Now I want to take the rest of this
session just to point out... seven scriptural facts about praise. There are many more,
but I feel these are significant. And they will help to build your faith. First of all, let's turn to Psalm 22:3. Which are words addressed to the Lord. My version says: 'But You are holy
who inhabit the praises of Israel.' But the Hebrew word that's translated 'inhabit'
is also the word for 'to sit on'. As a matter of fact, when people in Israel
ask Ruth and me where do we live, we answer in Hebrew:
We are sitting in Jerusalem. That's the standard Hebrew word for
'to dwell'. Although it's perfectly correct to say
'You are holy who dwell in the praises of Israel,' it also means 'You who
sit upon the praises of Israel'. What kind of seat does God sit on?
A throne. So there are versions that say: 'You are holy
who are enthroned on the praises of Israel.' So when we praise God, as there's a very
popular song today that says: 'We are building a throne for Him to come
and take His place amongst us.' It's appropriate that as a king
He be offered a throne. But He's very gracious,
He's not demanding. He will come amongst us
but we won't recognize His kingship... until we give Him the throne of our praise. From now on, whenever you come together
and begin to praise God, picture yourself... offering Jesus an appropriate throne
for Him to sit upon as king. You are holy who are enthroned on the
praises of Israel, of God's people. And then in another psalm, Psalm 106:47. Praise is one main purpose for which God
blesses us, and it brings us into His victory. Incidentally, let me point
out about the psalms: The Hebrew name is 'tehillim',
which means 'praises'. That's the title of the book. And if you study the Bible,
much the longest book in the Bible is Psalms. And its title is 'Praises'. So in a way, that's one major element in
the total revelation of God, is His praises. If you find it difficult to praise God, I suggest you take a lot of time
reading the psalms. If you can, read them out loud
even when you're alone. Just read them and say:
Lord, this is my prayer, I'm reading this to you. It was a prayer given by the Holy Spirit
through the psalmist, I'm reading it. I believe you'll find after a little while,
praise will become much more natural to you. You'll cultivate the habit of praise. Anyhow, let's look
at what the psalmist says here. 'Save us, o LORD our God,
and gather us from among the Gentiles, to give thanks to Your Name,
and to triumph in Your praise.' Notice again the same order:
thanks, and then praise. So when we praise God, we triumph. A triumph in the ancient culture of Rome
and the ancient world... was not the winning of a victory. It was the celebration
of a victory that had already been won. And so when we really praise God,
we're not asking Him for victory. We're celebrating the fact
that the victory has already been won. We join His triumph. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:14,
and notice the word 'thanks', Thanks be to God, who always leads us
in triumphal procession in Christ. You see, a triumphal procession is the
celebration of a victory... in which the victorious general was led
through the streets of Rome... in a chariot led by a white horse. And all the people were on the sidewalks
or the pavements praising him. And all his captives, the enemies whom he had
defeated, were being led in chains behind him. That's the picture. Where do we belong? We're not being led in chains behind him. We're not even on the sidewalk
or the pavement praising him. Where are we? In the chariot, that's right. How do we get into the chariot? By praising Him, that's right. That's the step into the chariot. Then again in Psalm 30. It's significant how many of these passages
are taken from the psalms. Psalm 30. Verse 11-12. Just about 13 years ago, I lost my first wife,
which was the hardest experience of my life. I want to say that Psalm 11 is really true.
It works. 'You have turned for me
my mourning into dancing. You have put off my sackcloth
and clothed me with gladness.' Now, the next verse gives us the purpose. 'To the end that my glory may sing praise to you,
and not be silent, o LORD my God,
I will give thanks to you forever.' Notice when God takes off the sackcloth
and delivers us from our mourning, He does it for a purpose.
What's the purpose? 'To the end that our glory
may give praise to Him.' Now, what is our glory? Don't speculate because I'll give you an answer
direct out of scripture. It's very important. You've got to put two passages
of scripture together. Psalm 16:9. Where the psalmist says: 'Therefore my heart is glad... and my glory rejoices,
my flesh also will rest in hope.' Again, my glory. Now, a lot of different versions
translate it differently, but in Acts 2:26, the apostle Peter,
inspired by the Holy Spirit, quotes Psalm 16:9. But he interprets the word 'glory'. So you have there,
this is Acts 2:26, 'Therefore my heart rejoiced
and my tongue was glad.' So what is your glory?
Your tongue. Do you know why it's your glory?
