[0:00] Psalm 138, I've read it for you as you've heard. And then in our singing night, the theme has been about praising the Lord. And kids, let's try it one more time. One, two, three. Praise the Lord.
[0:11] All right, adults. One, two, three. Praise the Lord. Well, see, that's how it should be. We should be setting the example for the kids. And you are doing a good job on setting the example of praising the Lord. So from this passage, we want to admonish and challenge and encourage one another to the effect that we ought to praise our God.
[0:30] What does it look like? What should be the substance of our prayers? Where should it be directed? All these are questions that will be answered in this psalm. But I hope you can think of moments in your life.
[0:41] My greatest blessings in life was to be raised by a mom who praised the Lord. My wife gives me that your mama's boy look, and it's true. All right. But my mom, she taught me that praising the Lord had to do with seeing God more than circumstances, which means that there could be bad circumstances.
[0:58] And she would say, praise the Lord. And I would say, what do you mean, praise the Lord? Look at what's going on. Because she got a glimpse that God would take care of us. And I've shared with you before when her car caught on fire in my middle school parking lot, and I should have been so embarrassed.
[1:14] Our only vehicle was down. But she said, praise the Lord. Because she knew that God would take care of us. And it was a great gift. Adults in here, one of the greatest things we could pass down to our little ones is to teach them to praise the Lord.
[1:26] So this happens in our homes, in our conversations, in the music that we choose to listen to, and the things that we choose to put on our calendar, and the hard decisions we make where Jesus gets the priority of our lives.
[1:40] Scripture treats praise as a natural response of those who believe God in response to His person and actions. Straight from the Bible dictionary. If the praise is a natural response.
[1:52] You can think about Moses singing and seeing and being saved by God. And Abraham, after God preserves the life of His son Isaac or Noah off the boat, He builds the altar, all repraising or rejoicing in God's deliverance.
[2:06] His majesty and His greatness, we should respond. I tried to paraphrase it earlier, but I'll just leave it to Adrian Rogers, who said, Thanksgiving enjoys the gift. Praise enjoys the giver.
[2:17] It's not that one is better than the other. Bible calls for both, for praise and thanksgiving. But not just being thankful for what's been given to us, but for the one who gives praise to Him.
[2:29] It's commanded to us in Scripture. Old Testament, Psalm 68, 22, says that the Lord I will bring again from Bashan, and I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea.
[2:41] But 1 Peter 2, 9, I don't believe that's the right passage there. Somebody give me a passage here where the Lord commands praise in the Old Testament, because I didn't bring one with me, it looks like.
[2:56] Psalm 96, given to the Lord the glory that is due unto His name. That would be a command. That would be a better verse there.
[3:07] All right. If you're following along with notes, edit that one, if you will. 1 Peter 2, 9. But you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of Him who have called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
[3:24] Chosen generation, royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. Peculiar is a funny word, isn't it? Peculiar people. How many of you are like, hey, you're looking very peculiar today, all right?
[3:34] You probably wouldn't wear that outfit again if you took it to heart. It's not typically what you want, but distinct, set apart, holy as unto the Lord. These are all good words. And we show forth the praises of Him.
[3:46] That is the result of what He has done in our lives. We should show forth the praises of Him. And then at the end of time, Revelation 19, 5, And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great, for all eternity.
[4:06] I've shared with you before how I often wonder what songs that we may sing may last the test of time. Because we know Moses wrote a song that gets sung through all eternity. And who is to say that we might not be singing songs that we may sing for all eternity.
[4:21] Praise should belong to God. 1 Chronicles 16, 25, For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised is also to be feared above all gods. It's God alone deserves it. And Psalm 147 says, Praise ye, Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto God.
[4:36] It is pleasant, and praise is comely. It's not just for us, but it's also, it even makes God happy. It even, it's what He requests of us. It's what He desires.
[4:48] So why is it difficult? It's not very difficult right now. It wasn't very difficult for me as I was sitting there by Stephanie in our nicely air-conditioned auditorium. Can anybody say amen to that?
