Give God Great Praise! - Charles R. Swindoll

one of the great blessings that God has given to DTS is first as a student then as a board member an alumnus who has continued to be faithful in ministry all of these years after being a board member was approached and tried to say no but God said yes and God called dr. swindle to be our fourth president here at DTS served us for a number of years and then started this little work out at Frisco as he likes to call it called Stonebriar Community Church continues with the ministry of insight for living but we on the campus especially are grateful that he's not only a colleague but he's a dear friend but he's our Chancellor he represents the Lord well and obviously when he does that he represents us well and I can't think of a better person introduce to you who our guests for this occasion than our Chancellor dr. Chuck Swindoll would you join me in welcoming him my greetings to you who are looking at the school your search is over it's always wonderful to be able to tell potential students that of course I don't know that to be true but I can still see it this is a marvelous place to get the training you need for the work of ministry it certainly is not the only place but it is a place that will mark your life for the rest of your years and of course the school is made up of faculty and curriculum a great library along with facilities and all that would be wrapped around that but at the core of it is a commitment to God's Word and I know you wouldn't be here if you didn't have that no school is more committed to it than that seminary and these women and men who sit on this platform a very intimidating presence for every preacher who comes to this pulpit are not desirous of being intimidating but they do desire very much to communicate and to influence those that they teach and we who have been taught by them live our lives full of gratitude so welcome take a good look and let God lead you and then obey obey what did I just say obey yes well I've come today to make a confession that I've not made before I've had a love affair going on for longer than I've known my wife it's it's with Thanksgiving now you can breathe easier this love affair goes back to when I was in the fourth grade and had a teacher named mrs. Harris at South maid Elementary School in Houston down south of here who stood before us that day before we were all excused for Thanksgiving and with tears in her eyes she talked to us briefly about the day that would come you see the previous June she had lost her husband on the shores of Normandy so that was her first Thanksgiving to celebrate as a widow so with tears running out of her eyes after she had led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and in a wonderful prayer which she did every day she taught us she said to all of us tomorrow is a day you children should remember you are to do what the holiday is named after and then without my knowing it she quoted a verse of scripture from the 13th of Hebrews by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name as she said remember this and I have remembered it all these years praises the root Thanksgiving is the fruit and she said now with tears really filling her eyes she said praise according to that which I've just quoted you sometimes comes from a sacrifice it is an offering to God and we tell our praise we say our praise and when it comes out it often comes in a stream of Thanksgiving I intend to do that on Thanksgiving Day less than two weeks away it is my all-time favorite holiday of the year you don't have to buy anything for anybody you don't have to climb up on your roof you don't have to sign a lot of cards you don't have to listen to jingle bells 2846 times in the grocery store you can just smell sit eat watch the Cowboys and sleep wonderful wonderful I love Thanksgiving I think it's the it's the epitome of what a holiday ought to be about the best part of it is it happens inside the place I love the most and that's my home and it's with the people I know the best and therefore my love for them is beyond measure and we can relax and we do but we always take time and the family always patiently listens as I tell them my story about mrs. Harris and how it changed my whole perspective and so today I come before you to do what she taught me to do five anonymous composers wrote the concluding hymns that fill the ancient Psalter interesting isn't it that Psalm 146 47 48 49 and 50 remain with no superscription just the title a psalm I love these five Psalms because they revolve around the same theme and it isn't easy or it isn't difficult to discover the theme because each of the five Psalms begins exactly and ends exactly the same way hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah from that verb that means to praise and the little abbreviation at the end representing Yahweh God you praise to God - praise to God praise God I know I know part of the reason that doesn't light your fire is that everything has praise connected with it now to the point where we've virtually cheapened it this isn't a new discovery it was way back in 1869 that charles haddon spurgeon lamented the overuse of the word he writes a vet in his treasury of david it is a saddening to remember how this majestic word has been trailed in the mire its irreverent use is an aggravated instance of taking