Oh, For A Thousand Tongues To Sing!

The title of this sermon is borrowed from the hymn written by Charles Wesley in1739. Charles had heard his friend Peter Bohler say:

“If I had a thousand tongues to sing, I would praise Christ with them all”.

Peter Bohler himself was quoting from the German hymn written by John Mentzner titled:

“O dass ich tausend zungen hatt”, which translated means “Oh that I had a thousand voices”. John Mentzner was inspired by the words in the Book of Revelation 5:11 which says:

“I heard the voices of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands”.

God certainly deserves our praise. He is our Creator, and we are the works of his hands. Our God, who created the universe, the sun, the moon and stars and even galaxies that we know nothing about, deserves our praise. The God that created the “ancients hills”, the highest mountains, the lowest valleys, the earth, the seas and “all that swim the paths of the seas” (Psalm 8: 8) deserve our praise.

Some people have said that even if all the hairs on our heads were tongues, they won't be enough to praise God. Yes, that is so true, especially since the average person has between 100,000 to 150,000 hairs on their head. Some have said that a million tongues won't be enough to praise God. The whole point is this:

“We can never out-praise God.”

All our best efforts can never be enough, but that does not mean that we shouldn’t try to do our best and praise him.

Why should we praise God? Well, because. God inhabits the praise of his people. Also, God deserves our praise.

The Bible says in Psalm 22:3

“Yet You are holy, You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.” NASB

Anytime that we are privileged to read about the vision of heaven in the Bible, we are always presented with God being constantly worshipped by legions and legions of angels.

In Isaiah 6:1-4:

“It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They were calling out to each other,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!”

Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.” NLT

Also, in Revelation 5:11-14:

“Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped. NIV

If the angels and all of God’s creation in heaven worship him day and night, then we his creations on earth should do the same. True, we may not be able to worship him for 24 hours as the angels do, yet we should be able to praise God anytime that we have the chance and opportunity to do so.

Take Christians for instance. They usually worship God on Sundays as part of their Church service. However, you find some people missing praise and worship on Sundays because they think that it is not essential. Some even say that they will get to church when they have finished praise and worship! That shouldn’t be so.

You see, the most. Important part of any church service is the praise and worship. That is the. Only thing thing that God gets out of the entire service. Once it is done, we move on to prayers and sermon. The only thing that God gets from us in such a service is our praise.

God will not eat our food and even if we prepare a banquet for him, he is not going to eat the food. He does not want our fine houses or fancy cars. The only thing he wants from us is the “fruit of our lips.”

That is the praise that he so richly deserves.

Interestingly, when we praise God, our praise releases more blessings. When praises go up, blessings come down. Some people even consider praise and worship to be more important than prayers. You see, you can ask amiss in prayer. However, you can never praise God amiss.