One of the things that distinguishes the people of God from all others is praise.
We who have been born again, filled and baptized with the Spirit posses a burning and blazing desire to praise the Lord. Praise is an instinctive behavior for the true child of God; the true child of God has a severe and critical case of intensive and instinctive praise. Every morning it’s thank you Lord, during the day it’s nobody but you Lord, In the evening it glory to your name and every night It’s thank you for another days Journey. Praise is an innate and instinctive part of fiber and fabric of the genetic construction of a true child of God.
As we travel up and down the dangerous high and byways we constantly find ourselves sing songs with lyrics like nobody but you Lord, Nobody but you! We find ourselves constantly praising him for life, health and strength. We praise Him for family, friends and even foes. We praise Him for our Mountains, and His mercies. We praise him
for our troubles and His triumphs, for Ups and Downs. We praise Him inspite of tricks, traps and life’s mishaps!
Not only is praise innately instinctive and intensively, praise is also perpetual and progressive in the life of an authentic believer. In order words the more we praise Him the better it get’s to us and thereby we praise Him more and more.
(Tell your neighbor the more I praise HIM the better it gets)
See we all can recall those moments when nobody else was around and tears start to run down our faces, joy bells flooded our soul like sea billows rolling and deep from within the residence of our most inner being comes the utterance of praise. We praise him because praise is innately and instinctively a part of who we are once we come into awareness of who God is, and the awesomeness of HIS gift to us. When we truly realize who HE is and what HE has done there is born in us a burning and yearning deep within that to celebrate the awe of HIS presence, and power.
Why We Praise Him!
Transition:
Let us probe a little deeper! Critical and key to our understanding of why we Praise Him is the premise that we must first understand what Praise is. Understanding what praise is will usher us into a deeper understanding why we praise Him. The English word praise originally meant “to set a price on” or “to appraise”. From this came the idea that praise meant to commend the worth of someone or something. So then praise is the celebration of the worthiness of God. Praise is therefore the product of appraisal, meaning that there has been an assessment of the value and because of the high value I have move from appraisal (checking out) to praise (celebration). Praise comes when come into knowledge about God’s power, and personhood. Let’s see if we can put another way, praise is the response we have when we come to know who God really is. When we come to know him for ourselves, and find out that He is al we need and then some. (Tell your neighbor He Is All You Need and Then Some) we can’t help but praise Him.
Praise comes when I find out for myself that he is bread when I am hunger.
Praise comes when I find out for myself that he is a friend when I am friendless.
Praise therefore is a profoundly personal experience.
Body:
Let us taxi onto the runway of this text. There are two major views about this text Psalm 30. The first holds that the occasion of this Psalm is that of dedication of the temple and the other holds that it is a psalm reflective of the events of 2 Sam 24 where David has messed up and God wipes out a large segment of the populace. We don’t really know which it is for the bible is silent yet we know conclusively that the context of Psalm 30 is recovery, and restoration that results in David’s praise of God.
Let us probe the passage and see what nuggets we can find.
David says I will extol thee, the phrase I will means in the Hebrew to think (meditate deeply) and then resolve. This phrase speaks of the Agreement, and unification of the inward man working in harmony with the outward man. This phrase I will speaks conclusively and harmoniously about the totality of our inner man, it speaks to the union of our hearts, minds, spirits and physical frame.
I will is a phrase that speaks about all of me. I may, I might and I should leave cracks and creaves for doubt, and speculation to sneak in, but I will slams the door emphatically with a kind of dogmatic emphasis. I will says I though about, but I have come to full resolve and now I have no reservations, hesitations or procrastinations about the matter.
I will is a phrase that speaks about our feelings, focus, and faith and shaking hands at the table of collaboration and mutual agreement. Unlike the double minded man in James whom is pulled one way by his mind and another way by his heart. James says the double minded man is like a wave on the ocean pushed to and fro by every wind, whim, wish and want.
David says I am rock solid, no heckle and no jeckle hear in schisms, no splits, and me I have full resolved to extol thee.
I submit that at the center of every messy marriage, at the center of every chaotic and confusion filled church, rebellious teen, and community dispute is an I will problem.
