Well, today is likely the end of our teaching series on the subject of praise. And in this series of teachings, we are learning what true praise looks like, and also learned some powerful truths about it.
 
One of the main things I hope we’ve taken out of this study is how praise is not just to be something that we observe, but that it’s something that we all need to participate in. Yes, that includes during the song services we have here corporately, but also in our homes, in our automobiles, and everywhere for that matter. Church, our lives are meant to bring forth His praise – not just “some times” or “occasionally,” but as David said in Psalm 34:1 – at “all times” and “continuously!”
 
I also hope that we’ve learned how the Lord desires our praise to come from hearts that are full of gratitude & excitement for all that He is and He has done for us. This will result in a whole lot more “expressive, unreserved, and emotional” kind of action on our part, which will mirror a lot of what we see in the Hebrew idea of praise.
 
I plan to review the specifics of what we’ve learned already, but for now, let’s get right into how the Lord would have us to conclude this study …  
 
Baraking = Blessing
 
Let’s move on to the last Hebrew word for “praise” that I wanted to cover – one that leads us into the holy of holies – the Hebrew word barak (baw-rack).
 
This word barak means to "to bend the knees & kneel down, to bless God as an act of adoration." This word is actually translated to “bless” over 300 of the 338 times it’s used! Sometimes it is used to describe man being “blessed” by God, but it is also used as man “blessing” God.
 
Now, of course, this does not mean that God’s creation can “bless” God like He “blesses” us. He alone is the giver of every good & perfect gift and only He, as being the source of any & all blessings, can empower one to prosper. But there are verses (and we will look at some of them here shortly) that describe us “blessing God” and some that describe Him as the “blessed God.” So perhaps the terminology “blessed” (i.e. bless-ed) more accurately conveys God being blessed. We see barak used this way in Psalm 18:46 when David said, “Blessed be my Rock” or in Psalm 28:6, 31:21, 41:13, etc. when the psalmists said, “Blessed be the Lord.” So He is the “blessed One forever”! Which means what?
 
Well, I think a good way to answer that question is like so – When an individual was “barak’d” (i.e. blessed) by the Lord, how was that described? Well, a perfect example of this is found in Genesis chapter 12 when God told Abram how He would “bless” Him. He said in Genesis 12:1-3, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
 
So when God told Abram that He would “barak” him, how did He describe this blessing? He said He would make him into a great nation. He said He would make his name great. He said that he would be a blessing. He said that those who blessed him would be blessed and those who cursed him would be cursed. And finally, he said that all the families of the earth shall be blessed through him. So when we consider this, what are we doing when we “bless” the Lord? We are declaring how great His kingdom is (i.e. make him into a great nation)! We are stating how great His name is (i.e. make his name great)! We are telling Him how much of a blessing He is (i.e. be a blessing)! We are inferring that everyone who praises Him will be blessed by Him and everyone who speaks against Him will be cursed (i.e. bless those who bless you & curse him who curses you)! And finally, we are declaring that everyone who is blessed, obtained that blessing through Him!
 
In other words, one of the ways that I am “blessing” the “blessed” One is by declaring how great His name and His kingdom are, how much of a “blessing” He has been to me personally, and how He is the source –  any & all “blessings” come through Him. This is a way of “barak’ing” the Lord, church!  
 
You see, this is an important part of understanding this Hebrew word for “praise” because when you study this concept of “blessing” in the Old Testament, you’ll realize that it’s done with words. Sure, one received the blessing of God when hands were laid on them, etc. But the primary way you see the blessing of God transferred was through words.
 
We see this in how God blessed His creation in Genesis when we are told that God “blessed” things like the fish, birds, and mankind, “saying …” In other words, the way the Lord blessed His creation was by speaking words like “Be fruitful and multiply.”
 
We also would see it in how the Patriarchs would bless their sons. They would speak words of life & blessing into them and this was how the blessing of God was transferred to the firstborn (or at least that was who it was intended for).
 
One of our most well-known examples of this is in what is commonly known as “The Priestly Blessing.” It is found in Numbers chapter 6 …
 
In Numbers 6:22-27 we are told – “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.’ So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
 
So notice that the Lord told Moses to tell Aaron and his sons that “this is the way you shall bless (i.e. barak) the children of Israel. Say to them …” In other words, the way the priests were to “barak” the people was to speak this particular blessing over them.
 
So guess how you and I can “bless” the Lord? We could say something to Him of the same effect – “Lord, you have blessed me and kept me. Lord, you’ve made Your face to shine upon me, and you’ve been so gracious to me. Lord, you have lifted up Your countenance upon me and given me Your peace.”
 
Do you see what I’m doing here? I am praising the Lord! How? By blessing the blessed One! Amen!  
 
So yes, the blessing is voice activated. It is released through speaking words. Therefore, when we “bless” the Lord, what we are doing is, with our mouths, we are declaring good things about Him. Amen?
 
A good example of this is found in Luke 6:28 when Jesus taught how we should love our enemies: He said, “bless those who curse you …”
 
The New Testament word for “bless” is the Greek word eulogia, which literally means to “to speak well of.” It is actually transliterated as our English word “eulogy,” which is what we do at funerals when we speak good things about the deceased.
 
So Jesus was teaching us that when people “curse” us – they insult us, falsely accuse us, and simply speak negatively about us – we are to speak positively about them.
 
