Rev. Johnson V

11^th September 2011

The highest calling in our lives is simply this – to offer praise and worship to our Heavenly Father, every second, every day of our lives. Nothing else we do or achieve can compare to that. Our praises are like fragrant offerings to our God for He delights in us. He loves it when we delight in Him, and that’s what praise is, delighting in the One who gave us life.

Praise is the key to the Presence of our Heavenly Father. When we begin to praise, we draw His Presence to us. Of course, only true praise attracts Him – praise from the depths of our hearts and minds. Praise must be borne out of love and must be handled wisely.

Praise involves our decisions, our emotions and our actions.

Make a decision to praise – Praising God does not come naturally to us. We need to decide to praise God and follow through on our decision. In Psalm 108:1, the psalmist talks about how his heart is fixed on praising God, inspite of his situation. Let us set our hearts on praising Him, nothing else compares to drawing near to Him. We must learn to praise God in trying times, in good times, at all times.

Praising in a community - The Church is a beautiful place, and the best place, to learn to worship and praise. The Church is a community where one person’s worship can lead another to a deeper level of worship. Very often, when our spirits are down, someone else who is deep in worship can lift our spirits without doing or saying anything to us. Like the Psalmist in Psalm 22:22, we must love to be in the House and we must bring our best worship to God in His House. 

Worship and sin cannot co-exist – According to Psalm 33:1, the unrighteousness and those who are not upright will find it difficult to praise God. Praising God is a decision that only the righteous will make easily, but the unrighteous will struggle with. Sin and unrighteousness can block worship. But when we worship, it drives sin out of our lives. We are being delivered even as we sing and praise our God. The devil is allergic to worship.

Praise is an emotional response - When we begin to praise Him, our entire life is made joyful as the barren woman in Psalm 113:9.

We cannot praise God in silence – Praise is a noisy affair. Psalm 115:17 tells us that only the dead will not praise God. Speak to Him and tell Him whatever is in your heart.

Praise is an act of gratitude – The psalmist in Psalm 34:1 says that he will praise God at ‘all times’. Let us agree with the Psalmist that His praise will always be on our lips. Psalm 106:12 tells us that when they believed His words, they praised Him. When faith rises, praises will begin. The Word of God builds faith.

As thirsty as deer – In Psalm 42:1–4, the psalmist tells God that he loves Him, but his trouble has increased. So he decided to go back with the multitude to the House and pour out his heart to God. He compares himself to a thirsty deer. The deer is an animal that needs to quench its thirst as soon as it feels thirsty. When a deer is thirsty, it will run to the nearest water body. Leaving distractions aside, the deer has a single-minded focus. Another time that deer need water, is when it is being hunted. In water, the deer is able to hide its scent and thereby confuse its predators. Let us run with joy to His Presence. As it happened with Job in Job 1:20-21, His name is worthy of praise. When we praise Him, He turns what was meant to destroy us into something constructive for His glory.

God’s power and healing flows through us when we praise Him – As Psalm 22:3 states, God inhabits the praises of His people. ‘Inhabits’ literally means to sit on/to dwell on. Praising has to be from our heart. God will not respect anything else. If it is from our heart, it cannot be blocked. We must not praise Him in the hope of receiving a blessing. Psalm 103:1-3 and Jeremiah 17:14 says that our Lord Jesus will heal all our diseases. When we praise Him, God will dwell on our praises, change our life and heal us.