[4:59] Anybody say oh me? Oh me. Alright, some of you are too cold for that. And those girls were singing that song. That is the easiest environment in which it is to praise the Lord. The difficulty comes when, in recognizing God's goodness, is when we choose to redefine what good looks like in our lives.
[5:17] God never stops being good and worthy, but we cease to be grateful and willing to praise Him at times. Life happens. Trials, bad news. Life can just be hard. How many of you would say life can be hard?
[5:29] Anybody agree to that? It can be hard at times. It's almost like we weren't designed for this life the way it's made, right? It's as if God created it perfect without sin, and then sin entered it, and then we spend all of our lives agonizing, recognizing our need of it, and that a Redeemer will come someday, and it makes us look for His coming.
[5:49] So much can be happening. It can seem to stay mindful and present enough that it's hard to praise. In my life group today, which I've taken a switch with Stephen Cofield. He's been teaching the high school, and I've been in with his class, and we were just talking about how sometimes when you can't sleep, Uncle Sam taught us, if you can't sleep, just start praying, all right?
[6:11] Because when you start praying, the world, the flesh, and the devil, they're like, well, I'm done with you for the day. If you're going to be praying, I ain't going to fight you anymore, and you can go to rest. And I shared how there's been times in my life where I would try to see how busy my heart was.
[6:25] I tried to count backwards from 100, and I couldn't get the 90 before my brain just went off to thinking about something, and I thought, this is not the way I should live. And so, so much of my heart is mindful to want to praise Him because we're so preoccupied with smaller and lesser things.
[6:43] David, the psalmist here, he understands the challenge. David, he experienced some stuff in life. The death of friends, the death of children, sin that he had committed, and sin that had been committed towards him by his enemies and political leaders and personally towards him, not just as a leader of a nation, but individually.
[7:04] And despite all that he endured, he was able to say, I will praise and I will worship and I will sing. And I don't know what you may be going through or what battle, but you can say, I will praise Him. I will praise Thee with my whole heart is verse number one.
[7:17] Before the gods will I sing praise unto Thee. Psalm 138 verse one. I want you to read it here with me. Would you? Here we go. I will praise Thee with my whole heart.
[7:29] Before the gods will I sing praise unto Thee. So we're going to look here at the origins of prayer, praise, where and how praise begins, the object of our praise, where and to whom our praise belongs, and our obligation, why we should and what we should praise Him.
[7:45] Give three things in which we should praise Him for. For His truth towards us and how loving He is towards us and how He answers prayers. And all those are three wonderful reasons we ought to praise the Lord.
[7:58] But I would like for you to add to it as well when we end the night. Those are three reasons. But we, for all eternity, we will be able to praise Him, which means that we shouldn't be able to run out of it anytime soon.
[8:10] So here's the origins of prayer. Where and how does praise originate? I will praise with my whole heart before the gods. From the whole heart, I will praise Thee. I will shows up three times. Praise is something that can be done publicly, but in the origin, it's a personal here.
[8:25] Some cannot praise, but you and I must praise. We are told to praise the Lord. I will, it's a personal decision. The psalmist has resolved to praise God.
[8:36] And I will challenge you to do the same. So it's personal. I will praise Thee. You can't outsource it, alright? You can't say, I want God to be praised more, so I'm going to hire somebody to come to my house and do it for me.
[8:48] Now you can praise the Lord, but that would be, that would not be your praise. You, God deserves to hear from you in praising His name. And then with my whole heart, I will praise Thee.
[8:59] A decision, personal, private, here, is that with my whole heart. Notice after David's resolved to praise God personally, then he gives another aspect how he's going to praise with his heart.
[9:09] That's not the organ that's pumping in your heart, but it's the innermost man, the feelings, the thoughts, and our inward thought life, and who we truly are. The heart would contain the intellect, desires, emotion, affections, and the will of the person.