So this is the idea of blessing in both the Old & New Testaments – it is to speak good things about someone else and to “praise” them.
 
Bless the Lord!
 
Let me now show you a few places where barak is used in the Psalms:
 
One very well-known verse is Psalm 34:1 when David said, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
 
So here we learn that David’s aim was to “bless the Lord” at all times! That means when times are good and when times are bad. That means when I feel like it and when I don’t feel like it. “At all times” means at all times, church!
 
So what am I going to do at all times? I am going to barak the Lord, which means I am going to declare how blessed He is and how blessed I am because of Him!
 
Do you know why I believe David chose to use the word barak over all the other praise words to describe what He was going to be doing at all times? It was because the concept of “blessing” is “at all times.” In other words, it doesn’t change & is consistent. No, being blessed is not something someone is one day and then they’re not on another. The blessing of the Lord is the same, yesterday, and forevermore!
 
So when David said he would bless the Lord at all times, it makes sense because we have a reason to bless the Lord at all times. He is always faithful! He does not change! We are always blessed! That doesn’t change! Therefore, we ought to be able to bless the Lord at all times!    
 
Another very popular section of Scriptures where this word barak is used is the 103rd Psalm. In fact, I believe this word is used six times in this Psalm! But the most familiar portion of this Psalm that contains barak is the first two verses. Let’s look at them …  
 
Psalm 103:1-2 says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits;”
 
So in these verses that we quote often in our church, since the word “bless” comes from the word barak, we know specifically what David was telling his soul to do, right? He was telling his soul, which like all of our souls, was inconsistent to say the least. Some days our soul might feel like praising God and rejoicing in Him, and some days it might feel like curling up in bed, shutting the blinds, and sucking its thumb.
 
But like we saw in Psalm 34:1, we are to “bless” the Lord at all times, so sometimes our soul might just need a little reminder that its time to “bless” God as an act of adoration, because He is worthy! Amen?  
 
Now I want to look at one more verse where this word barak is used, but is translated in a different way:
 
In Psalm 95:6 the psalmist says, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.”
 
The word “kneel” in this verse is the word barak, which if you noticed earlier, was a part of its definition.
 
So even though this word is translated “praise” a couple of times and “bless” an abundance of times, there is a strong implication of “worship” in this word – because when you study it out, you’ll find that kneeling & bowing down are associated with the idea of “worship.”   
 
In fact, notice at the beginning of this verse how the psalmist used the word for “worship” in conjunction with this idea of kneeling & bowing down before the Lord.
 
What is Worship?
 
So let’s now look at this word which is the most common Hebrew word used to translate “worship” because I don’t believe one can separate the idea of praise & worship …
 
This is the word shachah (sha-ha) and it literally means “to bow down.” It is used almost exclusively to describe the bowing of one’s knee or head towards the object of their worship. In fact, this word was used in some places to describe one individual in the Old Testament bowing down towards another individual – meaning that they were, in essence, worshipping another person.
 
For example, Lot “worshiped” the strangers who came to Sodom – that is, he prostrated himself before them (Genesis 19:1). Abraham “bowed down” before the Hittites (Genesis 23:7). Jacob “bowed down” to the ground seven times as he approached his brother Esau (Genesis 33:3). Joseph’s brothers “bowed down” before him with their faces to the ground before he revealed himself to them (Genesis 42:6). Moses “worshiped” his father-in-law (Exodus 18:7). Abigail “worshiped” David by prostrating herself before him.
 
In all of these references, as well as many more like them, the terms “worshipped & bowed down” were derived from this Hebrew word shachah. Now in each of these instances, they were not worshipping the other individual in the sense that we think of “worshipping” but, nonetheless, these examples give us a clear description of what biblical worship is and what it does.
 
You see, in these people’s culture, they bowed down before those to whom they wanted to show respect and honor. In other words, they saw these other individuals as so worthy of their respect and love that they expressed that love through prostrating themselves before them. Therefore, the act of falling down is biblical worship and reveals the heart of the worshipper – respect and honor towards the one being worshipped.   
 
We still see this today in many cultures. For instance, in many Asian cultures, they bow to those whom they respect. In other places, it is customary to bow to those of higher rank.
 
Now it is important to note that simply bowing, getting on our knees, or even laying prostrate is not necessarily evidence that we are worshipping God. It is what is behind that physical action that counts. In other words, it is the heart behind the action that creates true worship. So one can bow and not be truly worshipping from God’s perspective. However, these outward actions, such as getting on our knees and bowing before the Lord, can certainly reveal the inner heart that is overflowing with respect and honor for God. 
 
Here’s an interesting point about “worship”: Our English word “worship” itself comes from two Old English words: weorth, which means "worth," and scipe or ship, which means something like shape or "quality." We can see the Old English word ship in modern words like friendship and sportsmanship – which describe the quality of being a friend, or the quality of being a good sport. So worth-ship is the quality of having worth or of being worthy. Therefore, when we worship God, we are acting as if God has worth and are telling Him that He is worthy. Therefore, worship means to declare worth, to attribute worth. And one of the responses of one who sees the “worth” that God is “worthy” of is to kneel or bow down like we see in the Hebrew words barak & shachah.
 
You see, church, while the emphasis in this series has been praise, it’s important to realize what praise leads us unto – and that is worship.
 
