Tag Archives: praise

Psalm 51

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There are several precious verses in this psalm that I have committed to memory over the years. Somehow knowing David wrote this after his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, his grief over facing his sin, speaks to me.

VERSE 7: Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

As someone who grew up in Ohio I know how white snow can be. When the sun shines on the sparkling flakes covering the ground, it’s so white it hurts the eyes. You look across a snow-covered field and all you see is pure, glistening white. Whatever lies beneath is completely covered. There is nothing whiter than new fallen snow shimmering in the sun. I want to be like that it God’s eyes.

Hyssop reminds us of the salvation of Israel when it was used to put blood on the doorposts of their homes before the exodus. The salvation of God makes us as clean and pure as new-fallen snow in the sunlight.

VERSE 10; Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

I pray this verse on my way to church on Sundays. I want my worship of God to come from a clean heart, my spirit steadfastly focused on Him so that my worship is acceptable to Him and brings Him joy.

VERSE 12: Restore to me the joy of my salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

On days when I am discouraged or feel over-whelmed, I pray this verse. It’s on those days I realize I’ve lost the joy of knowing my sins are forgiven. And losing that joy opens the door for discouragement and the overwhelming feelings I experience. Often, the hardest part of this verse to pray is the “grant me a willing spirit” part. Praying that means I have to let go of the discouragement and negative thoughts and feelings, and allow God to sustain me. It’s the “not my will” kind of prayer I find difficult to pray sometimes. But I pray this verse, and God always restores the joy.

VERSE 17: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

When during a time of worship I find myself thinking about whether or not to raise my hands, clap, or smile, I remind myself of this verse. God looks on my heart. And I want my heart to be broken because of sin, repentant and humble, knowing that is worship He will not despise.

Finally, VERSE 15: O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

May this be true in my life every day. May I be quick to praise the Lord. He deserves nothing less!

Exactly What You Need

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Job 11-14

Who can blame Job for having a pity party? The man had been handed an incredibly hard pill to swallow. He was sad. He was sick. He had questions. But here’s what I think we can learn from Job’s example: the longer the pity party is allowed to continue, the deeper into despair you go.

Job thought about the unfairness of it all, his personal loss, the fact that he was totally alone in this consumed him. Now, in just a few chapters we will see he realizes the harm in that. But right now, the man is about as low as a man can be.

Some of you may be going through Job-like circumstances. No one is telling you not to be sad. Jesus wept when Lazarus died. No one is telling you not to question. Jesus, on the cross, asked, “Why?” However, we as Christians don’t have to stay in the sad or uncertainty.

We, like Paul, can learn to be content in whatever circumstances we find ourselves because we can trust God who does all things well, who works things out for the good for those of us who love Him.

Whatever it is that is bringing you down, the state of the world, the state of the Church, your home, your physical body, whatever it is, you can confidently surrender it to God. When you do HIs peace, peace the world cannot understand, will guard your hearts and minds now in your present circumstances and right into eternity.

When Christians are the worry-warts, the Debbie Downers, the frightened and paranoid, Satan wins! What kind of witness can you be if the only thing you’re focused on is you? How can you share God’s grace when you only talk about how bad things are? How can you express the joy of the Lord when you ignore the joy-giving Presence of God?

No matter what you are going through, God is still telling you to go and make disciples. No matter how tough life is for you, God is still telling you to be a light.

Do you remember Paul and Silas? They, bruised and bleeding and chained to prison walls, sang praises to God at midnight. And what happened? The foundation of the prison crumbled, their chains fell off, and they were free!

When we choose to fix our eyes on Jesus, God can shake the prison walls of our circumstances, break the chains that bind us to depression and anxiety or self-pity, and set us free.

Is it midnight, so to speak? Are you in the middle of hardship and loss? Have your pity party if you must. But please don’t stay there. Take your eyes off the prison walls and chains, and look into the eyes of Jesus, your advocate, your strength, a present help in times of trouble, your Savior who loves you!

He’s there. He’s listening. And He is exactly what you need.

Choose Praise

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Psalms

So many psalms are about hardships, enemies and battles, unfair treatment and sickness. But what I find is that most of the time these same psalms have a word of praise, too.

Some remember what God has done in the past, and praise Him for His goodness. Some remember who God is and praise Him because He deserves it. Some praise God for His faithfulness, even if they don’t understand Him.

We may look at our world, the evil, the insanity, the danger, and pray to God that He will intervene, defeat Satan in our midst. I hope we are praying! But let’s not forget an important aspect of our prayers: praise!

Don’t wait until the storm is over, praise God in the rain. Don’t wait until evil is defeated, praise God in the battle. Don’t wait until your loved one is healed, or your wayward child is home, or you are recognized, appreciated, and treated fairly. Praise God today. Praise Him all day, tomorrow, every day. Let you relationship with God be adorned with praise.

