Praise, Praise, Praise
PRAISE THE LORD!!!
YOU WERE CREATED TO PRAISE THE LORD!
Isaiah 43:21: This people I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise.
1 Pet 2:9: But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
It is awesome to consider that God created us as individuals, you and I...brought us into a relationship with Him...specifically that we might praise Him!
More and more over the past while, I have questioned the standard by which Christianity is measured to be a success, until I concluded that the church could never meet the true call of Christ in ministry in the way that it is operating. Christians in the institutionalized church are enmeshed in a web of near-fruitless activity, and the harder they drive themselves, the less satisfaction they have. If the "church" was in any other business other than religion, such an expenditure of energy, manpower and finances with so little rate of return, it would have produced bankruptcy. Therefore I became very dissatisfied with the spiritual status quo.
I did not want to give up Christianity or ministry. I simply wanted out of religion that was completely void of lasting, vital, spiritual life, even though it was being called successful. But there was a great lack in the manifested presence of the Lord.
No doubt, Christians want the power and the presence of God, but the main thing that makes us aware of His presence is given the least amount of consideration and time. In this day a lot of christian leaders and Christians in general are in to much of an hurry to get through a program and get out, and to taken up with majoring on minor things to do what is necessary to sense the presence of God.What is necessary is nothing less than an intimate relationship with the Godhead, that is hard to develop in a man-made system to which denominations adhere to.
Some are so busy tearing down other Christians because of the way they praise; dancing, laughing, raising hands, etc., that it hinders God from manifesting His presence in their midst. One area that is lacking in Christians lives today is genuine praise of living a lifestyle from a relational journey with Jesus.
Listen people, If God is valued among us, it is normal to release our inner being in heartfelt praise to Him and about Him, it is also praise to Him to live our daily lives aware of and participating with Him on the relational journey of getting to know Him. This I believe, is lacking in Christians lives and in most denominations today, genuine, heartfelt, love abounding and devil evicting daily praise because of our life in Him and His life in us.
Are you spiritually healthy? If you are, praise will be a natural outflow because as C. S. Lewis said, "Praise is inner health made audible." Those who are spiritually healthy find praise to be quite natural to their inner nature. But in most Christians, praise has been repressed by religious training.
Christians are more excited over their favorite sport than they are Jesus, this is expressed in the way they shout and scream in praise of their favorite team. I wonder if we will ever get so excited about Jesus that we would have to release the pressure of excitement in shouts of praise andI am not referring to man inspired emotionalism?
Psalm 22:3 declares that God inhabits the praises of His people. One way to please God, is through praise. If we would enter petitions before God, we must also come through thanksgiving, as Philippians 4:6, "...with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." The first request ought to be, "Lord I want your fullness in me". If we are in Him and He is in us, we have everything that we need and we will trust Him in every situation
With the emphasis that the Bible puts on praise it behooves us to learn about individual praise, collective praise, praise from our spirit, praise in the Holy Spirit, praise in song, praise with the Word, praise in the dance, praise with laughter, etc. etc..
Praise will move you beyond the rituals of worship into a vital, personal confrontation with Him and allow us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. True praise will lift you out of a self-and need-centeredness, to a Christ-centeredness.
Praise brings pleasure to God. "For the Lord taketh pleasure in His people" (Ps. 149:4). "Bless the Lord oh my soul" (Ps. 104:1), not "Bless my soul, oh Lord." Just think about it, we, the lesser, are invited (commanded) to bless, honor, magnify, extol, give pleasure to the Greater. Ephesians 1:12 states "that we should be the praise of His glory."
God made man to enhance his God. God's satisfaction is not complete without the praises of man. God desires and yearns for a close relationship with man.
You know the importance of prayer and I believe in prayer. But to often, prayer causes us to hold the switch on communications, blocking off reception from God. We do all the talking. When we praise, we give God a chance to talk to us.
There are as many concepts of praise as there are denominations and in any one denomination people are divided on the proper way of expressing praise. We need to search the Scriptures to see if God has revealed a pattern of praise. If your denomination shuns a certain pattern of praise that is in the Bible, praise the Bible way anyway.
We see so many expressions of praise and we seem to copy the patterns of somebody else, what we need to realize is that there may be no divine pattern execpt to praise Him out of a intimate relationship with Him.
One portion of scripture that gives us a glimpse of what is taking place in heaven is Isaiah 6:1-4: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!" And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.
The seraphim described here are very high-ranking beings of the angel order. When Isaiah caught a glimpse into heaven he saw them exchanging praises unto the Lord upon the throne in sort of a antiphonal chant or cry. So great was their cry that the "posts of the door" moved (v. 4).
We also read that the house filled with smoke or incense of worship. Little wonder then that the Psalmist often speaks of a loud shout being germane to praise. Shouting as a means of worship is mentioned often in the Bible. Now there is a time for silence, but very rarely are we told to keep silence before Him. Many times we are enjoined to shout: "Clap your hands all you people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph" (Ps. 47:1); "Let all those who put their trust in you rejoice: let them ever shout for joy" (Ps. 5:11).
It is not that God desires the volume or puts a premium on noise, but that man needs the release of his pent-up joyful emotions that shouting can bring him.
Just think of a bunch of Christians attending the arena watching their favorite sport. Let your team unexpectedly intercept a pass and skate to the other end of the rink and score a goal, these Christian's emotions will rise to such a high peak that they are released in a loud shout, often accompanied with emphatic physical gestures. A higher emotional rise ought to occur when saints actually see the Lord in all His glory; the work is accomplished; the victory is won; sin is forgiven; healing is accomplished; demons are defeated; our salvation is secured; nothing remains to be done. It is not amiss or improper to express those infused emotions in an electrifying shout of praise and dancing when this is an honest expression of inner feelings.
Can you hear the angels reverberating that song through heaven. "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." Would that the whole church would understand the holiness of God. What would you do if you were in the presence of the holy God. There will be something happen on the inside. You see this thing is more than just three songs, take up an offering, and then a little sermonette that makes nothingetts out of christianettes. It is more than a routine of going to church three or four times a week.
We need to get a revelation of who Jesus is, of who we are and what we are doing, what our purpose is and what God has put us in this earth for.
Do you know what happened to Isaiah? The thing that he had his trust in suddenly went down in the valley of death. He had his security in the fact that king Uzziah was on the throne and he was comfortable with that. Then the king dies, he becomes despondent because the thing that he had his trust in is no longer there. But then he sees the Lord, high and lifted up, and He is on the throne, He is the one my trust should be in.
It is time for us to see who is on the throne, it is time for us to see who is in control. It is time for us to realize that whatever God calls us to do we can do and we can do it in faith, because God is on the throne and He will enable us to accomplish the task.
In this hour, I want you to know that God is reaching down in this world, He is reaching down into congregation, and getting a hold of people and they are becoming dissatisfied with their form of godliness that denies the power thereof.
The spiritual dissatisfaction that is sweeping dead denominations is a godly thing. When people say they are unhappy with a lack of the presence of God it ought to make preachers happy instead of putting them on the defensive. They should be happy because there are people in the church getting a righteous dissatisfaction in their spirit. They are sick of form and programs; they are tired of preachers who will not allow for the moving of the Holy Spirit; they long for the glory of God to fill the church. They are a people who are getting their eyes off the structure that has supported them for years and fixing their eyes on Jesus on His throne in all His glory. This and only this will cause you to focus on the correct vision.
Now I want to ask you a question, who were the first beings God created? It was the heavenly host, before he created the earth he made the heavenly host. Do you know why He made the heavenly host first?
Because God works in the presence of glory and praise. He moves His hands to do the miraculous in the atmosphere of praise. Praise God! The supernatural is displayed in the presence of glory.
So He made a heavenly host and they are standing before the throne saying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, Gabriel, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord. Yes Michael, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord. In the midst of this praise, God starts to make the planets and the world. In the midst of praise God said, "let there be light, let the water expand, let the earth bring forth grass, let the stars be in the sky, let the earth bring forth the living creatures, and let us make man in our image." God is making everything in the atmosphere of praise. Oh praise the Lord!
In the book of Revelation you find the angelic host, and what are they doing, they are saying, "You are worthy to receive glory honor and power.
"You are worthy to receive," that my friend is the key. He is not giving glory, He is receiving glory.
God made man the crowning glory of His creation. He is not now manufacturing glory, somebody else is creating that atmosphere. In heaven the angels are creating the atmosphere of praise.
Who is suppose to create the atmosphere of praise on earth? The body of Christ.
Why is it that, when the church is suppose to give back to God something that He desires to receive (an atmosphere of praise and worship) does she hinder that atmosphere to get on with some man-made program? It is because she has lost the vision of who and what the church is all about.
