Psalm 22:3
The Power of Praise
Praise gives us access to God. Sometimes people will say, “I feel that God is a million miles away and my prayers bounce right off of the ceiling.” Scriptures tell us to “Draw near to God and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8 KJV). How can we draw nigh to God? We can move toward God as we lift our voices in praise to Him. There is power in the act of praise. “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him and bless his name” (Psalm 100:4). We move toward God as we open our mouths to recognize him with our praises.
Psalm 22:3 says that “God inhabits the praises of Israel.” God lives in or dwells in the praises of his people. If he dwells in our praise and thanksgiving, we are not only drawing near to Him but He is drawing near to us. If the Lord is dwelling in the middle our praise, He certainly must be mindful of our our thoughts and prayers. Yes, he knows what is on our mind. Scripture says in I John 5:15 “and if we know He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” Zephaniah 3:17 says, “the Lord thy God is in midst of thee is mighty, he will save he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.”
Once we enter his courts with praise He is very aware of what is going on in our lives at the moment even when we feel dry as dust inside and feel that our prayers are not getting beyond the ceiling. Not all of our days are filled with sunshine. Sometimes troubles hit and we don’t feel the best in the world. This is where scripture tells us to “offer the sacrifice” of praise. What does that mean? We don’t always feel like praising the Lord in joyful singing. Sometimes we feel down and sometimes say we are depressed or hurting. This is when it take a sacrifice. Just what is a sacrifice? It is something that is not easy to give. It costs something, it take more effort than what we are willing to put forth, and it is an all uphill thing to do. So why bother? Surely God will understand. Yes, He might understand but he doesn’t want the enemy to get the best of us. Praise defeats the enemy that is why there are so many scriptures urging us to praise the Lord and to enter into His courts. We are too often slow to open our mouth and speak the first word. There is a chorus that says, “We bring the sacrifice of praise to the house of the Lord.” The subject of the sentence is we. We bring the sacrifice of praise. Too often we are waiting on God to do something when He is waiting on us to make the first move. He has already made the first move by all that Jesus did on the cross. He has provided liberally for our salvation, our healing, our provision as well as other things too numerous to count. Let us enter in. One preacher always opened the service by saying, “Enter in.” Do we miss out because we won’t enter in? Do we think it is too difficult to offer the sacrifice of praise? Sometimes we don’t know where to start or what to say because we haven’t been used to doing it. Think of something specific that the Lord has done for you and speak it out. “I praise you Lord for my job. I thank you for my health.” It may seem hard to get it out of your mouth. That’s the way a sacrifice is.
“We bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord, we bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. And we offer up to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and we offer up to you the sacrifice of joy.”
We bring—we offer.
Praise changes you as well as the atmosphere around yet. It lifts the down feeling that settle on you. Someone once said, “You have to make your own sunshine.” Praise to God has a way of moving the clouds out nd brings the sunshine in.
Romans 4:20 tells us that Abraham grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God.
Most versions say, “Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith giving lorry to God” or it says he “wavered not.’
The praise of Abraham kept him grounded in his faith and caused him to grow stronger. Would that we would use him as a pattern for our own life and let praises to God roll out of our lips.
The devil would like us to fight a needless battle today and when we are a little bit down and a little bit depressed, he continues to nip at our heals and bring us down a little bit more until we talk about how depressed we feel and how bad things are for us. We manufacture our own anxiety and distress when we could have turned things around and nipped things in the bud by offering the sacrifice of praise to God realizing He lives in our praises. He is there whether we feel Him or not. There is a song, “He was there all the time.” That means He is there all the time. He is there in the good days and in the bad days of our life. There is power in the praises of his people. Learn to thank and praise Him in advance for answered prayer. There is power in praise and thanksgiving
