This psalm speaks of passing on the praise of God from one generation to the next. One of the great gifts of the Christian faith is to know that we belong to a story that began long before us and will continue on long after we are gone. It is like sitting in a sports arena and participating in the “wave.” The wave of our faith never ends—praise upon praise from one generation to the next. This is the life of the Christian people, to have faith that sustains our eternal wave of praise.

However, there are moments in life when we may struggle to lift our voice in praise. Doubts creep in, fear seizes us unexpectedly, and darkness becomes an unwelcome friend along our way. These moments too unite our spirit with the generations who struggled before us. The oral traditions of long ago wove the word of God into the memories of the people until it became a ready word upon their lips. With the stories memorized and recited, the people could recall God’s word in moments when faith seemed to be just beyond their grasp. Praise is sometimes the loudest, the most authentic, when it rises from a place of great struggle.

When words fail us, we can remember that the secrets of God’s love are hidden in the trees, in the mountains, and in the seas. We are not the only ones created for praise. Poet Rabindranath Tagore wrote, “Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heavens.”* We can participate in this magnificent movement of love raised to God. All of creation and every generation can be caught up in praise upon praise.

*Rabindranath Tagore, Fireflies (Gilbertsville, NY: Home Made Books, 2013), 59.