We are to glorify God, how is it that God's people are to glorify Him?
Ps. 50:23 says, "Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God."
The TAB say it this way: He who brings an offering of praise and thanksgiving honors and glorifies Me; and he who orders his way right [who prepares the way that I may show him], to him I will demonstrate the salvation of the Lord.
Praise is not only something you do in the assembling of believers, it is not even a lifestyle, it is the way of life for the Christian. If we do that God will show us His salvation for body, soul, and spirit, salvation for every area of our lives.
Ps 96:6-8: Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Give to the LORD, O families of the peoples, give to the LORD glory and strength. Give to the LORD the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come into His courts.
It is our praises coming from a relational life that gives Him glory.
We have to be careful what we say. If we always speak the negatives, we will get defeat, if we always speak the circumstances we will reap the outcome. But if we speak the Word of God in every situation then, you are creating glory unto God, and in the midst of that glory God will perform the supernatural and give you the victory. Some times our prayers are not answered because we do not create the atmosphere where the supernatural can manifest itself. We pray over and over for the same thing but never offer praise to Him.
God must receive glory, glory comes from us, if we offer Him praise we glorify Him. To many of us get together to receive something from the Lord, we want a blessing, when the purpose of our getting together is to glorify Him. We fail to realize that it is in glorifying Him that we receive from Him.
In what is called the Lord's prayer there is a statement that reads, "Thy kingdom come" that is something we receive. At the time we were born again we received His kingdom in our hearts. The problem is that in the lives of a lot of Christians God's kingdom has remained in their hearts and not gotten out into their every day lives and the world.
Until the kingdom of God in our hearts breaks the carnal crust of our flesh and gushes out of our lives, and He sits on the throne of our lives in complete authority and rullership, the will of God cannot be done on this earth. "Now Lord, because your kingdom has come, thy will be done in earth through me, as it is in heaven.
Now all I have to do is find out what is taking place in heaven so I can do it on earth. What is taking place in heaven that God wants to take place on earth? Heaven is filled with the praises of God, that is what Isaiah saw, didn't he. Therefore the will of God is that the earth would be filled with His glory. How can that be done? By believers giving Him praise.
I say, "Lord take us and mold us in such a way that we will manifest an atmosphere on earth in which you can do your mighty acts among men. Take us Lord and use us so that the atmosphere of heaven can be manifested in the earth for it is in that atmosphere you will do the impossible and the supernatural."
It is no wonder the devil fights praise and worship. It is no wonder that dead religion don't allow for worship. Because when we worship and praise in the earth it creates the atmosphere on earth that God operates in, in heaven.
God created worlds in that atmosphere, and he will create, save, heal and do the supernatural in the earth if we would only create the atmosphere of heaven in the earth. And we can do it!
Revivals come out of that atmosphere. We are not here to bring revival, we are here to create glory unto God then He will give the revival.
We are not here to heal the sick and perform signs and wonders. You see we put to much emphasis on getting people saved, set free, and healed. Our emphasis is to create glory unto God, and in that atmosphere the works of God will be a natural outflow of that glory.
The Church is here to produce glory. Praise God!
Do we want to see the works that Christ did on the earth to be done in our day? If we do we must come from a place of prayer right into a place of praise. We must do the same thing that is taking place in heaven, creating glory unto God.
We have to get rid of our inhibitions.
We have to get rid of our fears.
We must get rid of our traditions that hinders the Word of God from being manifested in our midst.
God is on the throne. Now the throne is not a place of comfort, it is not a lazy-boy chair. It is a place of authority, it is a decision making place. He is on the throne hearing your prayers and petitions. He is hearing these requests in the presence of Glory. People if we would fill the earth with His glory by praising Him he would make the decision to answer our prayer speedily. We need to add the fuel of praise to the vehicle of prayer by creating the atmosphere of heaven in our midst then He will perform His mighty acts.
Do you know that all of God's creation gives Him glory except one. You may ask, how does the things that God created give Him glory? By everything doing what it was created to do!
The flowers, trees, animals, rivers, sun moon and stars all do what they were created to do, therefore give God glory!
The one that does not do what He was created to do is man. Man was created to show forth God's glory. But God being God desires voluntary worship, so He gave man a will of his own. Man can choose to give Him glory or not to give Him glory, sinners and sad to say, most Christians choose not to give him glory.
Whosoever offers God praise glorifies Him.
Praise will bring a three fold response:
(1) Your spirit responds.
(2) God responds.
(3) Those around us respond.
I am concerned that believers, thus the church, do not see praise only as a command in the scriptures. If they do, they will lose sight of the fact that, holy men of old actually witnessed praise taking place in heaven. It is not just something that merely should be done, it was done in heaven, it is being done in heaven today. This is the divine pattern for God's people on earth. What is taking place in heaven is the protocol of praise! Anything less than this may be fine in our eyes, but it must accept the tag, "Made according to man's pattern." That my friend, is not of faith, therefore it is not pleasing to God.
Because there are so many different terms used in Scripture for adulation and praise unto God, we sometimes miss seeing the full role it plays in the Word. It should be clear by these glimpses into heavenly praising that all praise is worship. Praise did not originate with man; it began with God. Since it is God ordained, every believer should participate in it.
Moses was prophetically blessing each of the twelve tribes of Israel, and to Judah (which means praise) he said these words, "Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people; let his hands be sufficient for him, and may You be a help against his enemies." (Deut. 33:7). In this verse we have a fourfold blessing of "praise" (Judah).
This, too, is a working model of praise.
First, Moses asks God to hear the voice of Judah, Praise. Praise will pierce any hindering force and gain an audience with God.
Second, Moses pled that "praise" should unite the family ("bring him to his people"). God uses praise to bring His body together in this day. Praise is a magnet that draws believers of different concepts and backgrounds together, uniting them in worship, fellowship and family.
Third, Praise was to have strength equal to the task ("Let his hands be sufficient for him"). The secret of strength for the Christian is a praising heart! The Word declares, "The joy of the Lord is your strength" (Neh. 8:10).
Fourth, ("May you be a help against his enemies"). Never lose sight of the truth that the praiser has access to Divine protection that the non-praising Christian does not have. The pledge of help was given to Judah, Praise.
In Joshua we see how some of these promises were appropriated. In ch. 14, we read of Caleb, the man chosen from the tribe of Judah to be one of the twelve spies sent to spy out the promise land. He with Joshua, brought back a report of faith, and although the report was rejected, Caleb was allowed by God to live through the forty years of wandering during which the unbelieving Israelites died and were buried in the desert.
A man who was of the tribe of Praise was preserved from disobedience, destruction, dissipation, and disinheritance. He took, as his inheritance, the very land that had been the possession of the giants that so terrified the children of Israel. Thank God for this small model of praise which reveals some of what praising can do for the practitioner.
In Judg. 1:1-2, we read: Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, "Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?" And the LORD said, "Judah shall go up. Indeed I have delivered the land into his hand."
Praise shall enter the battle first! And God has already delivered the territory into the hand of praise.
Saints if we would learn to do battle for the Lord we must first learn how to praise, for God sends praise as the shock waves to drive the enemy back before the rest of the army is allowed to join in the battle.
Praise produces proclaimers! We see this illustrated in 1 Kings 13:1, And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel..." There are many workers for God and many people claiming to be ministers of the gospel, but yet a person who is truly called out to be a "man of God" comes out of Judah, Praise. God seems to choose worshipers, praisers, people who understand the Divine Presence and are comfortable in it. What a shame that so few seminaries and Bible colleges offer courses in praise.
The praiser can push the enemy back without exposing himself to the fiery darts. The devil will hurl his darts but praise distinguishes them before they find their target.
People who praise will have a place of habitation and thereby will give God a sanctuary in which to dwell: "but you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel." (Ps. 22:3).
Hosea 10:11 says, "Judah, Praise, shall plow." How foolish to plant seed in unprepared soil that has become rock hard either from idleness or the many trampling feet of denominational traditions. The prophet suggests that praise can well plow the soil prior to planting of the seed. If pastors would lead their congregations in united praise in the churches, there would be a great increase in harvest results. Praise will turn and soften hearts and prepare them for the richness of God's Word.
Hosea 11:12, informs us, "Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints." In this day when many are so caught up on authority, ruler ship, titles, and positions in the Body of Christ, it is refreshing to read that it is Praise that rules with God. We are all to enter into praise and thus, rule with God.
There are three aspects of praise for the praiser.
(1) We praise as a memorial for His past doings.
(2) We praise because of a present involvement in His doings.
(3) We praise because of a prophetic vision and hope.
Whether looking backward, outward, or forward, we are motivated to praise the Lord, and feast before His presence with rejoicing and singing.