Do you recall how I’ve made the statement several times from Psalm 100:4 that we enter His gates with thanksgiving (i.e. todah), and into His courts with praise (i.e. tahilla)? Well, there is another part of the Tabernacle/Temple that is left to enter, and that is the Holy of Holies.
 
Let’s look at a couple of other verses where this word “worship” is used …
 
Psalm 132:7 says, “Let us go into His tabernacle; Let us worship at His footstool.”
 
So we already know how we are to go into His tabernacle. It’s with thanksgiving & praise. But notice how the psalmist says that we are to worship at His footstool. So this shows the aim. It’s to worship!
 
Psalm 138:2 says, “I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.”
 
So again, the worship is aimed towards His holy temple. But the good news now, saints, is that we are that temple! And now the dwelling place of God is in a born-again believer! Amen!
 
So how can we enter into the Holy of holies through worship? Well, that is because now, under this New & Better Covenant, you and I can enter into the place that the Old Testament saint had no right to enter. Now we can boldly enter the Holiest and where His presence dwells! Amen! And its thanksgiving & praise that leads us there.
 
Review
 
So let’s quickly recap what we’ve learned in this series:
 
We’ve seen that praise is the calling of every believer. Yes, for all of us who have been called out of darkness and into His marvelous light, we are chosen to declare the praises of Him (see First Peter 2:8). Therefore, praising God is not just something we are to observe; it’s what we are called to do! Yes, everyone is called to be a praiser.
 
In fact, we learned that praising God is more like a profession, occupation, and vocation for us. So if you and I read in the Bible “Praise the Lord!”, what should our response be? It should be to praise the Lord, right? Yes, if the Scriptures say, “Hallelujah”, then I should stop what I’m doing and praise the Lord right then!
 
In fact, we ought to live our lives to praise the Lord like some live their lives devoted to their occupation. Praise should be our occupation, church!
 
And the “gospel” is this – like any full-time occupation, there are benefits to doing our job – which we learned are found in the 103rd Psalm when David described all of God’s benefits such as our salary, health/medical insurance, life insurance, dental insurance, etc. Yes, being about our Father’s business yields so many wonderful benefits, so it is in our best interest to walk in our calling. 
 
However, in order to partake of your employer’s benefits, you need to be a good employee, right? So we looked at some verses that describe what being a good employee looks like and learned from that how we can praise the Lord in a way that fully pleases our Master!
 
For example, we learned that being a good employee doesn’t just mean we show up and clock in to work. Likewise, we are not participating in the praise service just because we are here in the room when the song service is going on. No, doing our job well means we are participating in all the ways that the Lord reveals to us that we are to praise the Lord …
 
So we began looking at a bunch of the Hebrew words for praise that reveal to us what true praise is to the Lord. We looked at the following words:
 
Halal – The most popular praise word, being translated this way over 150 times in the Old Testament. In fact, it is part of the word you hear a lot in church, the word hallelujah, which simply means “Praise (i.e. halal) the Lord (i.e. Yahweh).” And this key word describes an expressive & excited side of praise in that it describes acting “clamorously foolish” in praise – which taught us how our praise might reflect more of the actions of a child than it does the lack of actions of an adult. So like I said, perhaps we have grown up too much when it comes to praising the Lord.
 
Todah – The next word we looked at describes the idea of thanksgiving, and we learned how important of a role that this praise of thanksgiving plays in us entering into the presence of the Lord and magnifying His name. But we also saw how thanksgiving is a great way to end our praise time because we are concluding our praise with the reminder of all of who He is, what He has done, and what He will do.
 
Yadah – We then learned how the lifting & extending of our hands is a valid form of praise in that the root word for todah describes this action. This led us into a few other words that describe us jumping (alaz), whirling around (karar), and dancing (mahol). So all of these joy-filled physical actions are a part of our job in praising the Lord.
 
Shabach – But we saw how praise is not just lifting our hands; it’s also lifting our voices. We saw how there are a lot of Old Testament verses and Hebrew words that describe us shouting and raising our volume beyond the normal level. And we learned that this is all because we will lift our voices for what we are excited about. We also saw that there were other words such as ranan, pasah, and rua that describe this crying aloud, breaking out, or shouting joyfully. So shouting & lifting our voices are a part of the life of praise.
 
Zamar – Then we learned last time of just how important praising God with instruments is because of the Hebrew words for praise that describe to “pluck the strings of an instrument” like a harp. So yes, not only can we praise God with our voices, but we can praise Him with the various instruments we have available to us, just as long as our heart is set on praising Him.
 
Tehillah – Then we saw how praise is also done with a song. In other words, while one can praise God just simply by talking about how great & awesome He is, we can also sing praises unto His name. So singing songs of praise unto God is a big part of staying full of joy and getting rid of the devil & all his effects.
 
Barak – And finally, we saw today how bending our knee, kneeling down, and blessing the Lord is another way that one praises God because worship is a big part of our Christian responsibility unto God. Yes, the apostle Paul teaches us that it is our “reasonable service” (Romans 12:1-2).
 
So I hope that everyone will continue to adopt all of these forms of praise into your life – yes, certainly during our praise services here at church, but also in your everyday life. Praise is a calling, saints! Let’s continue to “Praise the Lord” in our lives by not just observing it; but by doing it! Amen!

