Elevated Praise

Quotes:

"Fruitful and acceptable worship begins before it begins." -Alexander MacLaren

“Worship gatherings are not always spectacular, but they are always supernatural." -Matt Chandler

“An authentic life is the most personal form of worship." - Sarah Ban Breathnach.

“…Thou desirest truth in the inward parts…” –Psalm 51:6

"The integrity of the upright shall guide them..." Proverbs 11:3

"Thanksgiving with the Mouth Stirs Up Thankfulness in the Heart." -John Piper

Genesis 29:35 (Praise); 22:1-5 (Worship) –1st occurrence in KJV.

From these verses we can glean a better understanding of, and the difference between Praise & Worship as they tend to be used synonymously today.

PRAISE: The Hebrew word used in Genesis 29:35 is “Ya-dah” –a verb [action]- meaning to give thanks; to celebrate! Can also mean to “throw out” the hands; i.e. to lift the hands.

Judah in Hebrew is “Yeh-hu-da” meaning Praised.

God was praised for this 4th son and the tribe that would spring forth from him.

Praise is therefore giving thanks via the action of celebration.

WORSHIP: The Hebrew word used in Genesis 22:5 is “Sha-Cha” –a verb [action]- meaning to bow down, stoop down, fall down in surrendered obeisance’s.

Worship is therefore weighty matter of surrendered obedience.

When we Praise God, it is celebratory, making it very different from Worship; as Abraham called going to sacrifice his son, his only son WORSHIP!

Praise is Celebration and Worship is sacrifice.

Now that we have established a better understanding of Praise and Worship, let’s look more closely at Praise; and in-particular, Elevated Praise.

Frist, let’s define what is meant by Elevated Praise. Elevated Praise is praise that is elevated (lifted) pointed toward God and not ourselves or something else.

By considering Psalm 34:1 we can get a better picture of this.

Psalm 34:1 “I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

This Psalm of David was written about 1029 BCE after the events of I Samuel 21 where David faned himself mad before Achish king of Gath (called Abimelech, a common name for Philistine kings).

The Septuagint (LXX) declares that “David fell into an epileptic fit; that he frothed at the mouth, fell against the doorposts, and gave such unequivocal evidences of being subject to epileptic fits, and during the time his intellect became so much impaired that Acish dismissed him from his court.” –Clarke’s Commentary Volume III page 327.

*Note: This Psalm is the second Psalm written in Acrostic form.

Psalm 34:1 “I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

Let’s see what we learn from this verse:

First and foremost: ALL Praise belongs to God.

Why?

Because all things originate from God and therefore praise originates from God.

And Because God originated praise, it belongs to Him.

Elevated Praise has a unique property to it that causes it to lift us from this earthly realm into God’s very presence.

Elevated Praise also has a wonderful way of causing us to take our focus off our issues and the “me/myself & I” problems.

Elevated Praise builds our Faith on the Promises of God’s Word.

All of these benefits are directly related to and sourced from us “Decreasing and JESUS Increasing.” (See John 3:30).

Then with things is proper balance, we should praise God when…

When? The answer is really 2 times.

1) When we feel like it and 2) when we don’t.

In other words, we should CONTINUALLY (at all times) Praise God with our actions and our words.

Psalm 150:1-6 “1- Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. 2- Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. 3- Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. 4- Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. 5- Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. 6- Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.”