Title: God to be praised and praised
Contents
God to praise and praise
Text: Psalm 117:1-2 “Praise the Lord, all you nations; praise him, all you peoples: great is the Lord's mercy toward us, and his faithfulness endures forever. Hallelujah.”
God's purpose in creating human beings is to give praise to God (Isaiah 43:21). So, God is very interested in what kind of song we have in our mouths. And listen carefully to what the song says. If we sing 'obscenity', 'Dontaryeong', or 'hate' with our mouths, God will be sorry. On the other hand, if God listens and we praise Him and praise His work and grace, how much will He be moved?
I recently discovered a fact while working on a song related to praise. It is a 'self-diagnosis method' to diagnose one's own spiritual state. If you want to know your spiritual state right now, just look at the songs that are on your lips often these days. If you are lonely, loneliness will flow, and if you are desperate, pessimistic and sad songs will flow from your mouth. The same is true of our spiritual state. If you look at the praises that come up and down frequently in your mouth, you can immediately know your current spiritual state. If you are praising like 'there is no one who touches my heart like the Lord', you are in need of comfort and healing. Our mouth expresses what is in us. But what is even more surprising is the fact that if you change the song of your mouth, your condition also changes. If you want to change your spiritual state, you can change the praise of your lips. Because God loves singing, He will listen to the praise of our lips and will work as it is. Praise is a singing prayer and a confession of faith.
When we pray, we must first seek the kingdom of God and righteousness. (Matthew 6:33) The kingdom of God is where all things praise the Lord.
Verse 1 says, “Praise the Lord, all your nations and all peoples.” Let us pray that that day will come soon.
“All the earth will worship you and sing to you, and sing to your name” (Psalm 66:4).
“Praise our God, all peoples, and let his praise be heard” (Psalm 66:8).
“Let the nations praise you, O God, and let all the nations praise you” (Psalm 67:5).
1. Hallelujah Praise
'Hallelujah! Praise the Lord, my soul' (Psalm 146:1)
A hymn is not a song of the lips, it is a song of the soul. God is glorified, and because of that hymn, a change occurs in the soul, and the emotion becomes more abundant. A hymn is a spiritual song sung by my soul.
Praise is a confession of love for God, true worship, and prayer. Praise is a song that my soul sings to God, and it is a prayer. This is my sincere confession of exalting God, loving God, thanking God, delighting in God, and trusting God. It's not what my body calls, it's what my soul calls. This is the worship of my soul. It is a confession of love from a son to his father.
This Psalm is the shortest of the Psalms and the shortest chapter in the entire Bible. However, the content of the entire psalm is condensed. Jesus summarized the Bible and said, “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:35-40). If I had to describe the Bible in one word, I would say, “God is love.”
Also, the psalmist in the text is referring to the kingdom of the Messiah. It consists of two verses that mean that God will be glorified by two kinds of people, especially on the day of the Messiah. God is praising that God will be glorified by all nations and all peoples by calling Israel as his chosen people and saving even the Gentiles.
Just as these two verses are made up of one psalm, so they will be made up of one church.
2. A request for praise
“Sing to the LORD with a new song, sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, bless his name, proclaim his salvation daily; proclaim his glory among the people, and his wonders among the nations. Build it” (Psalm 96: 1-3)
The main message of the text and Psalm 96 is a call to praise the Lord to all nations. This is the psalmist with a global perspective calling on all to worship and bless the Lord and give Him the glory due to His name. The implication of this psalm is that God's people should go out into the world and proclaim God's sovereignty to all nations. This is the only way to get all nations to come to worship God. Here lies the noble purpose of evangelism. It is ultimately about allowing more worshipers to join the great choir of the crowds praising our Sovereign God.
The psalmist issues a worldwide convening order and invites all the earth to sing to the LORD. All creation should share in the praise of that name by offering a new song to God.
What is the goal and duty of the saints to believe in Jesus? I want the God I love to be the master of all the nations of the world, and I want all people to praise God. It is for the kingdom of God to extend from me to all of us. That is the way for me to become a ‘path of blessing’.
3. Content of praise
“The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in kindness and truth” (Exodus 34:6).
That was over 100 years ago when slow steamers were running from England to America. A young man on a boat bound for the United States couldn't buy food at a restaurant because he didn't have money, so he filled his meal with biscuits and cheese. On the last day of the trip, he was so hungry that he went to a restaurant and had a delicious meal. Then he said he was sorry that he had no money. Then the waiter asked me what you were talking about when the cost of the meal was already included in the wage you paid. The young man was able to travel while he was full, but he suffered so much because he did not know about it.
The lives of the saints are also meant to be lived by eating the food that God has prepared abundantly. Jesus told us not to worry about what we will eat or what we will wear. He says that God has already prepared them (Matthew 6:31). We should thank God for giving us our daily bread. Likewise, since God has prepared the spiritual food of the saints in advance, we have the privilege to eat it to our heart's content every day. Still, it is a pity if you do not enjoy that grace and live a miserable life with spiritual starvation.
“Give thanks to him who gives food to all flesh, for his lovingkindness endures forever” (Psalm 136:25).
Why should we praise God? The poet confesses that the love and truthfulness of the Lord to us is so great that we cannot fail to love and praise him. Truly, God not only grants us love, mercy, and mercy, but also is eternal in his justness and justice and truthfulness.
1) Great is the mercy of the LORD.
a. Kindness - It is the driving force that moves the saints toward God.
b. Great Mercy - If God's mercy is not great, how can the sin-stained people dare to stand before God who is clothed with justice?
2) Sincerity is everlasting.
a. Unveiled Truth - God's mercy is not a truth that hides or diminishes the truth.
b. Justice is with you - Indeed, God is merciful. But because he was kind, he was not kind to the point of giving up on his own justice. When justice is with him, he achieves true kindness.
c. To express God's unchanging and constant disposition with truth and to confess that this truth is eternal is what God's people should confess.
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good and his lovingkindness endures forever” (Psalm 107:1).
4. Realizing the object of praise and expansion
“Praise the Lord, all you nations, and all you peoples, praise him” (verse 1).
“From the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun, the name of the LORD will be praised” (Psalm 113:3).
“And praise the Lord, all nations; praise him, all peoples” (Romans 15:11).
The object of praise is only Jehovah. Jehovah is the name of God. It has the meaning of “I am who I am”. It is idolatry to praise something made that does not exist on its own. It is foolish to praise man-made things. Our duty is to praise God alone. Who, then, is to praise? First, it must be me, then you, and then all of us. Every human being should be praised. Everything that can be praised should praise God.
1) Old Testament - Israel - Even now, there are many people in Israel who have not escaped from Jewish bigotry.
2) New Testament (Jesus, Apostle) - Jerusalem, Rome, seven churches in Asia Minor, etc...
* Two objects of praise - Israel/ All countries
3) Expanding the object of praise - Israel -> All nations/ all peoples
4) Today - 12,000 people out of 22,000 people have heard the Gospel.
“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).
The thing the devils hate the most is singing. The sound of this hymn should come out loud and resonate from all corners of the earth today (Hebrews 13:15).
“Seven times a day I praise You because of Your righteous statutes” (Psalm 119:164).
We must not forget that we are saints living in the field where the invitation to praise has come true, and we must live as saints who praise God forever.
▣ Prayer: O Lord, who will be praised forever, may the day come soon when all nations and peoples praise You. May your love and longing for God overflow in my heart because your kindness is great and your faithfulness is everlasting, so that I may live a victorious life through ceaseless praise. We pray in the name of our Savior Jesus. Amen