REVIEW
 
Well, we are heading to the end of a teaching series on the subject of praise where we are learning what true praise is and what it looks like! And what we have been learning is how it is a whole lot more “demonstrative” than most of the church acts like it is.
 
In fact, I looked up some synonyms of this word “demonstrative” and saw that some other words were “expressive, unreserved, and emotional.” And, church, this is exactly what we’ve been seeing in the various Hebrew words for praise – that it involves a lot more “expression” in an “unreserved” and even “emotional” manner. Yes, that’s what you would have seen in an Old Testament praise service!
 
But for some reason, the majority of the church today thinks things have changed. Yes, many Christians have adopted this mentality that now we are supposed to praise & worship God “in the Spirit” – meaning, we don’t need any of that physical or emotional stuff anymore. But the truth is doing things “in the Spirit” doesn’t mean that we forsake these Biblical examples of praise & rejoicing form the Old Testament. In fact, we learned how the Holy Spirit should propel us into even more “expressive, unreserved, and emotional” praise! Amen?
 
We started off by looking at the most common Hebrew word for praise, the word halal. Then we looked at the word todah, the word commonly used for thanksgiving. Then we looked at few words that describe why we do the things we do when we praise God like lifting our hands, jumping for joy, dancing and whirling around, etc.
 
And then last week, we looked at some of the Hebrew words that talk about how our voice volume is also important in how we praise the Lord: We saw how one of the Hebrew praise words, the word shabach (shaw-bakh), literally means, "to shout, to address in a loud tone, to command, to triumph."
 
Now this is a far cry from praising Him quietly in our hearts, isn’t it? Is there a place for being quiet and being still & knowing that He is God? Absolutely! Likewise, there is a place for being loud and shouting forth His praises with a voice of triumph! So if I am consistently only doing one of these two things, then I’m missing it. There is a time & place to do both, and we need to be willing to praise Him both ways, not just the way we are comfortable with.  
 
And we learned through this word shabach that it also means to soothe, still, or pacify – which sounds a lot to me like how a parent might seek to quiet their baby when they are crying. What do they do? They try and “still” the baby by picking it up and holding it. They try and “soothe” the baby by maybe rocking it back and forth. And they attempt to “pacify” it by giving it a pacifier or bottle.  
 
So isn’t that interesting? The word that describes shouting & addressing in a loud tone also describes the stilling of the raging seas.
 
We looked at how Psalm 8:2 teaches us this when it says, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.” So praise “stills” the avenger – specifically, shabach is what will still or pacify the devil! Isn’t it interesting that this loud & high-volume kind of praise is what stills & quiets the enemy?
 
We also looked at a few other words that also describe us “crying out, breaking forth, and shouting joyfully.” And through one of these words, we looked at the very familiar story of the Battle of Jericho, where “shouting” was a catalyst for a supernatural miracle.
 
We learned from this story of the walls of Jericho coming down what strongholds are and how they keep one from being free themselves to letting others in. We saw how important it is that we follow the Lord’s specific instructions in order to “see” those walls come down in our lives. And we specifically noticed how on the seventh day, when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city!” So when it comes to strongholds in our lives, where we feel “shut up,” we can see that breaking out and shouting is the key to seeing those walls come down! Amen?  
 
Yes, again, as that company’s commercial used to say, for some stains, you got it shout out! Amen!
 
The Issue of Instruments
 
So now that we’ve been seeing that praise is described as everything from the lifting of our voices, to jumping, dancing, & whirling about, to offering up thanksgiving, to raising our hands, etc. one might wonder – If praise is described by all of these things that any individual can do at any time, what do we need musical instruments for?
 
Well, there is another Hebrew word for praise that both legitimizes the use of instruments and shows the importance of them in how we praise the Lord. Let’s look at it …
 
There is the word zamar means "to pluck the strings of an instrument, to sing, to praise; a musical word which is largely involved with joyful expressions of music with musical instruments.” So this Hebrew word for praise means to play upon an instrument; to make music, accompanied by the voice; hence to celebrate in song and music -- give praise, sing forth praises, psalms.
 
Let me give you a few times this is used in the Scriptures:
 
In many of the initial times it’s used in the Old Testament, it was used like so – to “sing praises to His name” (Second Samuel 22:50, Psalm 7:17, 9:2, 18:49, etc.). In fact, by my count, it is used as “sing praises” around 30 of the times it was used. This reminds me of that beautiful chorus that was popular some years back – “I sing praises to your name, O Lord, praises to your name, O Lord. For your name is great and greatly to be praised …”
 
So, yes, it does describe singing with our mouth, but by its definition, it obviously means to sing with our music as well. In fact, there are several instances where this word zamar is used like that. Let’s look at a few of them …
 
Psalm 33:2 says, “Praise the Lord with the harp; Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.”
 
Psalm 71:22 says, “Also with the lute I will praise You— And Your faithfulness, O my God! To You I will sing with the harp, O Holy One of Israel.”
 
Psalm 98:5 says, “Sing to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of a psalm.”
 
Psalm 144:9 says, “I will sing a new song to You, O God; On a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You,”
 
Psalm 149:3 says, “Let them praise His name with the dance; Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp.”
 
So notice that with all five of these passages of Scripture, that we see praising God (Heb. zamar) “with the harp.”
 
Isn’t that interesting that one can praise God with an instrument? I’ve always looked at it like we praise God with our voices, but apparently the Lord receives praise from the instruments we play as well.
 
