Knowing God through His Word … Day by Day

Psalm 43:3-4 Send out your light and your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling!
Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.

John Piper, in a sermon, “I Will Go to God, My Exceeding Joy”

And the final stage of his prayer is that this light and truth would lead him to express this joy that he feels in God. Verse 4 at the end: “And I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.” Authentic joy in God will overflow with praises. In fact, as C. S. Lewis says in his book on the Psalms, “we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.

• It’s not wrong to say, “We were made for God.”
• It’s not wrong to say, “We were made for joy.”
• It’s not wrong to say, “We were made to praise.”

But it is more fully true to say, “We were made to enjoy God with overflowing praise.” This is the ultimate goal of life.