What happens in man's spirit when he begins to praise? Something from deep within his spirit is "poured out" before the Lord. There is a flowing from him to God. Love, appreciation, adoration, and worship flow from his spirit, through the Holy Spirit, into the presence of God. It is not intended for man, nor is it presented to man. It is an offering from man's spirit to God.
What happens in man's soul when he begins to praise? His emotions begin to open to God, his will responds to the urgings of his spirit, and he finds himself of his own free will giving praise, adulation, magnification and exaltation to God with delightful pleasure. There is no pressure, no coercion, no constraint, for his soul "delights in the Lord his God". He finds himself with David saying, "Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!" (Ps 103:1).
In response to the praise in man's spirit and soul, man's body begins to respond emotionally by verbal expression, lifting of the hands, laughing, dancing, etc, etc...
So for praise to be worship unto God man's entire being, spirit, soul, and body must be given over to the act, so that we might be changed into His image.`
The Scriptures declare that in the life of the believer, praise is beautiful, necessary, and pleasing to God. But we sometimes fail to realize that praise is a covenant--not a covenant that man makes with God, but a covenant that God makes with man.
Throughout the Old Testament, we distinguish God's covenants with Abraham, Moses, David, and through the prophets. In the New Testament, we find that both salvation and the infilling of the Holly Spirit are covenant promises. He binds Himself by the oath of His Word to fulfill His part. The entire Old Testament is a covenant. "Testament" means "covenant" in modern English. At the Last Supper, Jesus said, "This cup is the new testament (covenant, pact)in my blood" (1 Cor. 11:25).
The Old Covenant is not something Abraham made with God, but something God made with Abraham, neither is the New Covenant something you make with God. The covenant is not something you went to God and initiated. The covenant is not your submission to it, He said, "is in my blood." It is true that if you would become a participant in the pact, there are certain things you must do, but your doing them does not produce the covenant--it only makes the covenant valid for you because you have met the pre-existing conditions of the pact.
Psalm 81 gives us the concept of God making a pact or entering into a covenant with His people.
This is praises to be done unto God. In v.8 we have the concept of a pact. "Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wouldest hearken unto me!" (ASV). In vv.6-8 God is stating previous promises made and is reiterating them as a legal witness for all to see. The strong implication is the making of a covenant in the matter of praise. "Hear (and heed) my people, and I will make a testament, covenant, pact with thee."
Covenants are generally conditional: "If you do your part, I'll do my part." When we buy a car or a house, and need financing, we sign a contract or pact wherein we agree to make regular payments of a specified amount, and the other party agrees to let us have possession of the property, and later upon completion of our payment schedule, full title to it. It is an "I will if you will" contract or pact. This is so with God's covenants. He says, "If My people will-I will..."
The pact presented in Psalm 81 suggest, first, the condition that must be met in order to enter into the covenant, and then lists God's promises or pledges to the person who will meet the conditions. The final three verses give some covenant benefits or five things that accrue to the person of the pact.
Our side of the pact is given in the first seven verses. Five methods of praise and five motivations of praise are spelled out, and unless we fulfill the basic conditions--praising God--we will be cheated out of the benefits of this covenant of praise.
In 2 Peter 2:9, we read, "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;" For this He has called us. For this He has made Priests of us. For this we are peculiar and different. That we might get together to show forth His praise.
The covenant condition, therefore, is praise. As we praise Him, He moves toward us. What is the correct motivation for praise? Is it proper to praise just so I can get something from God? In Psalm 81:4-7, the Holy Spirit gives us six strong reasons for praise, reasons we can understand and relate to, reasons that combine the dealings of God with the deliverance of man.
The first reason for praise is given in v. 4: "For this was a statue...a law of God of Jacob." This alone should be sufficient. God's Word commands it! Note that this is not an option, for those who want to go deeper in God; it is given as a repeated command.
"Praise ye the Lord" means, All people praise the Lord. Ps. 47:1 declares, "Oh clap your hands all ye people," while Ps. 40:16 says, "Let all that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee." This is the Word of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Refusal to praise is rebellion against God's Word!
The second reason for praise is that praising people are God's testimony. "This He established in Joseph as a testimony" (v. 5). The Bible teaches that "We should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ" (Eph. 1:12).
Contrary to popular belief, it is not the demonstration of the supernatural that God has given as a testimony unto Himself, but a declaration of Praise! Praise is a testimony unto God understood in heaven and earth. It is dangerous to get very involved in a display of the supernatural until you are saturated in praise. Many men and ministries using spiritual gifts without being praisers have been destroyed because it has brought them into high pride levels. Praise on the other hand is conducive to humility, for the only direction praise can go is upward. Until we have learn to truly worship and praise, we do well to shy away from the supernatural. Where there are a people who praise, there is the testimony of Christ, and in that atmosphere He will perform the supernatural through the praising people because the expressed attitudes are to Him. Out of the atmosphere of Praise we can safely release the Divine power to minister to the needs of the people. Praise releases the power.
The third reason for praise is our deliverance from slavery. I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were freed from the baskets. You called in trouble and I delivered you: (vv.6-7). Oh how this thought should produce praise! God freed and delivered His people. And He is in the same business today. Slaves are still being transformed into free men. Hallelujah!
Are you losing your desire to praise? Bring to remembrance exactly what and who you were before knowing the deliverance and security found in Jesus Christ. Take a look at some of the scenes you were a part of when you were a servant of sin. Are you glad to be free? Tell Him so.
Not only has God delivered His people from the slavery of sin, He is also delivering them from the "servitude to "religion, denominationalism, and traditions." Those who keep up a form of religious activity but is void of power.
Other than Satan himself, there is probably no sterner taskmaster then organized religion. It forces people to carry burdens that are not their own. It does not allow you to "Cast all your care upon Him." If God has delivered you from doing because of guilt trip. If God, by His grace has freed you from ceaseless toil in the pot of "denominationlism" to go deeper in Him, praise Him for it. If you have found a relationship with Christ instead of dead ritual, praise Him for it. We were bondsmen, we were slaves to a lifeless religion that substitutes itself for a relationship with God, ought we not praise His name.
A fourth reason for praising the Lord is, "I answered you" (v. 7). Not only were the people delivered from slavery, but they barely got across the Red Sea before God started answering their prayers. There was the request for sweet water and manna. He provided for every need when they called upon Him.
What about us today? do we feel a sense of awe as we think about the God of all the universe listening to our prayers and answering them. If God answers my prayer and it does not evoke a sense of wonder and response of praise, then somewhere along the line I have forgotten my relationship and think I deserve the whatever it was I prayed for. We ought to thank God that we do not get what we deserve. Believe me, we do not ever want what we deserve. We should rejoice that God has offered us grace, not justice. God listens when I pray, that thought alone should evoke praise from our lips.
We often fail to praise God for His provings, testings, and trials. yet the fifth reason for praise is, "I tested you" (Ps. 81:7). Why does God test us? He wants us to discover how great His strength is in our life.
Have you ever slipped and fallen flat on your face on what you thought was one of your "strong points"? When we think we are strong, then we are weak. Then the grace of God comes, and God begins doing a work in us. He cleanses us and establishes us in His faith again. We think we will never face the same trial again, but low and behold there comes a time when we face the same trial. Our heart cries, "Oh God not again!" The devil whispers to us, "This is it, you cannot make it, you may as well give up!"
Suddenly, as we praise God we move right out of that situation, as if it were not even there. We look back in amazement and say, "We did not fail, in fact it did not even bother us, Oh Lord thank you." The Lord replies, "The reason for the test is to let you know that I have been building strength in you, that my grace is sufficient and you need not live in fear, I have tested you."
Can you identify with the Psalmist as he cries, "The Lord is my strength...the lord is my rock...the Lord is my buckler...the Lord is my shield...the Lord is my reward...the Lord is my high tower?" You are strong in the Lord! How did you find out? Because He tested you, because the devil tempted you, because you were terribly tried and came forth as pure gold. He wants you to praise Him for that. You would never know the strengths within you if He didn't test you once in a while.
Our part of the pact, then, is simply praise the Lord! Verse eight ends, "If you will listen to me." What has He been talking about? Praise!
What God has been asking for is praise; He has been talking about praise. He simply says, "If you will, I will." If you will praise I will...and in vv. 9-10 He lists four things He will do. These are the promises of this covenant or pact.
The first promise of praise is, "There shall be no foreign god among you." The ASV says it this way, "There shall be no strange god in thee." Through the Old Testament, "strange gods" is merely a mild expression for "demons. Behind all idolatry is demonic power. Men think they are bowing to stone, silver, or gold images, but demons accept it as direct worship to themselves. Is it any wonder that God is opposed to idolatry of any kind.
