Bless The Lord

BLESS THE LORD

Text: "Bless the Lord, 0 my soul"

Psalm 103:1-5

Once the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. There isn’t any record that they ever asked Him to teach them how to PRAISE -- Should they, He probably would had taught them Psalm 103

"Bless the Lord, 0 my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s" (Psalm 103:1-5).

That, my friend, is a manual for praise.

David remembers that God is the God of mercy and grace. "The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting ... unto children’s children; to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them" (Psalm 103:17,18).

This theme fills the presence of God. "Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion" (Psalm 139:20-22).

I. I must notice the direction - "within me."

1. Praise is not some spatter"-- vain repetition.

2. It is inwardness, a condition, a flow.

3. It is not something done from script, a form.

4. It is creative. It is personal.

II. It employs the outward-

1. a loud voice"-the "timbrel, harp, organ."

2. But they, and others, are only instruments

3. The Heart Originates Praise.

a. There must be spontaneity. There must be

desire. It is forever "all that is within me"

(Psalm 103:1).

b. No outward form can replace it-never!

III. That provides a common denominator.

1.You may not be able to play a trombone, a

trumpet, a violin, a flute.

2. You may not be able to sing tenor, baritone,

bass. But you can praise Him acceptably if

there is that "inwardness."

3. "Have you got a ’within,’ or are you

all ’outward’--all religious polish and luster?

Have you anything within? Are you a living

soul? Have you an inner man? Or have you only

taught your clever animal being to perform

highly interesting church tricks?"

IV. "All that is within"-what is it, what is that ALL?

1. It is reason, and the will, emotions,

conscience, memory, desires. Without

that "ALL" you are a carcass. They are the

issues of life.

2. They reach out after God as a babe toward

milk. Men submerge them in trespass, but never

silence them. They ache for reconciliation.

They are always turning from the foul and the

pigpen toward "righteousness, and peace, and

joy in the Holy Ghost" (Romans 14:17).

3. That is the canal of praise. "All that is

within me."

4. Your real world, sir, is within, not without.

It isn’t in the clamor and the flash of the

neon. It isn’t in the bell of the cash

register or the pride of a certificate. It

is "within!"

V. Bless His "holy name."

A.You experience a new world. It’s a world of

complete and sustaining miracle. And the avenue

of communication is praise.

1. You reach me by addressing my name. Likewise,

you reach source and supply by addressing His name

2. There is a world of deliverance in Jesus.

a.There is a kingdom that is not carnal. Address

yourself to such victory! He that made my eye,

shall He not see? He that made my ear, shall

He not hear? He that created my inward being

that loves and hates, that throbs and hungers,

shall there not be in Him such a heart.

b. Address yourself to Him. There is nothing hazy or

thinnish about it. It’s more real than you can

ever imagine. "Seek, and ye shall find" (Matthew

7:7)!

1. You ask, "How will I start to address myself

to Him?"

a. David advises, "Forget not all his

benefits" (Psalm 103:2).

2. Begin to thank him. The list will multiply. A

stream of praise will begin. It is so easy to

forget-to take His supply, His providences for

granted.

3. Stir your memory!

4. Think back upon the goodness of God to you!

Count your blessings!

5. Thanklessness is the most blatant of all human

errors.

6. Satan stops the testimony meeting before

anything else.

VI.The sinews that have grown flabby in most churches

are the former muscles of praise.

1.Remember—and start to praise HIM

2.Revival only comes to people who are willing to

PRAISE HIM!! Soon you are moving, breathing,

partaking in another world -the world of the