You know why God gave you a tongue? To praise Him, that's right. It's the supreme member
with which we can praise God. It's our glory. And in a certain sense, any use of your
tongue that doesn't glorify God is a misuse. Because He put it there
for you to glorify Him. And it is your glory
when you use it to glorify Him. Then we'll turn to Isaiah 61:3. Again, this is a message for those
who've been mourning and depressed. It was through this verse that the Lord
many years ago... delivered me from a spirit of depression. 'To console those who mourn in Zion,
to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment
of praise for the spirit of heaviness.' And that's what God delivered me from,
the spirit of heaviness. Notice the garment of praise
in place of the spirit of heaviness. So if you don't want to be depressed. And you don't want satan to come to you
with his dark forebodings and evil thoughts. Put on the garment of praise
and he won't come near you. I think I have time
to relate this little story. Many, many years ago when I was pastoring
a small congregation in Bayswater, there were two Russian Jewish sisters who had
made their way miraculously out of Soviet Russia... and had met the Lord
and been filled with the Holy Spirit. They used to come and visit my first wife and me
and we'd pray together. I tell you, they were noisier as Russian Baptists
than most Pentecostals are in the West. I mean, they knew how to praise the Lord. Well, we were there just having a wonderful time
praising the Lord together. There was a ring at the door,
and a lady who was a member of the church. I went down there,
there she was. She was leading a man by the hand. She said: 'This is my husband.
He's just come out of prison, he has a demon. Will you pray for him?' Well, in those days,
I stayed a long way away from demons. I mean, I didn't know what to do with them
and I was very embarrassed. I had no idea what to do.
I said: 'Come up, we're praying.' That's all I could think of.
So we just went on praying. We were really making a noise. This man came up to me carefully
and he said: 'I don't like this, too much noise.
I'm going.' God inspired my answer.
I said: 'It's the devil that doesn't like the noise
because we're praising Jesus and he hates that. Now you've got two options. If you go now, the devil will go with you. If you stay,
the devil wil go without you.' And he said:
'I'll stay.' About ten minutes later
he came up to me and said: 'It's gone. I felt it leave my throat.' I'll never forget that
because it's such a demonstration... of how praise embarrasses the devil much more
than he can embarrass us. So if you're tempted to be
depressed or moody or unhappy, put on the garment of praise
in place of the spirit of heaviness. I know it works
because it worked for me. In Psalm 33:1, the psalmist says: 'Praise is beautiful for the upright.' It's a beautiful garment of your spirit. Then in Jeremiah 33:11, we have another aspect of praise or thanksgiving,
and both words are used, which is important. It's speaking about the restoration
of God's people. And it speaks about what will be heard
in the streets of Jerusalem. There's a beautiful, modern Hebrew song
based on these words. It says: 'The voice of joy and the voice of gladness,
the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of those
who will say: 'Praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his
mercy endures forever,' Notice two of the three reasons are there. 'And of those who will bring the sacrifice
of praise into the house of the Lord.' I think other versions say
'the sacrifice of thanksgiving'. It's important to understand
praise is a sacrifice. It costs you something,
it's not always easy. And the time that's most important
to praise the Lord is when you least feel like it. Do not let your feelings dictate to you. It's the Word of God
that tells you what to do. Even if it goes absolutely
contrary to your feelings. Hebrews 13 brings this out. Hebrews 13:15-16. 'Therefore by Him, (Jesus) let us continually offer
the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to His Name.' How much should we
praise God and how often it says? Continually, never stop. 'But do not forget to do good, and to share,
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.' So praise or thanksgiving is a sacrifice. And it's most acceptable to God
when it costs us most. When everything in the situation seems to
be against us, that's the time to praise God the most,
in faith, it's a sacrifice. And then Psalm 8:2. Praise is a spiritual weapon. This is one of my favorite scriptures,
I don't know how often I get here. Somehow it's difficult for me to preach
long without getting to Psalm 8:2. 'Out of the mouths of babes and infants, You,'
(that is the LORD) 'have ordained strength
because of your enemies, that You may silence
the enemy and the avenger.' So God has enemies.
That's important to know that. And He has one particular enemy,
He's called 'the enemy and the avenger'. Who's that?
Satan. And He says there is a way
to silence Satan. I was preaching in Lausanne in Switzerland
with a French interpreter some years ago. I got to this verse, I understand French,
and I listened to my interpreter. And in French it says:
'God imposes silence on the devil.' I've never forgotten that,
'God imposes silence'. He says: 'Shut up.' When? When we praise God.
You see, our praise silences the devil. Why do we need to silence the devil? What is he doing all the time,
night and day? He's accusing us. You say to God:
'Well, why don't You silence the devil?' God says: 'Because I've given you
the weapon with which to do it.' Now, in Psalm 8:2, it says
'You've ordained strength.' But again, the New Testament
is the commentary on the Old. Turn to Matthew 21:16. Matthew 21:16. We have to read verse 15. This is in the last week
of the ministry of Jesus in Jerusalem. 'But when the chief priests and scribes
saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple
and saying, 'Hosanna to the Son of David,' they were indignant, and said to Him,
'Do you hear what these are saying?' And Jesus said to them,'
(now He's quoting Psalm 8:2), "Yes, have you never read, 'Out of the mouth
of babes and nursing infants... you have perfected praise'?" So where the psalmist said,
'You have ordained strength.' Jesus said:
'You have perfected praise.' What does that tell us? The ordained strength of God's people
is perfect praise. And it doesn't matter how weak we are,
the weapon is irresistible. So the psalmist chooses the example
of the weakest, babes and nursing infants, and says even they, when they praise God,
impose silence on the enemy. To me, it's a wonderful, exciting joy
to know that we can silence the devil.