[9:25] Who we are on the deep heart level. And so David there, he commits that he is going to praise the Lord. And we should and could bring our hearts to the Lord.
[9:36] It tells us in Matthew 15 that if we praise the Lord and it's in vain, that it should, we can do it in a way that's vain. It says in Matthew 15, 8, These people draw nigh unto me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
[9:52] But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. You see that in verse 9? But in vain they do worship me. That there's a way in which we could do that.
[10:03] Today, Andrew, our beloved treasurer, told you, if you can't give cheerfully, then it would be better not to give. I would agree. But let's go ahead and just change our heart and keep giving.
[10:14] Alright? You can do both in a moment. You can make that decision. And that's what he was saying because it's a matter of the heart. And so, same here. There's a way in which we could worship that is empty.
[10:26] That's what vain means. And we should not do that. We're commanded to love the Lord with all of our heart. Matthew 22, 37. And Jesus said to them, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.
[10:39] This is the first and great commandment. And so, a loving heart will praise the Lord. And we should always, it should be reflected in the fact that we should always have a song upon our heart.
[10:51] In Ephesians, it tells us that we speak to one another in psalms and hymns and in spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. How many of you are really good singers in the shower but you wouldn't be very good here on the platform?
[11:07] Anybody like that? Maybe we can just get a shower, not turn it on or nothing. It's the acoustics, I think, maybe in the shower. But all of us ought to be, we ought to be singing. It shouldn't just be a small group of us.
[11:19] We should all make, sing to the Lord. So notice the condition here in our heart, that our heart should be brought to Him. In Psalm 147, He says, He heals a broken heart, He binds up wounds, so we can come to Him with a broken heart, tender, fearful, abused, whatever it is, we can come to Him and praise Him.
[11:36] There isn't a fixing up of ourselves before we come to God. Jesus said about the broken heart that the Lord in Isaiah, that His mission that's quoted in the New Testament is that He's come to preach good tidings to the meek, bind the brokenhearted.
[11:49] We should give our hearts to the Lord. When you don't feel like praising, when you feel like you're broken, is the time where it's very important that you would go to Him. So we see that praise is personal, it's private, but we also see that it is public.
[12:02] It says in verse 1, I will praise Thee, a will, decision, with my heart. How? It will come from the heart and private, inside of who we are and we'll do it before the gods.
[12:14] Will I praise Thee? And what are these gods that we should be praising God for? And so this word here can be used several different ways. Sometimes it's used of angels in Psalm chapter number 8, verse 5, or the idols of the nations or rulers and justices.
[12:31] All three groups of people it gets referenced. And any one of those, regardless, could be people that we'd praise the Lord for. Which leads me to believe that praise is something that shouldn't be confined just to this building or to one another.
[12:44] If we're going to praise the Lord before those groups of people, they're not coming here and so we need to do it throughout our lives. And those are also three areas that often get worshipped in themselves.
[12:56] Angels, idols, and the rulers of this world. And that is not to be the case. And so I remind you that the Lord is our provider, the best savior, and by design the best to be worshipped.
[13:08] And so we can turn from what we once were dependent on and we can trust the Lord. His praise should be personal, private, and at times public. And I just ask you where does it show up in your life?
[13:19] I ask myself where does it show up in my own life? And so now moving on here. David not only tells us that he's going to praise the Lord, but he tells us whom is the object of his praise.
[13:32] I'll praise thee with my whole heart before the gods I will praise unto thee. David is clearly praising the God of heaven. This may sound simple, but God is the best recipient, the only true recipient of our worship and praise.
[13:48] And so you notice it says there that it happens in verse number two that it should be happening. I will worship towards the holy temple. The temple wasn't built yet. He's referring to the tabernacle in Shiloh, God's place of worship.
[14:02] It had been central in the place of worship. His praise would be towards where God dwelt. Last Thursday night we're in Psalm 137 and it was talking about our affections and it said there that if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth and if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
[14:20] It wasn't speaking about geography but it was speaking about our hearts ought to be set towards wanting to praise the Lord at all times. So this is something that we are challenged to do as well.