If you want know what got Lucifer in trouble it was an I will problem.
If you want to know what messed up the happy harmonious marriage of Mr. Adam and Ms. Eve it was an I will problem.
Point # 1. Why We Praise Him! Praise is the results of deep meditation about who God is.
We thought about, we weighted and pondered the matter (deep meditation) and concluded that from the rising and the going down of the Sun His name is worthy to be praise.
We thought about, we analyzed and even itemized and concluded that he has been better to us than we have been to ourselves. So our feelings, focus, faith and frames have all been factored into our resolve that he is on time God yes He is.
The songwriter said, “when I think about the goodness of Jesus and all He has done for me my soul cries out.
We praise Him because we thought about it (deep meditation)
And we came to the realization that He is the same yesterday today and forever more.
Praise is the results of deep mediation about who God is.
I hope with this message to encourage each of us to stop and consider the awesomeness of God, that we like the psalmist in psalms 19 will come to comprehend the presence and power of God all around us. I pray we will stop and see God’s majesty in the changing of the seasons. I pray that we will see HIS majesty in the greenness of the grass, the blueness of sky, the blackness of the night, the wetness of the water, the bitterness of the a lemon, and sweetness of sugar! I pray we see HIS majesty in the mightiness of the mountains, and the artistic beauty and dept of signature in the swerves and curves of the valleys. Better yet I pray that we stop and consider what He has done our lives, how he saved our soul and made us whole. I am confident that when we do this it will bring to bare and give birth to a spirit of praise in us. Now I think we can understand in measure why the psalmist declared “Let the redeem of the Lord say so”. I want to challenge you this week, to try this at home! Shut the door, turn off the television, get alone with God and meditate on who He is and consider all of HIS blessings he has provided and see if this will not cause us praise HIM.
The word extols means to raise or to lift up and make a loud noise.
David says that when I meditated on who God was I resolved to lift him.
As Christians we should be mindful of the fact that the Goal of Satan is to Defeat Us and Frustrate Us so as to shut us up and eliminate our Praise and Testimony. He wants to make a mockery of us and of our God.
I will extol Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast lifted me up,
and hast not let my enemies rejoice over me.”
Point #002 We Praise Him for His deliverance from our pit problems. Thus, we can exalt or extol God only when we realize that he is the source or cause of our being raised up from the depths of our pits.
The psalmist says that another reason for his praise is his awareness that God has raised him up.” The Hebrew word used is the same as that used to draw a bucket up from a well or a pit.
The psalmist is saying that he lifts God because God has lifted him. Trapped and deep in a hole like water in a well the psalmist says God reach way down and lifted him up and out of his crises and condition. When we realize that we were in a hole with no help in sight and God pulled us out we begin to praise Him.
We all have some pits, financial pits, workplace pits, relationships pits, substance abuse pits, self esteem pits, Some of us are in the pit of pity part, others the pit of blame and cover-up.
Point #003. We Praise Him for His deliverance from our people problems.
Someone has said there is nothing wrong with the world it simply is the people in the world. David says he praises God because He has not allowed his enemies to rejoice or get the victory over you. A real enemy never sleeps they plot, plan, scheme and dream ways to bring you down. They are not happy unless you are said, the love to hear you are struggling and love to see you crying. David says I praise God for his deliverance for His deliverance form his people problems.
Your enemies want to overwhelm and obliterate you, thank be to God He does not leave us at the mercy of those who would hurt and harm us. The Hebrew word for enemies means one who hates.
Close:
We praise HIM because He has been doctor when we were sick. We praise HIM because has been a Lawyer when we were in trouble, and HE has been mother for the motherless and farther for the fatherless. We praise HIM because HE has been shelter from the rain, and medicine for our pain. We praise HIM because HE has been a rope of hope when we were sinking in the seas of sadness and sorrow. We praise Him because when we had fallen and couldn’t get it, HE came where we were and put His loving arms all around us and lifted us from the mulk and mire of sin.
Now let us join with David in Psalms 40 and say:
I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclinded unto me and heard my cry.
He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God…
