Message topic: How should we praise God?
Scripture text: Psalm 104:1-7
We will first have to understand the meaning of praise, and then decide which god do we intend to give praise to, the true All Mighty God, the creator of heaven and earth, or the many manmade gods.
I do believe that you like myself do want to know how should we give praise to the God of the universe who came to earth in the form of a man to redeem us back to himself when we disobeyed His command and could no longer stand in His presence.
We know that praise is to express a warm approval or admiration to someone: but we who love the Lord the All Mighty have fallen short in giving the praise and honor He deserve, so we ask Christ our redeemer to teach us the way: show me thy ways, O Lord teach me thy path. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. Psalm 25: 4-5.
We know that praise is the express and warm approval or admiration of someone: praise is to express one’s respect and gratitude towards a deity, we praise God for past blessings: praise is the expression of respect and worship to God.
Why do we need to praise God? When we praise God, it lifts our spirit, praise helps us to sense the presence of God, praise enlarge our perception of God; praise reveals solutions we can’t see until we talk to Him, praise help us to remember God’s blessings. I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth
Do you have a desire to praise God? Has God ever given us any idea of an abiding place in our bodies for Him to abide? According to His words, God makes His home in his people: the blood cleansed heart is his permanent dwelling. when did God begin to abide in us? He did so when we first gave our heart to Jesus.
The bible speaks of God’s Spirit living in the hearts of believers such as in Romans 5:5 where it states that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
The prophet Ezekiel in 36;26 tells us that when believers in Jesus give their hearts to Jesus, He will give us new spirits, He will take away the stoney heart out of our flesh, and will give us a heart of flesh: He will then put His Spirit within us and cause you to walk in His statutes so that we will be like Him.
We will be given a heart without envy, a heart without hate, a heart without anger, pride, a heart which never seeks revenge, and void of selfishness, then we will know that we can enter God’s presence with praise that He will accept.
Let us remember the words of our Redeemer Christ Jesus, I will not share my glory with anyone, so if the evil one has the smallest inch of space in our heart, our Redeemer will not abide there.
Let us not forget that the same method that God set aside for worshiping Him in the old times is the same method He has for us today. One of the men of old who praised and worship God was David, and praise was a central part of worshiping God.
In 1st. Chronicles 23: 1-5 we find David giving praise to God during the rebuilding of the temple: when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord.
He is good, his love toward Israel endures forever; and all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. (Ezra 2;10-11)
We praise the Lord for His grand plan of salvation, and Christian unity helps encourage praise: accept one another, then just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant to the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and moreover, that the gentiles might glory God for his mercy.
In Ephesians 1: Paul writes, praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ; he proceeds to give many reasons to praise the Lord who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Reasons for praising God includes God’s election and sanctification, his forgiveness, His gifts of wisdom and understanding and His plan for the future.
When our lives are filled with the righteousness of Christ, it rebounds to the praise of the Lord. Paul says This is my prayer that your love abound more and more in the knowledge of Christ.
We find these words for us in Psalm 117: 1-2, praise the Lord, all you nations, extol him, all you people, for great is His love towards us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praising the Lord is certainly something all people should do. So what exactly does it means to praise the Lord?
There are multiple words in Hebrew and Greek translated as praise, in our English Bible, to praise is to express adoration or approval. WE praise the Lord for His traits, His works, and His character; praise includes the acts of blessing, commending, honoring, thanking, celebrating, and rejoicing. We praise the Lord because He is worthy of all our praise, he is worthy of all adoration and approval.
When David brought the ark of the covenant from Obed-Edom’s house back to Jerusalem, he appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to extol, thank, and praise the Lord, the God of Israel: they want to give praise to the Lord, proclaim His name, make known among the nations what He has done.
Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all His wonderful acts, remember the wonders He has done, His miracles, and the judgements He pronounced, He remembers His covenant forever, the promise He made, for a thousand generations: sing to the Lord all the earth, proclaim His salvation day after day, declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples.
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise, He is to be feared above all gods, ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength, ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before Him. worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.
Why should we praise the Lord? We see several important aspect of praising God in David’s instructions. Our praise for God helps makes Him known among the nations: in praising God we extol His goodness to others, praising the Lord involves remembering the things He has done for mankind.
We praise God for His miracles as well as for His judgements, His mercy and His justice are both deserving of praise; praising the Lord also involves remembering His faithfulness and His promises, we praise Him that He will keep all the promises He has made to us.
We praise the Lord that His love is everlasting. All people everywhere, should see that God is worthy of praise, based on who He is. Even nature is called upon to praise the Lord and proclaim that He reigns.
We will call upon God for salvation because only He can rescue us, and our response to His deliverance is to praise Him. God is to be praised from everlasting to everlasting; praising the Lord is not a one-time event but something we should do continually.