[14:33] Colossians 1, 31 tells us, If then being risen with Christ, are you risen with Christ? Seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. So David also began to praise the name of our God and this is an example for us.
[14:48] We should make big about the name of the Lord, the church, his name, the name of Jesus. So David praises the word of God. Verse 2, I will worship towards the holy temple, praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
[15:04] We learn that God has magnified his word above his name. This is remarkable that he would say that. It's incredible that the regard he has for his own word. He holds his word in great esteem because it represents his character, his name.
[15:18] It would be as if God was saying, I value my integrity above everything else. Above everything else I want to be believed. This verse does not have to mean that God's other qualities move the second. It just means that it should be exalted and worshipped for who he is.
[15:33] In essence, God is faithful and true. He said what he is going to do and he does it. So we've seen where praise begins. We've seen where praise belongs. But now we're going to look at, lastly here, why we should praise.
[15:45] And this is not just some empty adoration. David meditates on some aspects of God and he gave him his spirit to praise. Verse number two, towards the temple, praise thy name for thy loving kindness.
[15:59] We can praise the Lord tonight for he is loving. We have a loving God. He was loving then and he's still loving today. How many of you, if you respond with praise the Lord, if you will, if you don't see, Brother Paul, I'm trying to make things interactive tonight, okay?
[16:14] I'm trying my very best. It doesn't help that I don't often ask y'all to respond and so when I do, you're not sure what I'm really asking. All right. How about if you agree with me, you respond with praise the Lord. We have a loving God.
[16:26] Praise the Lord. It's unanimous. All right. Is that the word for everybody? Yes, unanimous. All right, it's unanimous. We have a Lord who's worthy to praise because he is loving. We praise him for his love.
[16:38] He loves us and he loves you. 1 John 3.1 Behold, all you kids in here, listen, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.
[16:52] Therefore, the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. There's times in life where you feel, you feel what it means that the world doesn't know you and that you don't belong here and that you're an alien and you're a pilgrim and you're a stranger in this world and you're not known by it but you're known by him, the one that loves you Oh, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us.
[17:16] Our God is loving. Romans 5.8 But God commended his love towards us in that we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. He saw us completely in our sin, all sins we'd ever commit, all sins that we'd ever commit in the future and he chose to love us.
[17:34] While we were sinners, he died for us. We praise the Lord for he is loving. And then a verse, John 3.16. Kids in here, I'm going to give you a chance to redeem yourself. You've been a little bit quiet tonight and the competition between the adults and the kids.
[17:48] So let me give you one more shot. Y'all ready for this, Lexi, Junebug, Cofield? All right. John 3.16. All right. How many of you know this verse? You think you know this here? All right.
[17:58] There's three girls in the front row. That's great. Afterwards, ask them. They'll teach you. All right. John 3.16. Daddy, I bet you know this one, don't you, John 3.16? All right. Let's all say this together. Let's have all the kids say this by memory.
[18:11] All right. Ready? John 3.16. For? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish that have everlasting life.
[18:23] Fantastic. All right. Good job. There. And so God loved the world. He gave his Son. He demonstrated it. It stated he loves us and the greatest demonstration possible his only begotten Son.
[18:36] And if we believe in him, we should not perish, spend eternity with him. And we should never lose this fact. We should never get over it. We should still sing with a big smile on our face that Jesus loves me.
[18:49] So first off, we see we praise the Lord for his love. Verse number two, it says, for thy loving kindness and for thy truth. We praise him for his truth. We've made great emphasis on this here recently in the book of Titus.
[19:01] But the Lord possesses truth. In a world full of lies, God has truth. This truth does so much for us. We were saved by it. He is the way, the truth, and the life.
[19:12] And no man came to the Father but by him. And we live by it. Standing, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness. We praise the Lord because he is truthful.
