Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.
Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.
For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. (Psalm 150:1-4)
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But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. (Psalm 22:3)
I am convinced, one of the most neglected aspects of our walk with God is praise. We work on having a prayer life. We work on having a good testimony. We emphasize adhering to Bible truth and learning the Scripture: all vital aspects of our Christianity. But we neglect this matter of praise. Our prayer life is dominated by petition. We ask for stuff; we ask for help; we ask for money; we ask, and ask and ask. Why do we ask God for something ten times, and thank Him once? I have thanked God many times for my salvation, yet I still feel I am not grateful enough; or at least, have not sufficiently expressed my gratitude. Truthfully, our praise life is just a important as our prayer life.
The reasons for this neglect are several. Primarily, it is laziness on our part. Prayer is work. Praise is even more work; and when we pray, we want to get down to business with God about what we want. Another reason is fear of false doctrine. Some religious movements, i.e. the Charismatic movement, or the "Praise and Worship" movement have distorted the view of certain doctrines, and we do not want to be cast as part of that crowd. I have been in church all my life, and in the ministry for over twenty years. My experience has been that most errant positions are a knee-jerk reaction to some other errant position. We never seem to be able to correct to center.
That having been said, I believe we Independent Baptists need to take another look at our praise life. Eighteen times in Scriptures, we see the phrase "Praise Him;" Twenty four times, the Bible says, "Praise ye the LORD." This is not simply a nice phrase to shout during a sermon; this is a Biblical command. We are commanded to praise the Lord.
Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD. (Psalm 150)
Praise Him for His mercy
Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. (Psalm 106:1)
"His mercy endureth for ever." That phrase appears 41 times in Scripture
Praise Him for His Grace
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)
Grace is God giving you something you do not deserve. Mercy is God not giving you something you do deserve.
Praise Him for His mighty acts.
Salvation
Deliverance from sin
Provision of wealth
Answered prayer
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness
Holiness
Biblical truth
Thanking Him for what He is, as well as what He does.
Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches,
and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. (Rev. 5:12)
Praise Him before prayer
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise:
be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
(Psalm 100:4)
We must have a revival of praise in our walk with God. It is a key objective to the Christian life.
Just a thought. Thank you for reading.
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