Moreover we are living today in the midst of an occult explosion. Since there has also been a restoration of casting out demons, many believing Christians have become unduly demon conscious and live in the mistaken fear of becoming inhabited by demons themselves. How reassuring that the first provision of this pact made by God is that He will be our protection from all Satanic attack.
Deuteronomy 32:9-18 reveals why some Christians have trouble with the Satanic and others do not. To me, this passage coincides beautifully with this first promise of the covenant of praise. V. 9 informs us, "For the Lord's portion is His people." Without us He has no inheritance. V. 10 tells us that God found him (His people), led him, instructed him, and protected him as He would the "apple of his eye." V. 12 says, "So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him." As long as we stay in a praising relationship, we have the assurance of this covenant that God will secure total protection from the Satanic for the children of His inheritance.
Deuteronomy 32:13-14 shows how God's provision for His people is more the sufficient, it is luxurious. "It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). Verse 15, however, says that after these people were totally satisfied and had actually gotten "fat" on God's provision, they began a four-step, downward progression that moved them from the realms of the Divine to the demonic.
A-they "forsook God" (v. 15). This was one of God's complaints throughout the Old Testament. As long as He blessed His people with abundance, they tended to forsake Him. When He sold them into bondage, they called on His name. The reason they went into bondage is not because of abundance but because they forgot God in their abundance! We have to be as true to God, calling on His Name, and obeying His Word in abundance as well as in lack. If we did, we would not forget God and go into bondage. God yearns to give us the best of everything, sometimes He does not because He knows it will cause us to rise in self-will and self-love instead of praise...to forsake rather than follow...to become self-oriented instead of God centered.
B-"They provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods" (Deut. 32:16). This happens to many Christians. People come through redemption, into praise. Nothing is more important then Jesus and His Word. Then things start to become more important, their prayer life slacks back, study of God's Word takes fourth place to their needs, praise begins to decline and very soon, a lot of things take first place in their lives other than God.
God warned His people, in His very first visitation at Sinai, that He was a "jealous God"; that He would tolerate no other God's before Him. Happy is the saint who learn early in His walk to keep God as the number one priority in His life and not to mix the light and darkness; not to share His attention for God with other things.
C-"They sacrificed unto devils, not to God" (v. 17). Sadly does 2 Kings 17:33 report, "They feared the Lord, and served their own God's." We may never lose our reverential respect for God, we may still maintain a love for Him, but where are we investing our lives. Are we sold out to God and the extension of His kingdom or do we give Him an hour of our time on a Sunday and the rest of the time pursue our own desires. If we do we are sacrificing to demons because we obey what they want rather than what God wants.
Nor is the use of idolatry limited to the strict sense of something you can see. Are we serving Mammon, the god of affluence? What investment do we have in the gods of success, recognition or possessive love. What gods are we allowing to insinuate themselves between us and God?
D-"Thou...hast forgotten God that formed Thee" (v. 18). By four restoring steps, God had brought them to a place where "there was no strange god with him." By four rebellious steps they had taken themselves away from God into the demonic realms. It is an easy age-old progression: we tend to forsake God when we feel we do not need Him. Very few people seek God because they want Him--they seek Him because they need Him.
Amazingly, when we become interested in strange things, we begin to make sacrifices to follow this interest. They soon become a part of us, and we fall into the trap of forgetting God. The greatest protection anyone has from the satanic is to keep your mind on God. "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You" (Isaiah 26:3).
The second promise of praise is concerned with purity of Worship. Psalm 81:9 pledges, "Neither shalt thou worship any strange god." Not only is Divine protection offered to the praiser, but purity in his worship is equally assured. We will never be able to develop purity in worship because we are pure, but because He is going to take care of the purification. God and God alone can cleanse the impure motives from our lives, and keep our worship Christ-centered rather than church-, self-, or program-centered.
Isaiah 43:12 states, "I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore you are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God." When God has Divine monopoly in our midst, He will declare, deliver, and demonstrate. But when we bring in a second "god" be it of self or Satan, God withdraws from the scene and no longer speaks, saves, or shows.
But how will we maintain such a realm of purity? We all have our selfish motivations, our self-love, our self-will. The answer is simply to praise God, and He will keep us pure. If there is to be any purity in our worship, it is going to be because we have given ourselves to the covenant of praise--we have accepted God's pact and are not trying to formulate one ourselves.
"If you will praise me, you will not worship any strange God." Jesus still cleanses the temple when He comes in. I believe that the sweet aroma of true praise and worship from a Word obedient people is a stench in the nostrils of Satan and his imps as sulfur and brimstone are in ours. They can't stand genuine praise and they flee from it.
The third promise of praise is personal relationship. Psalm 81:10 says, "I am the Lord your God." How does one come into this relationship? As you begin to praise God, something wonderful happens to your confidence in your relationship with God. You become aware that He is, in fact, what you are declaring--your Lord. There is a drawing of your spirit and His Spirit together. This strengthens your faith, your praises, your worship and your whole being, to know that God is intimately related to you. "I am your God."
How desperately this is needed today. Only when we are secure in our relationship to Jesus are we able to offer Jesus to anyone else. This security is not dependent upon the people we are with, or the culture, or the circumstances. As we praise Him we come into this glorious closeness and comfort.
And there is something else that happens in our relationship with Him when we start to praise. If there has been a hardness of heart on our part, a root of bitterness that has effectively blocked whatever He might have wanted to do on our behalf, there is nothing like praise to change one's attitude, and set in motion all that Divine machinery which is just poised and waiting.
Some of the hardest times to praise--when praise began through gritted teeth in blind obedience to the commands of Scripture--have resulted in the greatest victory.
The fourth promise is "Open your mouth wide and I will fill it" (Ps. 81:10). With what will He fill our mouth? What has He been talking about in the whole Psalm? Praise! So not only does He set praise as the condition we must meet to gain the benefits of the pact, He Himself then supplies the praise. It is one of the promises of the covenant.
God yearns for a praising people. He is willing to meet our needs by giving us the praise so that our needs are again met as we give that praise to Him.
It would have been wonderful if God's people did become, a praising people and enjoyed all the benefits of the covenant. But the next three verses of this Psalm informs us that God's people failed to continue to be a praising people. It seems that historically, each succeeding group of "called out one's" have embraced the covenant for only brief periods of their early history and then turned to their own ways, methods, ideas, and programs. Psalm 81;11 sadly reports, "But my people [1] would not hearken to my voice; and [2] Israel would have none of Me." THE VOICE OF GOD IGNORED, THE PRESENCE OF GOD REJECTED! V. 12, So [1] I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and [2] they walked in their own counsels." God's punishment was simply to let them have their own way. If we won't walk after God's heart, He will let us walk after our own heart's desire. If we won't listen to His voice, He let's us walk according to our own voice, and the desperate consequences that results is our own doing. The moment we feel that we can "do it," God stops doing. If we are going to be our own defense God will get out of the way.
As we look at the closing verses of this Psalm, we cannot help but the sense the disappointment as God says, "Oh, that my people had listened...and...walked in My ways! You see God had purposed good things for them if they were obedient. In fact in vv. 14,15,16, there are five covenant promises that could have been theirs.
(1) "I would soon subdue their enemies" (v. 14). It was God's desire to bring them into rest, to deliver them from their struggles. But we cannot enter into that rest until we have ceased from our own labors. As long as we are going to do it, God will not do it. Speaking to the religious people of His day, Jesus said. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matt 11:28-30).
In this day there is a large number of pastors and Christian workers who say they are worn out, burned out, stressed out, and feel like quitting the ministry. The reason for this is, they do not have their neck in God's yoke, nor do they have God's burden. They are trying to do the work in and of themselves while trying to carry out the burden of their denomination, program, people, and constitution. If they were hooked to God's yoke and carried out His burden there would be no burned out, stressed out, worn out, workers. But when your goal is to please everybody in your church, to please your denominational Bishops, instead of pleasing God by being obedient to His Word, then God stands aside an lets you do it your way. The result is no spiritual energy, anointing, or power, therefore you wear yourself out trying to do it in the flesh.
What did Jesus mean by the words, "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light?" Thinking about a yoke of oxen, you will find that when you get your neck in His yoke, you will begin to learn. You will learn that if you try to go before He goes all you are going to get is sore shoulders. You will learn that if you refuse to go when He goes you are going to have sore ears. You will find that when He turns left and you do not want to turn in that direction, you will get a crick in the side of your neck. You will learn to eat when He eats, because that is the only time the neck yoke goes down. You will find one of the most glorious lessons to be learned- -that your job is simply to hold up your end of the yoke. He will do the pulling. If you are yoked with Him, you will realize that you are just going along for the walk--you are there to learn, not to work. There is a rest. We do become a participant, but it is His work, His way, His will, His time, and His place. You will learn that a result of praise will be contentment in moving with God because you are beginning to really know Him.