[19:25] He is a God that does not lie. I have a new neighbor and his brother is named after one of the prophets of Islam who said on his deathbed that he does not know if he will get to enter heaven.
[19:40] It all depends if Allah will allow him. If Allah is having a bad day, then he will have no chance. So there's no assurance. What a horrible way to live life not knowing what your relationship is with your God.
[19:55] To be told to work really hard and then told that it may not be enough if the God is having a bad day when you go to meet him. And that is not what we have in our God. Steadfast and sure.
[20:07] He's full of truth. We praise the Lord because he answers prayer. Alright, I'm going to repeat these for you and you say praise the Lord. We can praise the Lord for his love. We can praise him for his truth.
[20:20] And we can praise the Lord because he answers prayer. How many of you will personally testify that you have seen God answer prayer? I mean, there's just nothing like it.
[20:33] There's just nothing like it. Today, Stephanie and I had lunch with some friends and we just, there's just so many things when you have people in your life that you pray for and you say, well, I'm going to pray for you but I'm also going to do something, right?
[20:47] Like somebody's dealing with something and you're like, well, I'm going to do something but because I'm a Baptist I'm also going to make a casserole. I'm going to pray and I'm going to make a casserole. And we really like making casserole because it's tangible, right?
[20:59] I did something. I do that. But there's just other things in life where you just say, if God doesn't do it, it will not be done and you just realize and you pray and then when it happens, you're like, God did that.
[21:11] That the God of heaven intervened. That he did. He's not far off. That he's right there. He hears us. Let's say it one more time. Let's say praise the Lord. We can praise the Lord because he answers prayer.
[21:24] Verse 3. In the day when I cried, thou answerest me and strengthen me with strength in my soul. Let me take a moment and take the pastor prerogative to flirt with my wife.
[21:36] All right? All right. I was trying to think of another word. I couldn't do it. But I didn't say, you need to hear this here. Here's an answer to the prayer. On the day that Luke Coffey was born in Autaquipa, Peru, I was a student there and they were taking pictures of Luke and they wanted to send the pictures to the Coffey.
[21:54] And I, so they gave me the digital camera they bought and they told me to run to their house and upload it to send it to the Coffey. And I uploaded the picture. It took like two hours. This was early 2000s.
[22:05] All right? It had no smartphone sending it. And I remember walking, when they gave me that job, I thought, this was about a year before I dated Stephanie, I thought, I'm going to marry Stephanie Coffield, my wife.
[22:17] That was her name at the time, okay? All right. And I said, all right, I'm going to marry Stephanie Coffield and I remember walking and praying and saying, God, I am not ready to marry anybody.
[22:30] I can't even, I probably didn't even have socks on. I'm like, I just knew I was a mess, okay? I'm like, I am not ready to marry but when the day comes, I want to marry her. And so I prayed away every guy for that next year.
[22:44] All right. I may have prayed and I might have made up rumors about her. Who knows? So, you know, but anyway, she was available when the time came and I was ready to be married. But it was an answer, the prayer.
[22:54] You know, something he asked. And as it's often said, you're at places in life where you look back and you'd say, this is the time in which I prayed for. And so on that day that many years ago, I thought, this kid's going to be a big part of my life.
[23:07] I want him to be a part of my life. And then on that wedding day, I thought, this is the day that you prayed for. And I love having a Christian family. It's just, so many of you here, you either had one and so you wanted to reproduce it or you didn't have one and you wanted it even more.
[23:23] But it's the great desire of our hearts. And so, I'm going to finish this last thought here and then I'm going to give you a moment and see. I've given you three things but maybe you can give us a couple more. Greg, would you mind grabbing a couple microphones and we'll see if there's anybody who wants to add to this list.
[23:38] People will add to the list. You can just say, I'd like to praise the Lord for him and tell us and then we will respond with praise the Lord. And so, we notice an important pattern in the reasons David gave praise.
