Today I want us to analyze a very important aspect of our Christian life that is oftentimes overlooked, or not given too much attention to. I say that it is something that is oftentimes overlooked or not paid attention to because the majority of all believers only take care of this aspect of their life once per week, or simply don’t take care at all. The reason why many do not take care of this aspect of their life is because of the attitude they have developed in their hearts. As many say, the attitude you develop is 99% of the battle. In all reality there is a great truth in this way of thinking, I say this because our attitude or disposition in the majority of cases can be the difference between having a good day, or a miserable day. Our attitude or disposition about things can be the difference between having a good marriage and one full of pain and suffering. Our attitude or disposition can be the difference between living a happy and harmonious life in our home, and a life filled with misery and suffering, even though we might be surrounded by those who love us. A negative attitude will completely stop us, or make us indifferent about this aspect of our Christian life. What aspect of our life have I been talking about? I am speaking about our worship life. This is an aspect that many pay very little attention to, but just because it may be ignored or undervalued, it does not mean that it is unimportant. The praise and worship part of our Christian life is of the utmost importance because it helps us develop a deeper relationship with God, and in the words we find the hope, joy, and comfort that we all seek. This is why today we will be studying about this important aspect of our Christian life. With this in mind, let’s now examine one of the psalms.
Psalms 27:1-6 - The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 2When the wicked came against me. To eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. 3Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident. 4One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD, all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple. 5For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle; He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock. 6And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.
This psalm was written by King David, someone who had ample experience regarding the conflicts and dangers that being an anointed person of God could produce. I say this because when we take the time to study the bible, we quickly find that David’s life was in danger from the moment he defeated Goliath in the battle field. This is something that is very well reflected in 1 Samuel 18:8-9 when we read “Then Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him; and he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?” 9So Saul eyed David from that day forward.” After his victory over Goliath, his fame and reputation grew in such a way, that the people loved him more than the king. Needless to say that this made the king furious; this is why the king attempted to kill David on more than one occasion. Because these attempts were made on his life, David was forced to flee and hide to save his life on more than one occasion. This is something that is very well reflected in 1 Samuel 19:11-12 when we read “Saul also sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and to kill him in the morning. And Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” 12So Michal let David down through a window. And he went and fled and escaped.” From this moment on, the king’s persecution was without ceasing. This persecution eventually forced David to flee the country in order to save his life, an action that is very well reflected in 1 Samuel 27:1 when we read “And David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand.” But David’s hardships don’t stop here because after having endured all of this, and after assuming his rightful position as king, his own son made him flee to save his life. This is something that is clearly documented in 2 Samuel 15:14 when we read “So David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee, or we shall not escape from Absalom. Make haste to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly and bring disaster upon us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”
I am sure that many of you may already be asking yourselves that question: why do we have to know all of this? These small details in the life of this man are worthy of notice because they reveal to us two very important things. Number one, they serve to illustrate the constant danger that surrounds us daily; number two, they reveal the attitude that we must adopt when those moments of hardship arise, especially when it appears that the whole world is against us. Let’s continue now with our study to see if what I say makes any sense.
The first thing that we see here is that David said: “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 2When the wicked came against me. To eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. 3Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident.” Although we can’t precisely pin point the exact moment in history when this psalm was written, one thing that is very evident here is that in this point in time, David was about to confront a powerful enemy. If we do a quick contrast between what is happening here and our life today, I do not think that it will be very difficult to determine that a great parallel exists. It’s not that we are about to initiate a physical battle against an army, but as I have said in numerous occasions, we are all in a constant battle against an enemy that we can not see, but that is very real. And just as in David’s case, this enemy seeks to evict us from the land, that is to say, it seeks to separate us from God’s kingdom and kill us. Now, I want to make a brief pause and clear something up. Our enemy can not kill us physically, only God has that power. This is something that is very clearly stated in Revelations 1:17-18 when we read “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. 18I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” But our enemy will attempt to kill our spiritual life, and he will do it by planting thoughts of rebellion, pride, and vanity. This is why in Proverbs 21:4 we are told “A haughty look, a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked are sin.” From these first verses of this psalm that we are studying today we can appreciate the imminent danger that confronted David, and we also see reflected the constant danger that surrounds us on a daily basis. But now we must ask ourselves, how was David able, and how will we be able to maintain a winning attitude at all times?