(2) God will fight our battles. "...And turned my hand against their adversaries" (v.14). It is a wonderful thing when God undertakes against our adversaries, and we do have them, in the flesh and in the spiritual realm. Do not pick up the closest tool at hand and go to battle. Praise the Lord and He will turn His hand against them.
There is a beautiful truth in Psalm 8:2: "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger." Jesus quotes this in Mat. 21:6, but He changes two words. Instead of "You have ordained strength," He says, "You have perfected praise." Using the "Jesus translation" look at the verse again. "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise, because of your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger." Could anything be presented more clearly? God has perfected the pattern of praise as a powerful weapon against the enemy.
(3) Our victories will be perpetuated. "The haters of Jehovah should submit themselves unto him: But their time should endure for ever" (Ps 81:15).(ASV) The TAB reads this way, [Had Israel listened to Me in Egypt, then] those who hated the Lord would have come cringing before Him, and their defeat would have lasted forever." Sometime when we try to fight spiritual warfare we cry out, "My God what can we do?" He replies, "Let me perpetuate the victory." The victory is won by the Lord as we praise Him.
(4) He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat: (v.16). God chooses to give the very best to His children, yet we spend so much time struggling and grasping to provide for ourselves. As we fulfill our part of the covenant, we find Him ample filling His part, providing for our every need--spirit, soul, and body--with the very finest possible joys and blessings.
(5) "And with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you" (v.16). Satisfaction! How we search and strive for it. And all of the time God is waiting to give us complete satisfaction in every area of our life. Picture after picture is painted in the Old Testament of the Israelites to find satisfaction. They turned to strange gods for religious satisfaction; they turned to foreign practices and people for answers to their physical needs. Yet all the time God was reaching out towards them with His hands full of good things which were their rightful inheritance as His children. But instead of just praising God as He had commanded, and partaking of His bountiful supply, they sought after broken cisterns that could hold no water. They spent time and money for things which could not satisfy--exchanging the lasting things of God for temporary pleasure.
Full satisfaction is to be found in being like Jesus. Although we have not yet attained the fullness of Christ, the Holy Spirit is at work in us, seeking to produce the image of Christ in us. 2 Cor. 3:18, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Is there any time in our Christian life when we behold the face of the Lord more than during praising? Is that not one of the prerequisites of praise, that we look away from ourselves and see Him? It is in the seeing that we are changed into His image. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 Jn. 3:2).
Understand that praise is a covenant that we are commanded to enter into.
Let's turn our attention now to some instructions and ways to praise found in Psalm 149. First. One of the most important instruction in praise is in v.1. "Praise the Lord!" This is a translation of the Hebrew words Haw-lai jah (our word hallelujah), but we need to realize that the injunction of the Word is more than simply to praise the Lord; it is for you to praise the Lord.
Praise is not a mass function, it is a response of an individual to His God. When a group of people choose to unite in praising, their individual praises blend into a group response, but every expression of praise comes from a separate individual. My response to God need not be affected by anther's response or their lack of response. Since my salvation, my free moral agency has been returned to me; I am an individual in my own right, and if I choose to exercise my will, I can praise the Lord, regardless of the pattern of behavior of those around me. We are responsible for praise-lessness, "Praise the Lord." You don't have to be led in praise, just praise the Lord. Once we have learned to praise as individuals, we will have little problem praising in a group. So say it, sing it, show it, strum it--but start it! Determine that you will praise the Lord.
Second, "Sing to the Lord a new song" (v.1). There are more than three hundred injunctions scattered through Scripture that tell us to sing. Singing played an important part in Hebrew worship. When David returned the ark to Jerusalem, he appointed singers and provided that singing should be done before the ark day and night.
Singing has been one of the Christian's secret weapons. The martyrs in the arena, faced with being torn apart by wild animals, came out singing. Corrie Ten Boom, in solitary confinement, began each day by singing, "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus"
I have been where the people have been bound in fear and unbelief, began to sing. They sang (praised) themselves into reception of faith and then into a release of that faith. They sang themselves from defeat to victory.
True in many churches the singing is just a part of the ritual, something that is endured. But where there is a fresh moving of God, people sing because they want to express something within them toward God.
Praising in song performs at least three valuable things for the praiser.
A, It provides him with a ready-made praise vocabulary. When we begin to sing songs of praise, we have before us words that have been meaningful to others to which we can easy relate. Singing scriptures allows us to identify with a high level of praise expression.
B, Singing praise contributes to a unity in our response. The greater the awareness of God and His glory, the greater the desire to join others in lauding our glorious Lord. In song there is a quick uniting of hearts in praise.
C, Singing praise helps release the inner emotions that have been locked up behind the veneer of our culture. When people begin to sing with understanding and anointing, they often find a release for the emotions that is acceptable to themselves and to God.
A lot of churches sing songs to people. Don't sing songs; sing praises--with your mind on the meaning of the words, and your heart in them. Don't sing to people so you can boost your ego by receiving the praise of men; sing to the Lord. Don't concentrate on musical perfection; concentrate on releasing your inner self in the song. For singing to be praise, the singer must consciously be singing the song about the Lord or unto the Lord. They should have a Christ-centeredness, either as to his nature and person or as to what He has done. Don't just sing into the air; mentally place yourself in direct communication with God and sing unto Him.
In Hebrews 2:12 Christ is quoted as saying, "I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You." The Greek word for "sing" is humneo, from which we derive our word hymn. It means to celebrate God in song. If this is the type of singing Jesus uses for praising, we would do well to emulate Him.
As valuable as it is for us to use the songs of others, while learning a praise vocabulary, the Spirit within us would like to release the singing of a "new song"--that which is particularly expressive of you and your experience. Do not hesitate in releasing new songs during your praise time. Singing the scriptures can become double-praising. There is the melodious release of the inner feelings plus the anointed words of the Bible. You may not know the tune, well start anyway and put your own tunes to the scripture.
In times of pressure, take the Word, sing aloud one of the Psalms and declare it to be the expression of your own heart to God. It will bring you into liberty and victory.
When Paul spoke of singing, he declared, "What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding" (1 Cor 14:15). "Singing with the Spirit" refers to not only a song inspired by the Spirit but singing with the language of the Spirit. The language of the Spirit has not come as a prayer language only, but also as a praise language. Don't be afraid to release that language melodiously.
Third, "And His praise in the assembly of the saints" (v.1). Here it is suggested that spoken, shouted, joyful praise can also be a part of our public worship and testimony when we come together. One sometimes cannot help but wonder why do we assemble ourselves together. To some it is to see friends, to some it is to look at the latest fashions, to some it is a ritual, to some it is to appear religious, to some it is to find something to backbite about for the next week, to some it is to take cheap shots at someone else's belief when it is not exactly what the denomination believes. If we came together to "behold Him" would we not involve ourselves in praise more than we do? If we had a common vision, would there not be more of a common expression? Fourth, "Let Israel rejoice in their Maker" (v.2). The Hebrew word translated "rejoice," means "to brighten up, to be bright, cheerful, make mirth." To rejoice in the Lord, then, is more than reciting words of praise and adoration; it is a total change of attitude, countenance, and expression.
In the Old Testament the priest never came into the Divine presence until he had stopped by the laver for a fresh look, a cleansing, and a refreshing. We need to learn how to use the "laver of the Word" for "brightening up" on preparation for worship.
The matter of "rejoicing in the Lord," is one of learning to be controlled by your will influencing your emotions instead of you circumstances influencing your emotions. It is learning not to inflict upon the Lord all your angers, bitterness, and resentments that the circumstances of life have produced in your emotional nature.
How often have we not entered into worship because we've never learned to rule our emotions instead of being ruled by them. Sometimes we allow our worship to be affected by the weather, home relationships, the kind of day you had, or what somebody has said about you. This should not be allowed. We do not praise as a release of natural emotions; we praise as a release of emotions stirred by seeing that Jesus is Lord of everything.
Happy is the saint who has learned not to base his praise upon his feelings. Discipline yourself to praise the Lord no matter what your circumstances in life may be. God sees this discipline as a form of praise, and the Word calls it, "a brightening up.
Fifth, "Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King" (v.2). Being joyful, joy filled, is one of Christ's goals for His people. Jesus said, "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:11). Peter said, "Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory" (1 Pet 1:8). Jude reminds us, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy..." (Jude 1:24).