We can focus on the negative or we can focus on the Lord and praise Him for who is He and what He is doing. You have a choice today. I pray you will choose praise.

True Worship

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Isaiah 1:1-19

What is worship God accepts? It’s not just ceremony or sacrifices. It’s not parades, gifts, or pious meetings. It’s not even lifted hands.

True worship can only come from clean hearts. No matter what form worship takes in your church or in your home or car, God will not even pay attention if your heart is harboring sin. Clap your hands, jump up and down, work up a sweat, or shed some tears. None of it matters unless your heart is right with our Holy God.

Isaiah begins his book talking about the rebellion of God’s people. And then he tells us what God thinks about their acts of worship. God is sick of it. He gets no pleasure from it. In fact God says He hates their worship celebrations. Their worship has become a burden God wants nothing to do with.

Then Isaiah tells us what God requires from those who want to worship Him:

Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.
“Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.” (16-19)

Let’s not make the mistake of thinking we can go into a worship service like we are attending a concert or ballgame. Let’s not make the mistake of thinking we ought to get something out of worship. It’s not about us.

Let us go into worship, whether in our closet or in the sanctuary of our local churches, with clean hearts, sober-minded with fear and trembling before a Holy God who demands holiness of any one who worships Him. I think God is very clear to say that before we sing the first note of any praise song, we had better have sincerely prayed:

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence; and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation; and uphold me with a willing spirit.” (Psalm 51:11-12)

Then and only then, will your expression of worship be acceptable to God. True worship, worship He demands, comes from holy people.

(Psalms 146-150) Praise and Worship

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The final psalms center around worship, the how’s and why’s of it. My take-away is that worship must come from our hearts as well as our minds, and praising God must be the natural outpouring of receiving His grace. Worship must focus on God and should not be used to make us feel good, or spiritual, or blessed. Our praise should not have to be choreographed, but should be God-inspired and led.

Why? Because our Holy God demands we put aside our selves and worship Him for who He is and what He has done. I think we sing “I” too many times in our Sunday morning praise songs these days.

These psalms remind me that we can – and should – worship God from surrendered hearts all the time, not just on Sunday morning. The creation compels us to worship the Creator!

In fact, Warren Wiersbe, in his “Be Exultant” commentary, (David C. Cook, publisher; 2004; page 218) said something that hit me. “Without the private worship, we are but hypocrites at public worship.”

How do you balance emotion and intellect when you worship and praise God? I’m not sure worship that is all emotion pleases God any more than worship devoid of emotion. But how do you meld the two into praise and worship that pleases God?

I believe, after looking more closely at the psalms these last few weeks, that if we are truly focused on God in our worship of Him, if our hearts are clean, our sins confessed and forgiven, our wills surrendered to Him, and if we use our minds to consider God’s character, His Presence, His faithfulness in the past, etc., our praise will flow naturally and freely. Our worship will be a perfect balance of emotion and intellect.

God alone is worthy of our careful and purposeful worship, and not just one day a week. God deserves our heartfelt praise because He is worthy.

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord. Hallelujah! (Psalm 150:6)

(Psalm 103) True Praise

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“True praise comes from a grateful heart that sincerely wants to glorify and please the Lord.” (Be Exultant; Warren Wiersbe; David C Cook Publisher, 2004; p 55)

Psalm 103 is a psalm of praise. It’s not about show. Its’ not about what a worshiper likes about worship. And it’s not about having a worship experience. Its’ about God.

True praise has nothing to do with what a person does with his hands, or whether or not he’s smiling. True praise has everything to do with clean hearts, surrendered lives, a holy people unto the Lord.

Read Psalm 103. You won’t find one “I” in the whole thing.

I recently heard someone say it should be fun to praise God. I question the “should.” Do we worship to feel good? I don’t think that’s worship. Do we praise so that our hearts soar and we are blessed? I don’t think that’s praising God. Do we organize our time of praise so that it’s fun? If that’s our goal, if that has any part of why we praise, we’ve missed the boat entirely. We can get all that going to ballgame.

We may feel all those things: joy, blessing, hearts soaring as a result of true praise. Or we may feel convicted, sorrowful, humbled while praising God. But none of those things should drive our worship.

Our reason for praising God is because He is worthy of praise. Our reason for worshiping God is because He alone is worthy of our worship.

Maybe we need to spend more time worrying about the condition of the hearts of people than how people look and feel when they praise the Lord. Maybe we need to concentrate more on being a holy people, than having fun while we worship.

September 12; Don’t Praise The Lord

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Zechariah 10-14

Are you careful about what kinds of things you attribute to God’s hand? I have seen people (and have occasionally been one) who are quick to say, “Praise the Lord,” and “God has blessed me,” when their actions bring into question whether or not God really did have a hand in it at all.

Like the shepherds God refers to through Zechariah in chapter 11. They were slaughtering their flocks for personal gain, and covering up their sin with, “Praise the Lord, I am rich!”

