Sermon for 7/29/2007
Psalm 150- A Praise Primer
Introduction:
Two newspapers now in town.
WBTU:
Journalists are trained to answer 5 W’s and an H when reporting on an event.
Thesis: Let’s answer the What, Where, Who, Why, When and How of Psalm 150!
For instances:
1. What? (Is Praise; Psalm 150)
A. Praise is an expression of appreciation.
B. We praise something or someone that we honor and prize highly!
B. This praise is not to be a one time thing. Kind of like a woman who asks her husband why he doesn’t tell her that he loves her. To which he responds, “Well I told you I love you when we got married and if anything changes I’ll let you know.”
C. Praise requires action. We may think the thing is wonderful but it is not praise until we express it. When we express it through words or actions then it becomes praise.
2. Who? (Praise the Lord, God, Him)
A. These verses show us that praise is not self centered but God centered.
B. How many actually go to the church to praise God? Somebody said that some people go to church to eye the clothes, and others to close their eyes. I wonder how many go to church for the purpose of praising and worshipping God!
C. We are self centered. Praising God takes our eyes off of ourselves and places our thoughts and words and actions upon God.
D. These commands eliminate several errors.
1. Worship of other gods. Isaiah 44:8- there is no other Rock; I know not one.
2. An arrogant opinion of ourselves because of two things:
a. Superiority over created life
b. Exalted opinion of ourselves because we are God’s chosen people.
E. God wants none worshiped but Himself. God apparently created man for the purpose that man would praise God.
E. God is a jealous God. Deuteronomy 6:14-15- Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.
3. Why? Psalm 150:2
A. God is to be praised because of who he is and what he has done.
B. Two things from this verse:
1. His acts of power
a. He is the creator
b. He is the redeemer.
2. His surpassing greatness.
a. He is omnipresent- All present at all times and places
b. He is omniscient- All knowing
c. He is omnipotent- All powerful
d. God is great and God is good, let us thank him for our food.
e. God is the greatest is what is really being said here. Mohammed Ali is not the greatest, God is!
C. God is the only one always worthy of praise!
4. When?
A. Always.
B. More specifically there are two times to praise the Lord. 1) When we feel like it. 2) When we don’t feel like it.
C. We are to praise God for:
1. Things in the past
2. Things in the present
3. Things in the future
D. Steven Curtis Chapman- When I’m playing with my children as they’re running off to school; when I kiss my wife good morning just to say I still love you; When I’m feeling loved and happy; when I’m feeling all alone; when I’m failing to remember all the love that I’ve been shown. Every single beat of my heart is another new place to start to know that this is a moment made for worshipping, cause this is a moment I’m alive. And this is a moment I was made to sing, a song of living sacrifice. For every moment that I live and breathe, this is a moment made for worshipping.
5. Where? Psalm 150:1
A. In his mighty heavens, highest heaven or just atmosphere is debated- anywhere
B. In his sanctuary.
1. To the Jewish mind this would have been the temple.
2. Of course in our day we are the temple of God. We can worship alone just as good or better than with others. Now wait a minute!
3. Hebrews 10:25- Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another- and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
4. Matthew 18:20- For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.
5. Acts 20:7- Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them.
C. I invited my neighbor to church and he said, "I’m too righteous to go to any church around here."
D. 1 John 4:20- IF anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
E. Our praise and worship here is a rehearsal of what we will be doing in heaven (highest heaven). Revelation has some pictures of the church in heaven as a great multitude that stand with the angels before God’s throne to praise him.
F. What we do here is a rehearsal for the greater praise we will give to God in the magnificent cathedral of Heaven itself.
6. How? Psalm 150:3-5
A. Many ways but these verses mention musical instruments.
B. Of course, when we have instruments this leads us to also include singing.
C. In George Sweeting’s book, Psalms of the Heart, it tells of two missionaries John and Elaine Beekman. These two were called to missionary work among the Chol Indians of southern Mexico. Sweeting reports that they rode mules and traveled by dugout canoes to reach this tribe. They labored 25 years with others to translate the New Testament into the language of the Chol Indians. Today the Chol church is doing well. What’s interesting is that when the Beekman’s came, the Chol Indians didn’t know how to sing. With the coming of the gospel, however, the Christians in the tribe became known as “the singers.” “They love to sing now,” Sweeting commented, “because they have something to sing about.”
D. When a Jewish person studied Psalm 150 they would have thought of the temple. That is where the best music was. It should be the same way in the church.
B. There is a school of thought that says that in the New Testament age we should just be using voices. Not going to debate this however, King David would have a problem with this thought.
C. If he were to be brought into our age, King David would be leading the song service. King David had a section of Levites devoted to musical instruments and singing. King David and his son Solomon were the main songwriters. King David could lead the instruments as well as the singers.
E. I think David would have a problem if we told him that he would have to put down his harp and sing with his mouth. Psalm 150 mentions 7 different instruments.
E. King David would have also have a problem because in many churches he would be told, “Only the good old songs will be played and sung here.” Let me say that if this was the case in the time of King David we would not have the book of Psalms.
F. Psalm 33:3- Sing to him (God) a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.
G. As we look at every revival in the history of Christianity we see that every revival was accompanied by new music.
H. Three pieces of advice as we think about this:
1. Be open minded. God loves variety.
2. Be tolerant. Romans 15:7- Accept one another, just as Christ accepted you.
3. What is God’s favorite music? Bluegrass? Country? Rock and Roll? Rap? Contemporary? Southern Gospel? God’s favorite music is anything that brings honor and glory to Jesus Christ.
Conclusion and invitation:
One more answer we need: By whom is God to be praised?
Only one creature in God’s creation that has a choice to praise Him.
One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Romans 1:21- For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
