Praise the Lord

In this short but expressive chapter quoting Isaiah, there are many ways of praising the Lord.  I love them all so much that I thought I'd include all the verses and add some commentary.  (All verses from 2 Nephi 22.)

1 "And in that day thou shalt say: O Lord, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me."

The Lord loves us so much and is very merciful.  Even though we make tons of mistakes, which frustrates Him, and probably angers Him too, he is our loving Father and will comfort us when we need comfort.

2 "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation."

Trust in God.  He will be there for you.  He has provided the Plan of Salvation for us to be able to return to Him someday.  But it requires that we trust in Him, or in other words, have faith in Him.

3 "Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation."

I love this imagery.  For a little effort (drawing water out of the well), you can receive great joy in your salvation.  It is refreshing, and also needed to sustain life, just like water.

4 "And in that day shall ye say: Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted."

When we are excited about something, or grateful, or even happy, we want to share it.  We share when exciting news has happened.  We want to spread that around.  Because of this, we want to share the Gospel with others once we really see what it has done for us in our life.

5 "Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things; this is known in all the earth."

I think we have a tendency to downplay what the Lord has done for us sometimes.  It is difficult to measure just what HIs plan provides for us, because we can't really fathom what it means when the Savior says we can have all that His Father has.  And we can never repay Him, or probably even properly show our gratitude and love for that.  But we can do our best to sing praises to show as much as we can (whether in word, action, or actual song).

6 "Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee."

 Line everyone up in the world, and Christ is the greatest of all of them.  We owe Him so much.  We should be constantly expressing, with as much energy as we can muster, our gratitude and love for God.

I know God loves me, and I love Him.  I know He lives and has a plan for me, and I'm so grateful for it.