The Affirmation Of Praise

TEXT: (2 Chronicles 20:15-22), “And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s. To morrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the LORD, worshipping the LORD. And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with a loud voice on high. And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.”

God is a sovereign God. He has all authority, all power, all knowledge, and all control in this universe. There is nothing that escapes His attention. No event is too great, or too insignificant to avoid His scrutiny. From a supernova occurring a billion light years out in the cosmos, to a single hair that falls from your head, He knows all, sees all, and is in control of all.

God answers to no one but Himself. There is no one to whom He is accountable. There is no authority with which we He must consult. He has no equal, no counterpart, and not even an exact opposite. He is the only self-existing one. When men swear, they call upon something greater than themselves as a witness to their word. But (Hebrews 6:13), “…when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself. “

God does not make mistakes. (Psalms 18:30), “As for God, his way is perfect:” (Matthew 5:48), “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” He has all things in perfect control; His will is being carried out. Even when it appears that evil is triumphing, the reality is God’s ultimate plan is being consummated. Because all is in His control, and He makes no mistakes, God cannot be coerced. While it is true that intercession may cause God to show mercy, we cannot force God to act outside His will or His word. We cannot stockpile favor with God and so obligate Him to act on our behalf.

The scriptures enjoin us to pray, to study, and to fast. We are encouraged to worship, sing, and praise. Yet all the prayer, the studying, the fasting, the worshipping, the singing, and the praising will not move God from His sovereign purpose. There are those who would teach us to demand of God whatsoever we desired. Their “name it and claim it” theology has left many disillusioned and disappointed. Those who have bought their ideas and not received what they expected have been left feeling they had insufficient faith; or worse, that God was no longer in the miracle working business.

I preach to you this morning that neither statement is true. When we judge our faith solely on the results that we can quantify, we set ourselves up for much disappointment. Paul would have thought his faith was insufficient had he based his rational on his “thorn in the flesh”. He understood that his faith was not weak, even in the face of physical infirmity. He also understood that God is still a miracle worker! God is immutable. He does not change. There has never been a time when He could not transcend the laws of this natural realm to do a supernatural work. And if there never has been a time, there never will be a time when God cannot do the miraculous! (Malachi 3:6a), “For I am the LORD, I change not.”