Now specifically, we see the Scriptures saying that we zamar the Lord with a “harp.” So does that mean that this is God’s instrument of choice that He receives praises from? In other words, must one use a harp to have it be considered praise by the Lord? Of course not!
 
You see, for some things in the Bible, we have to understand that they were unique to their culture. Now this certainly does not include certain moral issues or other things that are just as right/wrong today as they were centuries ago, but for other things like what instruments we use, those are unique for the time periods. Therefore, these verses from the Psalms are not to be taken so literally that we assume we have to go back to using harps and other instruments that they used back then. Heck, in a couple of these psalms, you see them talk about praising Him with the “timbrel” and a “lute.” I’d have to look up what a timbrel even is!
 
So no, this is one of those times where we can assume that praising God can also be done with the instruments of our generation just like David praising God with the instruments of his day. For one, how would our current set of instruments even have been on the psalmist’s radar to include them in writings from centuries ago? Just like the apostle John didn’t have the reference point to describe what he was seeing from the end times, David and the other psalmists wouldn’t have had the reference point to describe the instruments & technology that obviously hadn’t been invented yet. Amen?  
 
And this leads us to an interesting point:
 
You know, one thing I have come to discover is how easy it is for our own personal preferences and traditions to get in the way of appreciating the various instruments we have available to us.
 
I’ve run into some from the older generation that didn’t particularly like guitars – whether that be acoustic, electric, or bass. So if a praise & worship leader was playing say an acoustic guitar, they would immediately turn them off, saying things like – “I don’t like all ‘dat guitar strumming.” And most of the time, the reason that was the case was because they had come up in a generation where other instruments like an organ or a grand piano were what churches used during the song service.
 
So which generation is right? Is the piano better than the guitar? Is the timbrel better than a standard drum set that we use today? In short, does God have a preference on what instruments He is being praised with? I know religious folks might say, yes, but I say, no. I believe God is pleased with whatever instrument we choose to praise Him with, when the heart of the one playing it is to glorify & magnify His name! Amen?  
 
Anointed Music
 
Now I understand that most of us in here today, don’t play instruments. So how does praising God this way apply to the ones of us who don’t? Well, today we have a wonderful thing called technology, and through it, we can play music in various ways.  
 
So I bring this to our attention because I also believe that one can “zamar” the Lord by simply popping in a CD, streaming a song off of a website or app, or tuning into a Christian radio station.
 
But just simply “playing” praise music is not considered us praising the Lord any more than someone simply playing an instrument is praise. It’s the heart in playing it. It’s how that person accompanies that praise music. In other words, are they playing it with the purpose to praise God. Then it can be the same as playing an actual instrument.
 
And here’s the awesome part, I’ve seen similar effects from playing anointed praise & worship music as we read about in the story of David playing his harp with Saul – how he would see relief from the demons that were troubling him.
 
If you are unfamiliar with this story, we see in First Samuel chapter 16 how David was sought out to play for Saul when the distressing spirit came upon him, and we are told that when David would play that the spirit would depart from Saul, and he would be refreshed and well.
 
So this shows me that anointed music can expel demonic activity, and this would include anointed praise coming from an instrument and anointed praise coming from some other audio source. The fact is, the anointing destroys the yoke (Isaiah 10:27)! So if that anointing is on a song, instrument, or voice, it can do the same thing as David’s anointing did for Saul. Amen?  
 
In fact, the next word for praise that I want us to look at also teaches us how praise can both expel darkness & invite light. Let’s look at it …
 
 
Songs of Halal
 
The next Hebrew praise word I want us to look at is the word tehillah (te-hi-law). This word comes from the word we’ve already covered, the Hebrew word halal and of the 47 times it is used in the Old Testament, it is translated “praise” every time in the original King James Version.  
 
Tehillah describes the “singing of halals, to sing or to laud with hymns of praise.” So while other usages of praise can describe simply declaring God’s praises, this word specifically refers to the singing of His praise. In other words, tehillah describes the songs one sings to praise God. This is why it describes the word “hymn” which is literally just a song of praise.
 
You see, in the church when we refer to “hymns,” we automatically think of what is contained in the hymn books—thereby, many see hymns as the old songs, written in old books, for old people. But that’s not exactly what hymns are. When considering the literal definition of “hymn,” we can clearly see that we are singing hymns every Sunday in most churches because they are simply “songs of praise.”
 
Do you see how religion skews our view of these things and how we wrongly associate things based on our traditions? We need to eliminate these things from our way of thinking and view these terms from a literal, biblical perspective.
 
So just like we talked about how there are not any instruments that are “better” than others, the same goes for the songs we sing.
 
You see, there has always been this debate in the church between using a hymn book with these wordy songs versus having more repetitive words put on the screen in the modern era of music. Which one is right? That’s what the common thought is – that one is right, and the other isn’t.
 
I’m here to tell you today that one isn’t any better than the other. In fact, there are advantages to both styles of “praise songs.” Let me give you a couple of examples …
 
When it comes to the older hymns sung in prior generations, the good part of that was how instructive those songs were. Yes, a lot of those hymns would teach people good doctrine. So the songs contained in the hymn books were beneficial in that they introduced more truth than many of the modern-day songs do.  
 