the name of Jehovah our God in vain let us hope that it has been done in ignorance by the ruder sort but great responsibility lies with leaders who countenance and even copy this blasphemy with holy all right Spurgeon let us pronounce the word hallelujah and by its summon ourselves and all others to adore the god of the whole earth this Thanksgiving season give God praise great praise named him in your praise name his works in your praise name his word in your praise go through his characteristics as attributes in your praise let his praise fill your mind and heart and the psalms will help guide you through it just a little further word on the term that begins and ends the song which revolves around the whole idea of praise it conveys the idea of exciting excited boasting isn't that interesting praise is excited boasting now if I boasted about myself you could rightfully criticize me as an egotist if I boasted about my children I'd bore you if I boasted about my grandchildren I would thrill you but it wouldn't be like boasting about God that's appropriate anywhere anytime not just when things are well get praised to him an excited boasting it's a very special word use repeatedly ten times in the closing songs if your Bible is open to 146 let the souls written by the inspired composer guide you through thoughts of praise not just this day but in the days to come look at 146 hallelujah hallelujah all my soul it's not just something for someone else to read and do the psalmist says may I hear my own words may I do what I command of others the psalm will help you delineate areas of praise we praise God for his help in verse 5 our help is from the God of Jacob our hope is in the Lord our God says the psalmist verse 8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind the Lord raises up those bowed down those who are loved by him the Lord often heals not always Jeff and Stephanie are living three doors down from screams one afternoon as they were out in the backyard at a barbecue they raced to the neighbor's house to find a tragedy it happened the lifeless gray limp body of a three year old boy was pulled out of the pool shortly thereafter a helicopter arrived and lifted the boy to a medical center he was in a coma the parents are by now lost in grief Jeff and Stephanie are there and they're keeping the older daughter during the time of this time of grief only to discover the boy is going to be okay after being out for 15 to 20 minutes in the pool don't know about the salvation of this couple who happened to be Jeff and Stephanie's neighbor but I know that Jeff and Stephanie expressed words of praise for God's hand on that three-year-old boy what is interesting about praise is even if he had been taken may the name of God be praised praise isn't some kind of verbal rabbit's foot that turns all tragedies into triumphs praise comes at times the very bottom is dropped out of our lives I was interested in reading our own Ron Allen's excellent book on praise just this morning he writes I found it quite remarkable that the one who has done so much to recover the praise centeredness of the Psalms did so a while in the depths plus Westerman Klauss Westerman was interned in a German prison camp during the Second World War he had with him only Luther's translation of the New Testament and the Book of Psalms in his experience in a concentration camp westerman learned how to praise God I read that to Cynthia this morning as we had coffee together and I looked up and tears were running out of her eyes I've always loved that about her this tenderness she said I just longed to come to the place in my life where I can be that full of praise regardless when he heals and when he doesn't heal the psalmist says we praise him in 147 the praise continues in fact we're told it's good to sing praises to our God I encourage you to do that I know some of us don't have voices worth listening to we're not singing for others we're singing to God never had God step out of heaven and say you're about a half-step off he loves my praises sometime before I go to sleep I'll sing cynthia's usually relieved when the song is ended sometime she'll join in sometime when I awaken and I slip out of bed a little before she does and I go in there to the family room and I get in my soft chair I'll sing the song we sang today was the song I was saying this morning while King Neander wrote it he lived only 30 years in the 17th century but in those thirty years he wrote prays to the Lord the Almighty the king of creation how magnificent singing to the king of creation in fact it as you work your way through the psalm you have life's contingencies emerge verse three he heals the brokenhearted you have one of those he binds up the wounds you have one of those he's a god verse five of abundant strength are you weak losing hope beginning to be filled with doubt knees shard starting to shake the Lord supports the afflicted verse six tells us he says in verse seven once again sing your praises to the Lord we'll get to it in a moment but Psalm 150 revolves around the whole idea of instruments being used to praise him play those instruments for his praise but I turned fifty Cynthia gave me an instrument I hadn't had in my hands since I was 25 years old a tenor sax wonderful instruments so much better than a trumpet so much better than a trumpet you know