Page 76 - Psalms Ebook

The illustration that I am trying to make is this, and here is the principle.
What is it when you look back and praise God for a big block of time? I
like to call it Telescopic Praying. There is microscopic praying and
there is telescopic praying. You might understand it better if I say there
is specific praying and general praying. Now God wants us to pray both
ways. In other words, telescopic prayer will never take the place of
microscopic prayer. Microscopic prayer will never take the place of
telescopic prayer. We need both.

You can almost guess what I mean by those expressions. A microscope
sees things up close. You put something on a glass and you look through
a lens. A telescope sees things far away. If I want to see a microbe, I
would not use a telescope, I would use a microscope. If I wanted to see
the moon, I would not use a microscope

Most of us tend to automatically pray microscopically. Probably because
we are self-centered and microscopic prayer is so personal. Saul threw a
spear at me; I ducked; God delivered; Praise God. God delivered me
from this, and I want to praise God for that. God meets my specific
needs. But sometimes, like the Historical Psalms, (and ask God to help
you with this) God wants you to stand back and just praise Him in a
sweeping way for His great mercy in your life.

I am not much on liturgy, but sometimes I like it. Things like the church
calendar force you to pay attention to things you would otherwise forget
and might neglect. I think there are about three or four times a year we
automatically do telescopic prayer and praise. I know at one of the
groups where I fellowship they always have a Thanksgiving Service, and
at this service we have telescopic praise. The people stand up and they
testify and say I want to praise God for this year, and they have a whole
year to thank the Lord for.

I think at New Years we get into telescopic praise as we look back at
what God has done over the entire year. Birthdays and anniversaries
often bring us into telescopic praise. On my anniversary I praise God for
all the years with my wonderful wife. I cannot stop praising God. That’s
telescopic praise. It is good for your soul sometime to get away from the
little things and to praise God for the big things. I think on special
occasions we automatically do that. Graduations, birthdays,
anniversaries and, unfortunately, funerals. You look back and you thank
God for someone’s whole life.