However, more of the modern-day songs are better because they give more of the opportunity to camp on certain truths and sing them directly to the Lord. Yes, in the repetition of certain phrases & statements, people are able to pour out more of their heart in praise to God. So for that reason, these songs that have very simple chorus’ are good.
 
But the main point I am making is that one is NOT better than the other. There is a place and a benefit in both styles of songs. Like we made the point of when talking about the instruments, the key is in the hearts of the people singing them, not in the style of songs themselves.
 
So if you are in a place where a tehillah (i.e. a song of praise) is being sung, and it’s not your particular taste, style, or preference, don’t miss the potential benefits in it. Choose to pour your heart into it and sing that praise to God with everything that is in you. Amen?
 
How To Abide in His Presence
 
Now this Hebrew word for praise is actually used in some of our most well-known verses about praise in the Old Testament. Let’s look at a few of them …
 
The first one I want us to look at is in the verse that we are all familiar with – Psalm 34:1. This verse says, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
 
With the word tehillah being used for “praise” in the second part of this verse, we can see exactly what it is that is to continually be in our mouth – it’s a song or hymn. In other words, David was saying that what was going to constantly be in his mouth was a song.
 
You know, I’ve always found that some of the happiest people are people who sing continually. In fact, the Lord showed me before that the people who constantly praise Him like this are those who “abide” in Him.
 
I remember one day I was asking the Lord to teach me to continually abide in Him. I was saying, “Lord, show me how to consistently abide! Teach me to continually abide in You!” and as I had intended on these words to come out of my mouth, I uttered a different prayer that bypassed my understanding. I prayed- “Lord, let your praise be continually in my mouth!”
 
Now this was obviously a Holy Spirit inspired prayer because I was not thinking this in any way, shape, or form. Then the Lord revealed to me that this was how we continually abide in Him- by His praise being continually in our mouth. Amen! In other words, the way we continually abide in His manifest presence is by His praise being continually in our mouth. 
 
You see, one of the greatest benefits of us singing praises to the Lord at all times is that we will abide in Him. This should be rather obvious to us because of all the Scriptures that teach us how God inhabits the praises of His people and how worship draws us into the holy of holies.
 
Our feelings and experiences are directly tied to our thoughts and focus. So when we fix our eyes on Him—His greatness, glory and power—we begin to sense, become aware of, and feel His tangible presence. It begins to affect our surroundings! Amen!  
 
Another time this word is used is in another verse that we have already used several times in this series – Psalm 100:4. Again, this verse says, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”
 
 Ah, so in this verse we see how two forms of praise are used in entering the presence of God: As we saw, the Hebrew word towdah is used to describe how one enters into the gates of His house. But now we see how one walks through the courts of the house of God – its with tehillah.
 
So the best way to enter God’s presence is to start out with “the praise of thanksgiving” (i.e. towdah), and then to walk through His courts with “songs of praise.” So what it is that we are approaching the holy of holies with is a song or a hymn. And like we just learned from Psalm 34:1, it is what will cause us to not just enter His presence, but “abide” in His presence.
 
I personally love this next reference … Psalm 22:3 says, “But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.”
 
This is the verse that some of us quote as God “inhabits the praises of His people.” That sounds a lot to me like “abiding” and “dwelling in God’s presence,” amen?
 
So what is it that the Lord inhabits? It’s the tehillah of His people! So God is enthroned upon the “songs of praise or the hymns” of His people!
 
Are you starting to see that? This is where God abides! It is where He dwells! No, not just in any form of praise, but specifically in the place where songs of praise are on people’s lips. He loves it, and this is where you will find Him – in the environment of hymns.  
 
And here’s the awesome part: Where God dwells, sadness, mourning, grief, and depression don’t. Now that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for these things at times, like say if we lost a loved one or are heartbroken over someone else’s loss. Yes, life will have these emotions, but we are not called to live there. As the Bible says, “In His presence is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11), so if I’m living, dwelling, and abiding in His presence, I’m not going to be sad; I’ll be glad! Amen?
 
Notice the final verse I want us to look at where tehillah is used:
 
Isaiah 61:1-3 says after Jesus’ quote that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him because God had anointed Him, “… 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; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
 
So what is the Holy Spirit—the Anointing of God—meant to do in our lives? One of the things is to do exactly this – to minister to those who mourn and give them joy; to replace that spirit of heaviness that can come upon all of us at times with the “garment of tehillah.” So again, it’s the one who sings songs of praise unto God who is positioned to take off a spirit of heaviness and replace it with a new garment, a song of praise! Amen!  
 
Staying Full of the Anointing
 
Now let me conclude today’s message with this …
 
A couple of weeks ago, we looked at Ephesians 5:18 where the apostle Paul told us that we need to stay full of the Holy Spirit. In other words, it’s not just good enough to be filled at some point in the past, but to be continually filled up with Him.
 
Then we looked at how one stays full of the Spirit of God. The answer is found in verse 19— by “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”
 
So notice that one of the three forms of songs that Paul describes are these “hymns” we’ve been referring to. Therefore, I see this concept of tehillah as being one of the avenues that God desires to use, to fill us up with His presence.
 
So what are these “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs?”
 
