O Magnify the Lord with Me Ps. 34:1-3 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

David said, O magnify the Lord with me.  In other words he is saying, I am magnifying the Lord and I want you to magnify him with me, so I won’t be the only one who is magnifying the Lord.  To magnify the Lord means to extol and laud him, to cause to be held in greater esteem or respect.  Think about a magnifying glass – it doesn’t make the thing bigger but it makes it appear bigger.  How are we going to magnify the Lord?  We can each magnify the Lord by:

Glorifying him at all times – Ps 34:1 – notice David said “I will bless the Lord at all times” – to bless the Lord is to glorify him – we are to glorify him even in the most insignificant and routine things we do in our lives [1 Cor 10:31] – we certainly need to bless him when things are going well, but more so we need to glorify him when things are not going well – Jesus glorified God in his death [Jn 12:28-33].

Praising him continually – Ps 34:1 – his praise needs to be continually in my mouth and continually in your mouth – so often our mouths speak things that don’t praise the Lord and, therefore, they don’t magnify the Lord – our mouths need to praise the Lord continually – when you read what David wrote he continually praised the Lord – when we are together in church our praises should “raise the roof.”

Boasting in the Lord – Ps 34:2 – we generally use the word boast to mean to speak proudly – but the word boast here means to exult – and to exult means to feel jubilant, to rejoice very much especially with feelings and often an outward display of triumph [like the lame man healed in Acts 3] – and so we need to boast in the Lord – can you not see his hand in your daily life and find good reasons to leap for joy?  Is there not a testimony in your mouth of the many wonderful works and blessings of God in your life?  David said that he daily loadeth us with benefits – that ought to cause you to shout with joy.

Exalting his name – Ps 34:3 – the name of Jesus is the name that is above every name – and though the world doesn’t exalt him, we should – as a matter of fact we ought to exalt him more now that there are so many places where his name is not supposed to be mentioned – we should never be ashamed of his name – instead, his opponents should be ashamed that they hate him so – we are saved by his name – protected by his name – commanded to pray in his name – healed by his name – and so forth – his name should be exalted by us continually – the disciples were threatened not to preach in his name and they did it anyway – we should boldly proclaim his name.