God has purposed joy for His people. Happiness is dependent upon circumstances, but joy is dependent upon Jesus. Those who truly are seeing Jesus, hearing Him, believing Him, and obeying Him are being filled with "exceeding joy" and "joy unspeakable and full of glory."
However, it is not the possession of that joy that produces the praise, but the release of that joy. "Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob" (Ps. 81:1).
We need to realize that until praise is vocalized or actionized it is not fully expressed. There is a difference between thinking about praising and verbalizing praise. There is a difference between thinking about raising your hands before the Lord and actually doing it. Praise is not just an heart attitude, it is the expression of that attitude. Attitudes of praise should produce expressions of praise. Lift your voice, lift your hands, lift your feet--let others know of your appreciation and joy.
Just as an uninhibited child who is filled with the emotions of joy will leap and jump, so God knows that the reception of His Divine joy will produce similar reactions in His joy-filled children. It is not wrong to demonstrate what your spirit feels, as long as it does not affect the liberty of someone else to adversely.
Sixth, "Let them praise His name in the dance" v.3). Now, I am not talking about learned dancing steps where a man and a woman snuggle up close and become intimate. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia tells us that dancing in Old Testament times was primarily a leaping up and down, often to musical accompaniment. When we read that "David danced before the Lord with all his might" (2 Sam. 6:14), we have a picture of him leaping higher and higher as he ran before the returning ark. His joy was unbounded.
Psalm 150:4 also calls for us to "Praise Him with the...dance." Literally it says, "Praise Him by leaping before Him." Why? Perhaps this, "leaping" has best been explained by David in Ps. 30:11-12: "You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, to the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever." David's leaping and dancing before the Lord was simply a physical demonstration of the great change God had effected in him. It was an expression of emotion and gladness, and he saw it as a means of giving thanks unto the Lord.
Even Jesus danced this way. In Luke 10:21, where it says that "Jesus rejoiced," it means that He leaped up and down while turning around. Dancing is a means of praising the Lord.
Perhaps the greatest point of resistance in praise is allowing one's body to be involved in responding to the Lord. I have seen full gospel, Pentecostal people become upset at seeing people dance the praise dance. There is no more wrong with dancing as praise to God then there is lifting up, or clapping your hands before Him, if it is done in faith. Any expression of praise that is offered to God that is not of faith is a sin. Because the Bible says: "But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin."
There is something about getting the body involved that brings an inner release. What is it that stops people from getting the body involved in praise? Pride, they are to proud to make a spectacle of themselves. We have not yet learned to release ourselves fully in the presence of the Lord.
Christians feel it is okay to get physically involved in releasing their emotions at sporting events, but feel it is beneath their precious dignity to do so in church. We are urged, nevertheless, to lift our hands; clap our hands; stand before the Lord; bow down before the Lord and kneel before Him; and dance, or leap for joy before the Lord.
Seventh, "Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp" (v.3). Playing instruments in connection with praise and worship is Biblical. Although some other species of God's creation can make limited musical intonations, man is the only one of God's creatures that can make a mechanical instrument and then play music on it.
You need not do great things to become a praiser, you need only to do something! Praise is neither thought of feeling, it is expression! It should not be governed by emotion, it should be a releasing of the emotion. Praise begins in the spirit of man, is governed by the will of man, and in its expression uses the whole man.
Continuing to look at Psalm 149, Let's take a look at some motivators for praising God.
(1) We praise Him for Who He is, "Praise you the Lord" v.1). Until we get a glimpse of who He is, we'll never be good praisers. We must see Him as gracious; we must see Him as merciful; we must see Him plenteous in love; we must see Him full of compassion; and we must see Him as the righteous judge. We must see Him as He is revealed in His Word, not as He is expressed in religion.
As your concept of God is lifted to a fresh orientation, your response will be spontaneous and free. You will praise Him because you see the person of God as He is presented in His Word. You will get involved with the Divine Presence. Praise is a natural response of love. We praise Him, first of all, for who He is.
(2) We praise Him for what He has done, "Let Israel rejoice in their Maker" v.2). Over in Isaiah 43:1 we read, But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine." He has created us; He has formed us; He has redeemed us; He has called us; and He has accepted a father's responsibility over us. This should cause us to praise Him.
(3) Praise is a release for our emotions. "Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King" (v.2). It is important for us to direct our emotions, for if we do not direct then, they will direct us, and what a miserable life it is to be directed from the emotional level. Obviously, we have only one set of emotions, and these must be used by our spirit and our soul, as well as God's Spirit. Unless there is a means of discharging these emotions safely, they will become overloaded and potentially dangerous. There is nothing more prone to danger than a group of people who are emotionally charged, we tend to respond to further stimulus without rational consideration. Praise is a God given, structurally taught channel of release for the emotions.
It is unfair and potentially unsafe for leaders to build high levels of emotional feeling in services through singing, exhortation, and preaching of the Word if they are not going to give the worshipers an opportunity to release those emotions. Praise is the Divinely appointed manner of release.
If you take the emotion out of worship you will have no motion. You can be emotional without worshiping, but you cannot worship without being emotional. The answer is not to restrict the emotion but to release it! "Let the saints be joyful in their King." Learn to release your feelings in prise and adoration of God. Let Him benefit from what He has produced within you. If He has stirred you to love, let your love responses be toward Him. If He has stirred you to bless, bless Him, then you can rightly be a blessing to others.
Do you have troble sleeping because your emotions are so frayed? Discharge your emotions through praise, you will be able to relax and sleep. Release your pent-up emotions unto Him in praise--in song, in clapping your hands, in dancing, in laughing, or whatever avenue of worship is most appropriate at the moment. Every Christian must learn how to have praise sessions unto God.
(4), Because the Lord takes pleasure in His people. "For the Lord takes pleasure in His people" (v.4). When we read, with our limited understanding, the scriptures concerning the heavens, angels, His glory, His grandeur, His beauty, His throne, His creation, His dominion, and His power, and we say, "That must give great pleasure to God."
But the Scriptures speak of His creation as simply "God's handiwork" (Ps. 19:1). The entire galaxy systems that stirs our deepest imaginations is little more than God's hobby expressions. God made the universe, but it does not now give Him pleasure.
The Scriptures do say, however, that He takes pleasure in His people. We, yes, you and I are the object of the pleasure of God. God's program is to take pleasure in His people, to be completed in His people, to be satisfied in His people. Man is God's glory. One of the finest gifts you can give to God is to praise Him, because it is the praise of men to Him that brings Him glory. The fact that God likes praise should be motivation enough for us to do it. It is in blessing and praising God, that we are giving pleasure unto Him.
(5) Praise will beautify us. And God knows that some of us need to be beautified. "He will beautify the humble with salvation" (v.4). We are moved to praise Him when we see what we've become! If you are a Christian don't go around saying that "no good thing dwells in me." God dwells within you, He put His spirit in you with all of His glory and beauty. Don't ever say that "I am not important in the kingdom of God. The most important people in God's kingdom are the ones who praise and worship Him in Spirit and in truth. When you praise God's beauty shines through you. Don't view yourself by your mistakes and flaws, view yourself as God sees you through the blood of His dear Son.
When Jesus comes for His church, He is not coming for a worn- out, beaten-down, anemic, aging bride that He has to sneak out by some secret Rapture because of shame. He is going to come for a church that is glorious--without spot or wrinkle, or blemish, or any such thing. He will present the bride unto Himself in the form He desires her to be. While going through the testing, the church will be praising, this will surely change her. What a reason for praise! Every time you look into a mirror should motivate you to praise God, because you are the crowning of His glory.
(6), Praise is a key weapon in our battle against Satan. Verse one speaks of praising "in the congregation of saints," while verse six speaks of letting "the high praises of God be in their mouth." God wants to bring us from a point of just praising Him to where we enter into "high praise" unto Him. High praise is a deeper dimension of praise, God wants us to be operating in the strength of this high praise, but the traditionalism and denominationalism hardly lets any praise to take place, let alone, letting God take us into High praises.
As you learn to manifest the power of praise--putting praise ever more into the forefront of your life as it should be, a cycle of praise will begin to flow--praise bringing results, bringing more praise. All this causes your relationship to grow increasingly intense and intimate, your praises will grow more and more intense.
God wants you to develop the kind of "no holds barred" praise where your spirit yields totally to the glory, honor, and love of your Lord. ALLOW THE PRAISE TO TAKE OVER...overshadowing all natural thoughts, considerations, circumstances, and fears...that is HIGH PRAISE. The promise of this High praise is a devastating weapon against the rulers of darkness... a two-edged sword to grant you, as a believer, an incredible power: Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, and His praise in the assembly of saints...Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, To execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute on them the written judgment-- this honor have all His saints. Praise the LORD! (Ps 149:1,6-9)
Power to execute vengeance and punishment...to bind the wicked kings and nobles...to execute judgment...a mighty weapon indeed against the devil and his demons.