Well, “psalms” suggests what we would call “scriptural music.” In almost every usage of the Greek word “psalmos” the Psalms of the Old Testament are what is being referred to. So singing “psalms” would be singing the Psalms of the Old Testament obviously but it would also include singing other portions of Scripture. The word “hymns” literally describes “festive songs” or “songs of praise specifically addressed towards God.” A hymn differs from a psalm in that while a psalm is scripturally based and might not specifically address God, a hymn is a song that comes of human origin that does specifically praise and worship God. A hymn will always be directed towards God and a psalm will always be full of Scripture. Some examples of “hymns” could be “I Sing Praises to Your Name”, “Holy, Holy, Holy”, or “the Doxology.” The third and final songs that we should sing are “spiritual songs.” The word “spiritual” literally means “non-carnal.” So “spiritual songs” are “songs that are not of human origin”- that is, songs that are given by inspiration of the Spirit. This would include singing in tongues or simply just singing a song in our own understanding that the Holy Spirit puts in our hearts and that did not originate from man.
 
Someone might say, “But it is not always convenient to sing…What do you do in those times?” That Is why Paul’s next phrase in Ephesians 5:19 is “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” In those times where it is not appropriate to sing aloud, we can make melody in our heart to the Lord. We can always maintain that inner communion with Him. God is a spirit so we can worship Him (or fellowship with Him) in spirit (i.e. not naturally). So when we cannot let it come out of our mouth, we need to let it continue in our heart.
 
Actually this singing and making melody in our heart is always important to do. Sometimes we can just let songs come out of our mouth without our hearts being behind the words. If all we do is just sing psalms and hymns without our hearts truly being involved it will do absolutely nothing to keep us full of the Spirit and abiding in His presence.  
 
That is why Paul went on to say, “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” This means that the songs that come out of our mouth should be aimed at the Lord. That is, that we are not just singing but that we are actually singing to the Lord - making Him the object of all the words that proceed from our mouth. This is getting our heart involved in our psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
 
But our point today is that these songs of praise as well as the instruments that accompany them are a part of abiding in the anointing. Yes, the anointing that destroys the yoke and makes evil spirits depart. So the more you and I live our lives singing & playing songs of praise, the more we can dwell in His presence. Amen!

REVIEW
 
Praise the Lord!  This is the title of our current series, and as you just witnessed, we are not just wanting to observe what praise is; we want to actually put into practice “Praising the Lord!”
 
So we are stretching ourselves a little bit by finding out what God considers praise to be and then adopting these things into our praise lives. And we are doing this by looking at the various words that are used for praise in the Old Testament because the Hebrew language gives us a much more thorough description of what praise looks like.
 
We started off by looking at the most common Hebrew word for praise, the word halal. We learned that this word is used close to 150 times in the Old Testament and is translated “praise” the vast majority of those times. However, even though the word “praise” is obviously its primary meaning, it actually means to make a show, to act clamorously foolish & like a madman.
 
So we made the point that we see very few people acting foolish or like a crazy person during the praise time, don’t we? And that’s not to condemn us, but it does need to be brought to our attention because if this is how we are called to praise, then perhaps we ought to loosen up a bit. Yeah, perhaps we’ve grown up too much.
 
Then next, we covered another Hebrew word for “praise”, the word todah, which describes thanking God for “things not yet received” as well as things already at hand. In fact, we learned that it is actually translated “thanksgiving” half the times it is used in the original King James Version. So the idea of this form of praise is more that of expressing gratitude and the giving of thanks to God.
 
So we learned that this todah kind of thanksgiving is what we should start out with. Yes, it’s how we enter His gates and into His presence! So, it would behoove us to incorporate this spirit of thanksgiving into our praise lives—for not only is it the right & noble thing to do towards the One who has given us so much, but it’s also the vehicle that leads us into His presence. Amen. 
 
Then last week, we dealt with a few Hebrew words for praise that answer the question – “Why do we praise like we do?”
 
You know, there are lot of things that we do in certain Charismatic, Pentecostal circles that I’m not so sure people understand why we do them – whether that be if you are someone who isn’t used to a church like this or whether you’ve grown up in a church that does these things. And the last thing we want to do is do things simply out of tradition or for some other religious reason.
 
So we looked at the popular Hebrew word for praise, which is actually the root word for the word we covered last week (todah), the word yadah.
 
We learned that like todah which described an extension of the hand in adoration, avowal, or acceptance, the word yadah likewise describes "an extended hand or to throw out the hand.” And here it describes praising God by shooting out the hands, thanking Him with extended hands, or we might say to simply lift the hands in praise & thanksgiving.
 
So have you ever wondered why you see some people lift their hands during the praise & worship service? Well, here is one of your reasons – it’s because it’s Biblical since one of the Hebrew words for praise specifically describes it. But we also learned that not only do we have this Hebrew word that clearly describes praise being done with lifted/extended hands, we have several Scriptures that specifically talk about this as well.
 
But even with all this Scriptural evidence, you’ll still have someone who will say, “But I just don’t see the point. What good does it do to lift my hands?”
 
Well, we don’t have to understand or see the point to do it and reap the benefits of simple obedience. Now I think understanding is important. Don’t get me wrong. But there’s just a lot we aren’t going to understand that we should simply do because we are told to.
 
But we saw how lifting our hands is not the only demonstrative form of praise that the Bible encourages us to practice …
 
We saw how there was the word alaz (a-lauze) which describes “rejoicing, exulting, and to be jubilant.” But we learned how this word carries the idea of “jumping for joy.” So there you go! Now you have Scriptural precedence for jumping for joy during the song service.     
 
