Time begins and time ends with praise; and though during its course there may seem to be many an interval of dreary silence, yet God never wants praise. He inhabiteth the praises of eternity, and even here on earth praise waiteth for Him among His people. The whole of the course of God's saints is full of praise.
I. And is there not ample reason? What though sin seem to have marred the Creator's glorious work? Is it not a glorious work still? The heavens, with all their wonders of brightness, glorify Him; the earth, with her ten thousand processes of life and organisation, is full of His power, and wisdom, and love; and man is the noblest proof of all these combined. If God's ordinary and creation mercies should warm our hearts and find utterance of praise from our lips, how should those hearts glow with fire, and those lips burst forth in songs of joy, when we remember that all our choicest blessings are not His ordinary creation gifts, but special bestowals of undeserved mercy and inconceivable love.
II. "Let all the people praise Thee." What though to some be denied the gift of praising Him with the lips? There is a more abiding and a worthier praise than this. A thousand secret strains of melody are uttered in His ear by the consistency and devotion of holy lives, more grateful than all the offerings of the voice; and these praises all can sing.
III. "Let all the people praise Thee," not only in the church, nor on the Lord's Day only, but through all the vicissitudes of daily life. Some in their families; others in the mean and humble dwellings of the poor; others, again, in the busy haunts of commerce and amidst the crowding and crushing of the selfish world these all may praise Him, these and many more. Remember His own solemn words, think of them in the light of Christ's redemption, and ponder them at the foot of His Cross, "Whoso offereth praise, he honoureth Me; and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God."
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. i., p. 334.
Reference: Psalms 67:4. Jones, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxx., p. 37.