Develop this "High praise" armament in your life! Spend more time in praise of your Lord. Don't limit your time spent singing, shouting, lifting your hands, or dancing instead praise Him without regard to time or limitations. I hope most of you have a prayer time during the day. I challenge you to have a praise time every day of your life. In fact your relationship with God should be such, that your whole life and living is a praise unto God.
To transcend time and space and enter into the spiritual realm through high praise is a desire deep in the heart of every believer, although so often repressed as to be hidden even from the individual. In fact, it is this repressed craving that gives rise to the occult and witchcraft. High praises enables us to enter into His world an presence and He inhabits the atmosphere of high praise. If we would reach this plateau, there is no limits to the manifestations of the Spirit that would operate in our midst. Oh what a persuader this is for us to become praisers of God.
I want to continue with this 149th Psalm and look more into this "high praise" and the tremendous power that is in high praise. In vv. 7-9, there are five specific functions of praise that illustrate to us the greatness, the magnitude, the loftiness, and the power of praise.
First, it says we can "Execute vengeance upon the nations or heathen" (v.7).
Secondly, it declares that we can execute "Punishment upon the people" (v.7).
Third, praise is "To bind their kings with chains" (v.8).
Fourth, "To bind...their nobles with fetters of iron" (v.8).
Fifth, "To execute upon them the judgment written" (v.9).
Praise is immensely powerful! It is eternally effective! It enables us to deal directly with the spirit world, It allows us to come to grip with rebellious men and demonic forces and gain the victory over them. All with praise, High praise!
In seeking to understand this, let's define the enemies listed here, then seek to understand the weapons offered, and then see if we can comprehend the nature of the conflict.
As to the nature of the enemy, there are two classes of man mentioned and two categories in the spirit world. The men are called "nations" (heathen) and "people." The expression "heathen" in the Old Testament consistently refers to those who are without God--those who have no knowledge of God, no acceptance of Him, and no relationship to Him. There is to be an execution of vengeance upon them.
"The people" in contrast to "the nations" in v.7 most likely refers to God's covenant people who were often called "the Lords people" or simply "the people." These are not to know God's vengeance, only punishment from God. God deals with the heathen one way, and with His people another. The Scriptures declare, For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives" (Heb. 12:6). Also "But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world" (1 Cor 11:32).
The two categories of the spirit world mentioned are "their kings" and "their nobles" (v.8). The king of the heathen is Satan. He is considered the god of this age. Jesus referred to him as "the prince of this world" (Jn. 14:30; 16:11), and Paul called him "the prince and power of the air" (Eph. 2:2). If their king is Satan, then their nobles would be the lesser powers in the Satanic realm. Ephesians 6:11-12 lists these satanic's kingdoms, five levels of authority: "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of [1] the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against [2] principalities, against [3] powers, against [4] the rulers of the darkness of this age, against [5] spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."
We are aware to some degree of the structure of Satan's kingdom. All in His kingdom are under the control of Satan their king as Rev. 16:13-14 affirms: "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon [Satan]...For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty."
Also remember that the Jews charged Jesus with casting out demons through Beelzebub the chief of devils (Lk. 11:15). Strong in his Greek dictionary affirms that "Beelzebub" is a name for Satan. Satan, in Christ's time was recognized as the chief of demons. Demons are under the headship of Satan.
There is a noticeable progression in this listening of the enemies in Eph. 6:11-12. From the heathen, who are quite non- threatening to us; to "the people" to whom we are far more vulnerable because of the fellowship of love; to Satan, with whom few of us will ever have a direct confrontation; to the progressively depreciating power of his kingdom, against which we probably struggle more than all others put together. Yet we are taught that praise is a weapon against them all.
This is the reason we need to look more at this weapon called "high praises." There are degrees of praise, just as there are degrees of anointing, often getting involved first in the realm of the soulish, the emotions, and then moving into the realm of the mind, the will, and finally through our spirit, into His Spirit. When we release God's Spirit through using praise, we are reaching a higher realm of praise. If we would develop a relationship with God to the degree where we don't have to go through that sequence, we would offer high praises continually. This would cause the demons of hell to flee. Sickness, disease, depression, discouragement, blindness, deafness, lameness, and sin would not stay around in that atmosphere. This spiritual plateau is attainable through the help of the Holy Spirit, if we would submit ourselves to Him 100%!
The praise spoken of here as being a weapon against the enemies of God's Kingdom is called, specifically, "high praises of God."
We yet do not have sinless perfection. We are still greatly limited in our perception of spiritual things. We are not aware of being surrounded by an innumerable company of angels, although the scriptures teach that we are. Yet there are times when we begin to soar in the Spirit, and are allowed of God to see and understand more fully the spiritual realm.
When we comprehend the true Lordship of Christ over the earth and understand the purposes of God more fully we will then offer unto Him high praises.
Notice that the high praises are not in our minds but in our mouth. As surely as tongues go beyond the conscious level, so high praises go beyond the mental level of the conscious mind and are a result of direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is as though the Holy Spirit Himself is doing the praising. It may be in tongues, but it can also be in your own language. But your intellect is not feeding your vocal cords, the Holy Spirit is directing the expression of praise. He is taking the heavenly "high praises" and flowing them into your mouth. When this happens, you are not dealing with praise as an expression, your dealing with praise as a weapon, and what a tremendous weapon it is!
Now do you understand why it is spiritual suicide to not allow expressions of praise in public services, or to stop praise after a minute or two. No wonder our churches are so spiritual anemic, void of anointing and power.
"Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand" (Ps. 149:6). Never reverse God's prescribed order.
What we need is the combination of the Spirit and the Word, praises based upon the promises, spoken words flowing from the written Word, responses Godward based upon revelations manward from the Word.
Now that we have seen the enemies, and something of the weapon God has given us to use against these enemies, let's seek to understand the nature of the conflict and how to use our weapon of praise.
The 149th Psalm says our weapon can successfully "execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people;...bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron...execute upon then the judgment written" (vv.7-9).
It is difficult for some to see God as both a God of Love and a God of judgment. The concept of using praise to bring vengeance, punishment, binding, and judgment upon others causes some people to cringe. They declare that this is not the New Testament at all, that this isn't the God that they know.
But it really is the New Testament and the God that you should know. God declares in His Word, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord" (Rom. 12:19). God doesn't want you to have a vengeful spirit, because He knows it will destroy you. Man is not strong enough to handle vengeance, so Jesus said, "Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use you" (Luke 6:27-28).
God simply says, "I am strong enough to hold this in remembrance, and if they will not submit to the love that is flowing through you, vengeance is Mine. I will take care of it for you."
I must be aware that God ultimately will pour out His vengeance upon those who reject His love. Since I know that vengeance is His, and the punishments are written, I can continue to love-- because that is the only hope of reaching them for Christ.
Our position is not to plead for vengeance or judgment, we are to let the high praises of God be in our mouth. We can praise God, when normally we would be calling for vengeance, because we know that God is a just God. And we know that He will take care of it His way.
Praise not only works as a foil for men, whether heathen or Christians, it is also a most effective weapon against the evil- spirit world. This passage promises that with the "high praises of God...in their mouth...[they] bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron." We've already determined that this is the Satanic kingdom. Jesus clearly stated that we are not going to be successful in taking out of the strong man's house that which is ours, unless we first bind the strong man. (Mark 3:23). The time has come for the church of Jesus Christ to come back to the position where we bind the strong man with chains and his lesser enemies with fetters of iron: then we can go in and totally spoil him of everything that he has taken from the church.
The church needs the faith, power, love, forgiveness, holiness, peace, joy, contentment, authority, and faithfulness to His Word that we let the enemy take away from us. We need the God given dreams that we have let the enemy steal. We need to get our children back. We can have them, if we will bind the "strong man" with "chains and fetters of iron,"
It is when we come into the high praises of God that God will bind the Satanic, put bondage upon it, put limitations upon it, so that you and I have true deliverance and freedom. It is done with praise, not pleading. God wants us to learn the lesson that if we praise God with the high praises, He'll take care of the Satanic and demonic forces that are around, and bring forth a binding upon them, instead of letting them bring forth a binding upon us.
With the high praises of God in our mouth, balanced with the two-edged sword in our hand, we bind, put in chains, execute vengeance, bring forth Divine victory, transcend the miles, and bring God unto that which He has determined--"the judgment written"--whether deliverance or destruction.