[23:49] It's important to praise God for who he is even more than what he has done for us. God answered David's prayer when he cried out and our God really listens. 1 Peter 5, 7, casting all your care upon him and what does it say?
[24:03] For he careth for you. To friends that aren't saved, he will answer their prayer as well when it is for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
[24:14] He will hear and he will answer that prayer. Our God is so good, we have so much to praise him for and I challenge us to be people that praise him. Certainly when we gather on Sunday and Thursdays but not only, he's worthy of praise on Monday, Tuesday and every day of the week and let's all say praise the Lord and all God's people said praise the Lord.
[24:35] Alright, so I've given him three. He is loving and we praise the Lord for that. Our God is loving, praise the Lord. Our God is truthful, praise the Lord. And our God answers prayers. Praise the Lord.
[24:46] Well there's three. Let's get at least three more before we leave this place. I'm holding you hostage here. Alright, three more. Sam Wilson, alright, he'll find him.
[24:56] There's one. Who else will raise their hand? While the microphone breaks its way to Sam Wilson. Jeff Bush? Alright, yes sir. I want to praise the Lord because he's merciful no matter how many times I fall short and fall up.
[25:10] He still loves me and continues to do his work in me. Alright, all God's people said? Praise the Lord. Alright, Brother Jeff? I want to praise the Lord for my family. I thank the Lord for the kids and they grew up quick but I thank the Lord and enjoy my family very much.
[25:27] Alright, praise the Lord. Miss Shannon? Praise the Lord because he dwells with us and he dwells with even me. He's close. Amen.
[25:37] Praise the Lord. Yes, ma'am. If you'd like to just raise your hand. I want to praise the Lord because I specifically asked for something.
[25:51] We teach a little ditty like a little song before the Awana Games and I just want to praise the Lord because it's rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice and it is a joy. It is a joy.
[26:01] When Jesus says that your joy may be full. When you hear those little children just belting out rejoice in the Lord always and this past Thursday a couple of the little boys got it in their hearts.
[26:13] I shouldn't call them little. The guys got it in their hearts to just keep belting it out and then they did it through the halls of the church. They were just kept going. So anyway, praise the Lord for that. Yes.
[26:24] Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Alright. Praise. Anybody else? Kids? Yes, sir. In the upper room discourse Jesus said I call you my friends and I praise the Lord that he calls we're not his slaves we're not his low servants we are his friends.
[26:47] Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Alright. I got one back here. Who am I looking at? Hey, right. Oh, really? Straight down the middle.
[27:00] Praise the Lord. He's loving. He's good and he helps you bring things back into perspective. You know, as a parent you get real selfish with your kids and, you know, my kids being gone you get a little that's why I don't do this.
[27:24] He just reminded me that out of all the things they could be involved in that they're serving him and just he helps you bring things into perspective when you let him he's good he's loving.
[27:56] Alright. We'll say it so that Lydia hears it all the way in Taiwan. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh. Alright. Anybody else like the opportunity?
[28:07] Yes, sir. Mr. Bush the original prototype. I want to praise the Lord you're speaking on Psalms and so we do it with singing and he giveth and giveth and giveth again.
[28:22] Amen. That's where your son gets it from. He's the singing preacher you know. Alright. Alright. Well, why don't the ladies that sung get in the place and while you're getting in the place I'll give you a chance.
[28:37] I'd love to hear from a kid in here. Okay. You've heard the adults they've led the way in praising the Lord but you can praise the Lord as well and maybe one of you would like to say something to praise the Lord as they make their way and we'll sing with them.
[28:52] Guys in the back make sure you get the words to this song. We're going to need it and we can at least sing the chorus with them if you can't sing all the lyrics to it. Is there anybody in here one more child that might like to say something?
[29:06] Selah? Alright. Good. Alright. Let's see. Let me come up here Selah. Let me borrow this microphone. She'll be our last one and then we will stand and sing together. That I got baptized in friends.
[29:20] She was thankful she was recently baptized with her friends. And all God's people said praise the Lord. Alright. Alright.