the verse the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel with the saxophone of God it's in the Greek somewhere so I began to play having not played it for 25 years and our youngest son finally walked in and said to me dad what I'm giving God praise with this instrument he said you have got to be kidding some folks just don't appreciate great talent Psalm 148 is on the same theme and now we are lifted to the heavens and we get praise to the ones who fill the heavens with their presence do you know there are presence angels they have nothing else but the responsibility of filling the presence of the throne room and the praises reach to those Heights verse 2 all of the angels all of his hosts the planets the Sun the Moon the stars of light the highest heavens the waters that are above the heavens let them praise the name of the Lord then we come to the earth in verse 7 and earth creatures and earth conditions even down to creeping things and winged fowls and then we come to the people of the earth in verse 11 where all the peoples are in his mind from young men and virgins to old men and children let them praise the name of the Lord he ends again with a reference to the godly ones praised for all his Godley one pause for a moment and allow me think of the godly ones who have marked your life parents mentors teachers authors pastors missionaries laymen and women neighbor grandparent on Thanksgiving Day give God praise for the godly ones he even reserves a song for the death of the godly ones as the Lord brackets them with the word precious in the sight of the Lord or the death is the death of his godly ones give him praise for those who have whetted your appetite for godliness they are the ones as Hebrews 11 writes of whom the world is not worthy but they moved you into Direction you would not otherwise have gone during my years in the Marine Corps I was stationed on the island of Okinawa one rainy night I was desperately lonely and went by to see my friend Bob Newkirk bob was a navigator representative on the island he lived in Naha I was stationed at Camp Courtney took the little jitney down to Naha that rainy cold January night Norma said Bob wasn't there and she said you may find him at his office so I caught another little means of transportation down to the busy city of Naha it was rainy I still remember the rain dropping off my nose and as I walked a little back alley to get up to Bob's office I could hear him by the way I never told Bob about this he was on his knees I could see him through the window and he was singing prone to wander lord I feel it prone to leave the god I love here's my heart take and seal it seal it to that courts that night I found myself though I never interrupted him alongside a godly man who when no one was looking was lost in wonder and love praise my life is different because a bob Newkirk's investment during those crucial months when all the other crutches of my life had been removed I give God praise for Bob Newkirk this Thanksgiving Psalm 149 we are my singing a new song there's creative expression there's even verse 3 dancing we're singing with praises of temporal and lyre we are bringing before the Lord a fresh word a new song let the godly ones exult in glory let them sing for joy on their beds verse 5 there it is again closes it again with praise Lord and then the climax of the book the concluding song praise God in His sanctuary praise him in his mighty expanse praise him for his mighty deeds for his excellent greatness with trumpets sound with harp and lyre with timbrel dancing stringed instruments pipe loud cymbals resounding cymbal let everything that has breath praise the Lord hallelujah hallelujah say it hallelujah again hallelujah again hallelujah again hallelujah Thanksgiving is a holiday but praise it's every day of the year and when you praise him not as you should but as you must it is remarkable how it changes your whole perspective the mountains aren't nearly as high the obstacles aren't nearly as intimidating the people aren't nearly as ornery the tests aren't nearly as deep and severe and the future is amazingly bright praise God from whom all blessings flow praise him all creatures here below praise Him above ye heavenly hosts praising thank you our Father for preserving the words of the psalmist thank you for not letting us know Rotom so that we might be lost in the expressions of inspired writing forgive us our Father for the wasted days preoccupied with ourselves our losses our disappointments but we call our tragedies forgetting all the while that our God is in the heavens he is doing what he pleased and all the inhabitants of the earth there is nothing and you do your according to your will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and no one can stay your hand or say unto you what are you doing maybe we learn in these years at the school to adjust our lives to your agenda and then may we spend our years full of adoration and praise and the blessed name of our God everyone said you

Channel: Dallas Theological Seminary

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Keywords: glorify, thanksgiving, praise, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dr. Charles Swindoll

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Length: 28min 16sec (1696 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 09 2012