Saints, praise is a fabulous weapon! With it we can claim and conquer and bring men to a change of heart's desire. I think it would do us good if we stopped worrying about our loved ones and start praising God for their deliverance. I wonder if what we call intercession is not just an anxious mounting of our unbelief. We do not think He heard us, so we are going to say it again. Once you know you have touched God in your requests, stop the petitioning and get involved in praising.
You may say, "If God has really heard, why do I not see the results?" That is because He has to answer without violating the will of the other person involved. He has to bring him into submission through gentle channels of persuasion, and the greatest weapon you have is praise.
Do we always know if the real enemy is men or demons? No! But God knows! If we will simply come from a place of prayer into a place of praise against all opposition, God will know against whom to move and with what level of force. "The battle is not yours, but Gods" (2 Chron. 20:15). As we continue to praise, it affords heaven legal permission to engage in the conflict on our behalf. God is our defense. Learn to praise Him with the highest praise you can produce, and then allow the Holy Spirit to begin a higher level of praise, that will combine your praises with the heavenly praises.
This will always produce the victory that God desires for us.
Now I don't know what you have been going through, or who you have been going through it with, But I am here to tell you, if you will cast all your care upon Him and praise Him the Bible way, your struggling is over!
In order for God to do a work on you which would benefit you, He had to take some of you out of the crowd and get you by yourself where He can deal with you without your pretending or acting like your someone else. It is time to rip the mask off, stop pretending and be open and honest before God. God knows how to work with you until you become what He wants you to be. But you have to give yourself to Him to work with.
God has invested too much of Himself in you to let you be a normal, nominal Christian flowing along with the tide. Some of you have been struggling, trying to fit in and be accepted and in order to do that you have to become that groups norm. You've tried it and you found out that you had to change your walk, your talk, your beliefs, your mannerisms, in fact, you conformed to their ideas so much you lost your own identity.
But no matter how much you changed, you still didn't fit in. Some of the group put on a front around you but you knew that behind your back you were the topic of many conversations. Let me tell you, "The Lord didn't intend for you to fit in!" He didn't save you to be just one of the group. He doesn't want you to be in a clique, and He doesn't you in the club. He called you out that He might call you in, into His presence, and so His presence could be manifested in you! Praise is the way.
Your hard times, your difficult circumstances are for a reason. They are meant to knock the props out from under you. They are meant to leave you in such a way, where you have been incapacitated to such a degree, where you've been through so much that you say, "God I cannot do anything without you, I have come to the place of admitting I don't know anything, I don't understand anything, I need you for without you I am nothing.
God wants to bring you to a place of total surrender. And you will never reach a place of total surrender until you realize that you can do nothing in and of yourself. You need to come through an experience so powerful, that you won't be able to afford to sit in a dry service. You have no desire to impress somebody. You have no desire to go through a religious routine. You need to express your emotions and cry out loud, "All I want is you Jesus."
You have held on to the Lord through the storm and rain. You have been shouting through the tears and praising God in the problem, praising your way through the storm. God is about to raise you up.
God doesn't want you to bring a dead, cold, rigormortis- ridden, inflamed, deteriorating, dry mouthed, don't-want-to-be- here praise! He is not the God of dead sacrifices. He wants you to bring a lively hallelujah. He wants you to express a living faith in Jesus now! He wants you to bring a quivering glory to God and lay it on the altar. Nobody can do it for you. You have to do it for yourself.
Say, "here I come Lord. I am hurting but I am coming. I am wounded but I am coming. I need a stronger anointing than most folks because in myself I am nothing. I am going to receive it now Lord as I praise you, thank you Jesus, praise your holy name.
Praise will bring the victory!
God desires to move in a fresh way in praise and worship in the body of Christ today. We do not have to partake of yesterday's leftovers, but we can experience a fresh move, fresh manna from the throne of God. The Church needs revival: enough of the six foot icicles moaning and groaning and messing around in the pulpit; no more singing yesterday's songs about tomorrow's blessings.
The doorway into the supernatural is praise and worship coming from a holy, yielded, praying, righteous, word obeying people.
Praise is one of the greatest weapons at our disposal. It is a two-edged sword on the lips of the army of God. Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." When we choose to praise we choose life. Praise brings life. Complaining leads to compromise, compromise leads to corruption, corruption leads to collapse.
Praise, on the other hand, builds faith, in fact, it is the language of faith. Faith leads to miracles, and miracles glorify God.
The words that we speak must be faith-filled words in order for it to be true praise unto God. Praise will take us from where we are to where we ought to be. Praise looks with the eye of faith, beyond the present circumstances to the desired end.
People, you must understand that praise and worship goes beyond the praise and worship service at a building on a Sunday. What about praise and worship in the home, in the work place? Our lives ought to be praise and worship unto God.
Every time I open my mouth, I have two options, I can complain about my situations and my problems or I can praise my way out of them.
Praise and worship are vitally connected to our daily walk. Praise will tell of God's works and deeds.
David said, "O magnify the Lord with me..." Ps. 34:3). What this means is that as we focus our attention on God, we will begin to see more of Him. We will begin to see more of the intricate details and the intimate characteristics of God. We will begin to see more of who God is and what He wants to be in our lives.
Praising and magnifying God every day will always bring victory. Two people can be in the same circumstance of life, yet one will receive victory and one will not. The one who does not choose to praise and magnify God will be overcome by his problems and trials. The one who magnifies God will see God become bigger and bigger in his life.
Magnifying God on a daily basis allows God to become so big in our lives that when trouble comes it cannot stay. The more we allow God to fill our lives, the less room there is for us to act in a negative way during trying circumstances.
David said, "I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth" (Ps. 34:1). David realized that the battle he faced yesterday was not the battle he was going to face tomorrow. I have the victory now, but I don't know what I will face tomorrow, I will encourage myself in the Lord today and praise Him in preparation for tomorrow.
Many times, we are walking along in life and all is well, until sudden tragedy strikes. A lot of times we react no different than the people of the world. "Please God, take care of this. Lord help me out of this situation. Oh I praise you God, You are a God who cares.
We have neglected to lay a foundation of praise in the good times, but we want God to respond right now anyway. But God wants to take up residence in a house that is constantly flowing in worship and praise. If we live a life of praise every day, we won't have to call Him in the time of trouble, He will already be there!
To many Christians curse the problems of today, not realizing that the problems may be a result of the seeds planted yesterday. They do not magnify God on a daily basis; therefore, they do not experience daily victories. But God wants us to live in total victory, every day.
God will be as great in our lives as our praise allows. Praise, the language of faith will describe and honor His awesome work in our lives. Praise will talk the Word of God. Praise will talk victory. Praise will cause you to act victorious. We can determine our destiny through praise. The devil gets a lot of credit for what we produce with our own words. He can only respond to what we say--he can't respond to what we think. That is why "death and life are in the power of the tongue..." (Prov. 18:21). That is why we need to check up on what we are saying.
It is good to check up on ourselves from time to time. It is good to sit down and ask ourselves, "Why am I not experiencing victory in this area of my life? What have I been saying, am I talking negative words of doubt? Am I acting like God doesn't care? Am I blaming God for my problems?
We must purpose in our heart that every time we open our mouth, praise will come out. We can make the decision to let praise flow from our mouths...and watch the power of God go to work in our lives.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise you the Lord.
EXAMPLES OF METHODS OF PRAISE IN SCRIPTURE
Using the mouth to praise:
Rev. 19:1 Ps. 98:1 Ps. 138:2 Ps. 96:8 Ps. 35:18 1 Cor. 14:15 Ps. 103:20 Ps. 34:3 Eph. 5:19 Rev. 7:10 Ps. 126:2 Ps. 107:32 Ps. 107:22 Ps. 98:4 Ps. 5:11 Ps. 32:11 Ps. 30:1 Ps. 71:8
Using the hands in praise:
Lifting the hands: Ps. 63:4 Ps. 119:48 Ps. 134:2 Ps. 141:2
Clapping the hands: Ps. 47:1 Ps. 98:1 Isa. 58:12
Playing musical instruments: Ps. 33:2 Ps. 57:8 Ps. 144:9 Ps. 147:7 Ps. 150:3-5
Using posture or motion of the body in praise:
Dancing: Ps. 30:11 Ps. 149:3 Ps. 150:4 2 Sam. 6:14 Lk. 10:21
Walking and leaping: Acts 3:8 2 Sam. 6:16
Standing: Ps. 135:2 Ps. 134:1
Bowing and kneeling: Ps. 95:6 Eph. 3:14
Scriptures concerning praise in the congregation: Ps. 22:22 Ps. 22:25 Ps. 111:1 Ps. 149:1 1 Chr. 29:20 2 Chr. 29:28 Ps. 35:18 Ps. 26:12 Ps. 68:26 1 Peter 2:9
PRAISE YE THE LORD!
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