I hope you’ll read what God thought about that.

God does bless us, doesn’t He? And I hope you are quick to praise Him when he does. But always remember, God blesses obedience. Let’s not use Him to rationalize actions that don’t really honor Him. Let’s not try to justify sin with a, “Praise God.” He deserves better than that.

Besides, He will not turn a blind eye to any sin just because we give Him praise. Rather than using praise as a cover-up, just don’t praise the Lord. He knows when your praise is real.

June 18; Reason to Praise

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I Kings 1:1, 22:36-40; 2 Chronicles 19:1-11, 20:1-30; Psalms 46-48

When Jehoshaphat and the people praised God, amazing things happened. They were up against a formidable foe and didn’t know what to do except give it to God. And that’s exactly what needed to happen.

Sometimes we may find ourselves at a place where we don’t know what to do, either. I think we can take a lesson from Jehoshaphat: Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.

The psalms are full of reasons to praise God in every and all circumstances.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1)

For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise. (Psalm 47:7)

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. (Psalm 48:1a)

We have reason to praise just for the very fact that God is Who He says He is, that He is on the throne, He is good, our helper, our strength, our Savior. He alone deserves our praise.

April 11; Ebenezer (Not Scrooge)

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I Samuel 6-9

Do you remember what it was like the day you gave your heart to Jesus? Do you remember the relief, and that overwhelming sense of love? Can you recall the purity in your relationship with God, that precious gift of salvation that Jesus died to give you?

For some of us, that day has been decades ago. Some of us were saved as children, and our encounter with Jesus Christ kept us from living ungodly lifestyles. Some of us were saved later in life, and realize the pain that comes from living life without God. Either way, the choice to surrender to Jesus was a decision that changed our lives. Do you remember it?

Israel had won a victory over their enemy, and the Ark of God was finally home. They were saved, and God’s Presence was among them once again. Samuel didn’t want them to ever forget what God had done for them.

So he built an Ebenezer. He set up a stone to mark the spot, a reminder for generations to come about the salvation of the Lord. “Thus far has the Lord helped us,” he said in chapter 7.

It wasn’t something to worship. It was to remind them why they worshiped.

I sometimes wear a cross around my neck. I guess that could be an Ebenezer in that it reminds me what Jesus did for me on a cross. My nephew’s wife has a tattoo on her wrist that says, “Agape,” to remind her how God’s love changed her life.

An Ebenezer is a tangible reminder of God’s blessings, a way to go back and appreciate what God has done. What is that for me? Even now, as I sit here thinking about this passage, I find it hard to remember the day Jesus saved me. I don’t often think about that moment when my sins were washed away, when my Savior wrapped me up in His righteousness.

But maybe I should. Samuel thought it was important. God must think it’s important or He wouldn’t have inspired this passage to be included in His Word. So let me encourage all of us to consider putting up an Ebenezer to remind us what God has done for us, what He has saved us from, and how He has helped us get this far.

When was the last time you sang Robert Robinson’s hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing?” It’s been a while for me, so I looked up the lyrics. So powerful! Look at the second verse:

Here I raise my Ebenezer;

Here by Thy great help I’ve come.

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure

Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger

Wandering from the fold of God.

He, to rescue me from danger

Interposed His precious blood.

All four verses are so amazing. I hope you’ll take time to read then. It might take a bit of effort to understand the outdated phrases from the 1700’s, but it’s so worth it.

Let’s not forget what Jesus did and what He saved us from. Let’s raise our Ebenezer and praise His Name.

Psalms 96-101; Joy Unspeakable

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Have you ever experienced joy to the point you thought your heart would burst? The day you looked into the eyes of the love of your life and said, “I do”? Holding your newborn baby in your arms for the first time? Taking that dandelion from chubby fingers, stretched out to present you with their treasure? Receiving an “all clear” from your doctor? Watching a sunset?

What do you do with that joy? These psalms tell me that praising God is the steam value on a pressure cooker. Praise is a natural expression of heart-filling joy. If you read these psalms you’ll see dozens of reasons to praise God.

96:4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise…

97:1 The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.

97:9 For you, O Lord are the Most High over all the earth…

98:1 Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things…

But let’s be careful. The joy we receive is a result of God’s grace, His mercy and love. When we understand that, we can only respond like Ebenezer Scrooge did after spending the night hanging out with the spirits: “I don’t deserve to be so happy, I just can’t help it.”

Because true happiness, real joy comes from a right relationship through the precious blood of Jesus. Knowing your sins are forgiven, having fellowship with God can bring joy unspeakable. But let’s not make joy or happiness our goal. If we do, we are worshiping idols.

Praise God for who He is. Worship God because He deserves it. Recognize how blessed you are, and tell Him so. Let Him know how blown away you are at the thought of Him. Then experience that indescribable joy that does not come from things or circumstances. That indescribable, unspeakable joy is God Himself.