The answer to our question is found in the next few verses when we read “One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD, all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple. 5For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle; He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock. 6And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.” How was David able and how can we maintain a winning attitude? He was able to do it and we will be able to do it by developing a worshipping attitude. In Hebrews 13:15 we find that we are told “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” The key word here is “continually.” This means that we must praise and worship God even though everything appears to be going bad. We must praise and worship God, even though everything may appear to be destroyed. We must praise and worship God even when everything around us appears to crumble. Praise His name! This is an attitude that David declares very clearly en Psalms 34:1 when we read “I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Why must we have this attitude? This must be our attitude because the reality of it all is that God dwells in the praises of His people. Look at how this is very clearly stated in Psalms 22:3 when we read “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel” (KJV). Do you find yourself in a place of desperation? Praise Him and you will see the desperation vanish. Do you think that your situation or your problems have no solution? Praise Him and you will see them resolved. Do you find that you have been rejected or alienated because of His name? Then praise Him and you will see His infinite power. Praise Him and remember His words to you as we find in John 16:33 when we read “These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
We have to develop a life of praise and worship. We have to praise and worship Him in all situations and all circumstances. We can’t allow anything or any one to stop us. As I said, our enemy will attempt to stop us from developing or asserting this aspect of our Christian life. Our enemy will attempt to stop us from opening our mouths to praise God, and he will do it by seeding thoughts like: you don’t know how to sing; you can’t sing; they are all going to laugh at you; you sound ridiculous; you don’t need to sing out loud; you don’t need to open your mouth. But if these thoughts reach our mind, we must immediately remember what we find in Romans 10:10 when we read “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” And the words of our Lord in Mark 8:38 when we read “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” If these thoughts begin to arrive in our mind let’s recognize them immediately for what they are, they are thoughts that only seek to defeat us, and stop us from developing a closer relationship with God. They seek to do this because our enemy knows that a life of praise will develop a closer relationship with our Father. In 2 Corinthians 3:17 we find that we are told “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” It doesn’t matter how long we may have been battling, or how difficult the situation may appear, if we want to receive the victory, we have to praise and worship His name. Why is it so important to worship God? It is important for two reasons; number one, it is the only sacrifice that God asks us to do; number two, when we praise God especially in those times when all appears to be lost, we are in fact demonstrating our absolute trust in Him. Tell the person next to you, praise God!
But don’t think for a second that to praise God all you need to do is open your mouth and allow your voice to be heard. This of course is the physical act that takes place when we sing, but this is not what God is seeking. Praising God is much more than just opening our mouths to allow joyful and well elaborated and arranged words to come out to the beat of the music. To praise God correctly and the way that He wants, we have to do it with our heart. Look at how this is very clearly stated in John 4:23 when we read “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” Let’s always remember that God hears and is pleased when His people worship Him from the heart, and that we will never be able to deceive Him. We will never be able to deceive Him because He looks deep within our heart and He knows our every thought and attitude. Look carefully at how this is very well reflected in Matthew 15:8 when we read “These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.” God accepts and seeks our worship and praise when we do it with a heart that is sincere and completely surrendered to Him, but He will reject all songs or devotionals that are done solely with the purpose of keeping up appearances. This is something that is very clearly illustrated in Amos 5:23 when we read “Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.”
Unfortunately the praise and worship life of many suffers greatly. It suffers greatly because many have adopted negative attitudes; many have allowed the circumstances that surround them to influence the way they think and act. But if when you reflect in your life you discover that this has happened or it is about to happen, remember that the world has nothing to offer you, but that “The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” We are not fighting against a physical army, but as I said before, we do battle against temptation, the pressures of this life, and the principalities that seek to separate us from God’s presence. From David’s history we learn that he had to traverse some very difficult times during his life. The danger remained a constant for most of his life, but there was also something else that remained a constant and this something was his love and devotion to God. Although David was not perfect, his love and devotion to God caused God to see him in a very special way. Look carefully at how God saw David when we read Acts 13:22 which states “And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all My will.” When we study the bible we find that God has not recognized any one in this fashion; here God recognized David as “a man after My own heart.” Why did David obtain this distinction? David obtained this distinction because the joy of feeling the presence of God excelled in his heart at all times. David obtained this distinction because he never stopped trusting God, and praised Him at all times.
In conclusion. Through his life David felt the presence of God, and I tell you today that you can also experience His presence right now. To feel it all you have to do is open your heart and surrender to Him. I ask you now; can you lift up your hands to praise Him? Can you lift up your voice and shout halleluiah? Can you lift up your voice and with a shout of jubilee and say, halleluiah to the Lamb of God? Don’t allow anything to stop you from praising God. Praise God at all times and you will see His glory and infinite power manifested in your life. We must praise and worship God in every situation or circumstance. It does not matter how long we might have been fighting, it does not matter how large or hopeless a situation may seem, we have to praise and bless His name always. Amidst all adversities David maintained his heart open and full of love for God. Let’s never forget that there is power in the praise of His name. Let’s never forget that God dwells in the praise of his people.
