When my oldest brother was battling late-stage pancreatic cancer, he kept coming to church, praising God, preaching, worshiping, and singing. And O how he could sing! One of the final times I saw him, he sang a song that I had not heard him sing before— “There is a Story Behind My Praise!”
“I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1 ESV)
There’s A Story Behind My Praise!
I have no trouble understanding why the people of Judah who were captured in Jerusalem and taken away to Babylon by the evil king Nebuchadnezzar, refused to sing the LORD’s song in a strange land. (Psalm 137:1-4). They were being asked to perform for their captors. That was an insult. But my brother wasn’t performing for the cancer that had attacked his body. As one who had been healthy all his life, he found himself “in a strange land,” so to speak. But he was blessing “the LORD at all times.” And he had a story, a testimony of so much that God had already done behind his praise.
There’s a story behind my praise.
That’s why my hands, I’ll continue to raise.
I’m going to praise Him for the rest of my days.
O there’s a story behind my praise!
If you see me crying, that is a story
of how He’s been God for me in all His glory!
If you see me shouting, don’t be amazed.
I’m just reflecting on where and when I was saved!
If you see me running, don’t you think it strange.
My whole life He’s rearranged!
There is a story! There is a story!
It’s a real long story!
I can’t tell it all!
There is a story behind my praise!
–Co-written by David Blakely and Carolyn Traylor
When I think of how cancer afflicted all seven of my brothers and sisters and how devastating that was to our family, I must hasten to add another part to the story. Six of them are now cancer-free! And although my oldest brother went home to be with the LORD in 2020, he had perfect peace throughout his illness and never stop praising God! When I reflect on how he healed me from severe spinal stenosis and a dislocated disc in my spinal column, please know there is a story behind my praise!
Focus Quote: “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3 ESV).
