can’t be counted. We can rejoice and should live to recount the good deeds of God. Today is a day to live and rejoice. Later in this Psalm the writer will say:
Psalms 118:24
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Whatever happens today is a day to “recount” the great deeds that God has done for us, with us, too us and through us. Recount His goodness.
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