O Clap Your Hands, All Peoples - Psalm 47 - Message On The Psalms Of Korah Series

O CLAP YOUR HANDS, ALL PEOPLES - PSALM 47 MESSAGE ON THE PSALMS OF KORAH

Psalm 47 For the choir director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

Psa. 47 v 1 O Clap your hands, all peoples. Shout to God with the voice of joy,

You can’t clap your hands before God or shout to God with a joyful voice unless it is genuine. So much in Christian circles is sham and confusion. Sham means it is pretend, or just going through the motions, to please husband or wife, or if you like, just fulfilling your Christian duty. Confusion is because the bible is downgraded and not treated as it should be – the personal, accurate, and inspired word of God. For too many people in churches, the bible is an addition, not the singular fundamental foundation of faith. And as for praising and worshipping God, I don’t like it much of the time when someone says, “Let’s worship God by singing such and such,” when “such and such” is often a song saying what we are doing for God. That is not worship. It is only elevating the human being. The psalmist is thinking of the power and magnificence of God and bursts out in praise and worship, but also he encourages the people to join in.

There is a distinct difference between praise and worship, not always made clear because the two words are often run together. It is another subject so that won’t be covered today.

There are so many factors that underlie what genuine thankfulness and praise, or worship, is. Firstly, the heart or the life must be right. That means there is to be no known sin or a sinful practice in a believer’s life. You can’t have hot and cold water issuing from the same tap at the same time. If your tap is running hot, good, you can praise God, but if it is running cold, then don’t pretend. Get before God and make it right. All of us can fall into habits that are not worthwhile for God. We can even be caught up in sin. Those things make us weak spiritually, and dishonour our Saviour who loved us. “Let a man examine himself” (means, “let us examine ourselves”) from 1Corinthians ch 11, was in reference to the Lord’s Table, but it is a must at all times in our lives.

There is nothing like sin to take joy and gladness away. Confess our sins, for the Lord is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That was the road King David travelled. After his great sin, we have recorded in Psalm 51, David’s Prayer. One verse from there is this one, Psalm 51 v 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. For 9 months David had been miserable because of unconfessed sin, but in Psalm 51, he got right with God. Adultery and murder is not outside the boundary of God’s forgiveness, even for a child of God.

Joy comes from a joyful heart and praise comes from a praising heart. Being sad, even miserable, having sorrow through suffering, is not sinful. We are going to look into that tomorrow in the letter to the church at Smyrna. The disciples were really sad after the crucifixion, maybe miserable and dejected, but when they saw the Lord, it says they were glad. Nehemiah had a sad face and was despondent because the walls of Jerusalem were so ruined, and even King Ataxerxes noticed it.

There is one aspect that can not be neglected when it comes to praise to the Lord. Do you know what it is? Let me state it this way, “How can you praise and worship someone you don’t know very well?” Knowing Jesus is what it is all about. How do you do that? Well, it is the bible of course. When you learn more of the Lord and His work, His character, His attributes, then your heart will want to overflow with praise and gratitude and thankfulness and joy. The greatest hymns of praise and thankfulness, were written by those who had the joy of the Lord as their strength. They were men and women of the word. We will close this section with a New Testament quote - Romans 15 v 9 “and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy as it is written, “Therefore I will give praise to You among the Gentiles, and I will sing to Your name.” Rom 15:10 Again he says, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people,” Rom 15:11 and again, “Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise Him,”

There is a New Testament verse that has what seems to be strange wording. I will give that verse in context - Hebrews 13 v 12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. (Reproach and rejection. Jesus was put out, unwanted and despised). Heb 13:13 Hence, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach, (The Christian will share that rejection and reproach and despising of the world, for the world wants nothing to do with God, or with God’s people. There are many camps – false religion, intellectualism, philosophy, humanism, liberalism, just to name a few.) Hebrews 13:14 for here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. (This is a whole new perspective. The world is earth-centred whereas Christians are heavenly-centred. We look forward to treasures not of this world). Hebrews 13:15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name, (Just note that verse 15 fits with “outside the gate” and “outside the camp”. Christians are the despised and rejected ones, but they are qualified to offer up the sacrifice of praise.