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I lift you high in praise, my God, O my King! and I\u2019ll bless your name into eternity. I\u2019ll bless you every day, and keep it up from now to eternity (Psalm 145:1,2).

Many of us think that repetition and memorization are for the birds. That is, we don\u2019t want to put the work into memorization and we get bored easily. Yet, many Christians have observed that the development of our spiritual selves is significantly aided by both repetition and memorization.

Consider Psalm 145. Its an acrostic. This means that in its original language, the poem had twenty-two lines; one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The first line began with the first letter of that alphabet. Each successive line with the next letter. This was done to aid in the work of memorizing the song.

I wonder how long it took the composer to put this all together. It was put together to be learned, even memorized. Things we memorize shape our thinking and character. As such, this psalm invites us to seriously contemplate a life given to praising God.

As has already been noted in these devotions, such a life does not come naturally. There are barriers, the biggest one being ourselves. I suspect that sloth is one of the more significant stumbling blocks. We don\u2019t talk much about spiritual sloth these days, which is too bad. Through out the centuries, Christian have always been warned against it.

Sloth is an older word for lazy. We want our spiritual growth to happen like making coffee with a Keurig machine: stick in cup and press button. But the thing is, spiritual growth is more like making coffee from scratch; I mean from scratch: plant the seeds, tend the plants, harvest the beans, roast them, grind them, etc. Spiritual maturity takes time and effort. The move from selfishness to unbridled praise of God does not happen instantaneously or without sustained effort.

As an aid against sloth, let me suggest this: for one month read or sing or pray this Psalm in the morning and again in the evening, each day. Who knows, by the end you might have it memorized. After a month, you may find this beneficial enough to choose a different psalm.

Praising God is also costly. Its more than silent prayers. It impacts how we work and how we entertain ourselves. It influences our spending habits and how we relate with friends and strangers.

Take time to test your life based on Psalm 145. One question we might consider is this: do we really think that God is worthy of our praise? As Pastor Anthony noted, the praise of God is rooted in His character. As you read through the Psalm, note what it says about God.

Pay attention to the fact that God\u2019s concern encompasses the entire cosmos. So often we think that God is only concerned with \u201cHis people.\u201d Or we think that God is only concerned with \u201csaving souls\u201d. Here we are reminded that God is concerned for everything that He has made. I wonder if our Christian witness is hampered because we don\u2019t care enough for \u201ceverything\u201d God has made. Is our selfish way of living standing in the way of our witness?

The psalm might also suggest a different approach to witnessing. Many of our evangelistic methods begin with calling people to be introspective. We want them to acknowledge their sinfulness. But what if we began with God? What if we invited people to consider our God? If God is concerned with His creation, should Christians not care as well? Invitations to join us in caring, can be a way of opening spiritual conversations.

I conclude with this piece of wisdom, \u201cIf Christians praised God more, the world would doubt Him less.\u201d