Psalm 21:13 Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.
Some things just don’t age well. A ham sandwich is great when it is fresh, but it does not age well. You come back five days later, and it is something altogether different. Fashion denim does not age well. Bell bottoms may have looked really good in 1974, but they don’t look so good now, at least not the way they did in 1974. Sometimes people don’t age well. About three years ago, people started telling me how good I looked. At first, I didn’t notice it, then I was flattered, and then shortly after that I thought, “Why is everyone telling me I look good?” It occurred to me that people were telling me I looked good because they weren’t expecting that. No genuinely young person is flattered when someone tells them they look young. You’ve got to be old to be flattered by that. So, when someone says, “You are looking good,” the implication is “for your age.” I don’t want to look good for my age; I just want to look good. So, some things do not age well.
When you look at Psalm 21 gratitude is just faith that has aged well. Psalm 21:1 says, “The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD, and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!” Verse 13 says, “Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.” Psalm 20 and 21 go together. In Psalm 20 you have a cry in the day of trouble and in Psalm 21 you have one who is singing and praising God for the power He has shown. Praise is just prayer that has aged well, or you might say gratitude is faith that has aged well.
Psalm 20:1 says, “The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee.” Psalm 20:7 says, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.” A chariot was the most powerful weapon known at that time. You may be a chariot or a horse, but you are not God. We ought to be praising God. Why? It is because the one you praise is the one you trust. If you say, “I am thankful that I am such a virtuous person that I am going to Heaven,” you are not really thanking anyone other than yourself. You are not going to Heaven unless the only person you can attribute that assurance to is God, His work and not yours.
Sometimes we trust God for salvation, but we trust ourselves for everything that we have to do today. In Psalm 21 the psalmist recognized the ownership of God. He mentions “thy strength,” “thy salvation,” and what God gave. Verse 4 says, “He asked life…thou gavest it him.” Verse 5 says, “His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.” The king realized that God is the one to be praised because He is the one to be trusted. The one you praise is the one you trust. Often, we trust and ask God for something we need, and when God answers, we rationalize away what He has done and think, “That probably would have happened anyway” or “Look how good I am.” So, the one you praise is the one you trust.
Realize that you will have trouble, a reason to pray, again tomorrow. I noticed a couple of years ago that there is always another shoe to drop. If you are waiting until everything is just right, your kids are grown, your health is perfect, your finances are squared away, and your future is certain, that is never going to happen. There is always another shoe to drop. You may be a horse or a mighty chariot, but only the Lord is God. He is exalted when you ask and when you remember because gratitude is simply faith that has aged well.