We saw how King David did a little jumping himself. But he also liked to “dance” as well.
Yes, he was also “whirling” when they brought the ark back into Jerusalem – the Hebrew word karar (ka-rare) – which described how David was dancing before the Lord with all his might.
 
Now this doesn’t mean to bring your old worldly barroom dancing up in here, but it describes a joyful dance. In other words, what’s your snoopy, happy dance. That’s what the Lord is blessed with, when we let it loose for Him. It might be simply just leaping. It might be whirling around. It might be waving your hands back & forth. The bottom line is – whatever dance you’d let loose when you are jubilant & rejoicing, feel free to do that at this church!  
 
In fact, this “dancing” before the Lord is also a common biblical practice. We see it in  the Hebrew word mahol (ma-hole), and this word is used in Psalm 150:4 when the psalmist said to praise Him with the timbrel and dance. One of my favorite instances of this is found in Psalm 30:11-12, for turning our mourning into dancing. So David declared how his sadness & mourning had now been turned into rejoicing & dancing.
 
Therefore, we have all kinds of Scriptural proof that lifting our hands, dancing, whirling, and jumping are acceptable forms of praise, but the question many have had is – “Is all of this New Testament?”
 
You see, for some reason, the majority of the church has adopted this mentality that now we are supposed to praise & worship God “in the Spirit” – meaning, we don’t need any of that physical or emotional stuff anymore. But what we saw last week is that the gift of the Holy Spirit whom we’ve been promised under this new covenant, should propel us into even more demonstrative praise!
 
You see, the Holy Spirit is compared with wine a few times in the Bible because of the freedom & joy that He brings.
 
So what does this have to do with us praising God in all of these ways? Well, just think about it: If the infilling of the Holy Spirit has similar effects on us that alcohol has on people, what do you think might make us feel a little freer to dance, jump, whirl, and act what some might call a little foolish? The New Wine; that’s Who!  
 
So yes, being filled with the Holy Spirit won’t make us less free; it will make us more free – for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (See Second Corinthians 3:17)! Yes, freedom from the law, sin, and death, but also freedom to lift our hands, freedom to jump for joy, freedom to dance & spin around before the Lord, etc.  
 
Lifting Our Hands to Lifting Our Voices
 
Now this week, I want us to move into another couple of Hebrew words that describe another very important element of praise …
 
So let me begin by asking a very important question: Now that we’ve learned that certain demonstrative actions like lifting our hands, dancing, jumping, etc. are a part of our praise unto God, what about our volume? Is the level of noise we make with our mouth important?
 
Well, like the lifting of our hands, there are people who like to reason out of this, saying things like “What difference does it make if I lift my hands?” Well, like I made the point of last week, just because we don’t see the purpose of it, doesn’t mean there isn’t one. Again, when we were young and our parents told us to do certain things, we didn’t always understand why what they were telling us to do was important. However, when we matured, we realized that there were just things we simply didn’t see when we were young.
 
Therefore, the lesson is this – God, who is infinitely more wise & knowledgeable than us, is likely giving us instructions in the Scriptures to do things that we just haven’t connected the dots on yet. But a wise person will just do those things, trusting that He knows something we don’t. Amen? Well, like we saw last week, lifting our hands is one of those things that He explicitly tells us is a part of praise. So if I am wise child of God, I’ll lift my hands to the Lord. However, if I’m foolish, I’ll just continue doing what I want, what I think, etc.
 
And so my point is that just as there are a lot in the Scriptures about lifting our hands, there are also a lot of verses about lifting our voice. Yes, our voice volume is another one of these examples of God showing us how He likes to be praised that we might not yet understand …
 
So in order to establish the importance of our volume to the Lord, let’s look at a few more Hebrew words related to praising God and Scriptures that they are used in …
 
Shabach’d!
 
Although there are several words that we will look at today that establish the importance of shouting & lifting our voices, there is one word for praise that we see used in the Old Testament that I want to spend the most time on – It’s the word shabach (shaw-bakh). This word literally means, "to shout, to address in a loud tone, to command, to triumph." So it’s a loud adoration or an unashamed proclaiming with a loud voice.
 
Now this is a far cry from praising Him quietly in our hearts, isn’t it? Is there a place for being quiet and being still & knowing that He is God? Absolutely! Likewise, there is a place for being loud and shouting forth His praises with a voice of triumph! So if I am consistently only doing one of these two things, then I’m missing it. There is a time & place to do both, and we need to be willing to praise Him both ways, not just the way we are comfortable with.  
 
Let’s look at a few instances where this word is used …
 
In both First Chronicles 16:15 & Psalm 106:47, David said, “Save us, O God of our salvation; gather us together, and deliver us from the Gentiles, to give thanks to Your holy name, to triumph in Your praise.”
 
The word “triumph” here comes from this Hebrew word shabach. So the idea here is that God’s people are lifting their voices in victory for His salvation!
 
Psalm 63:3 says, “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You.”
 
Notice that it was his “lips” that was “shabach’ing” the Lord. So, this is where this loud voice of praise comes from. It’s not in your heart or in your mind; it’s done with your lips.
 
So who all is supposed to do this? Well, Psalm 117:1 tells us who: It says, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!”
 
“All you peoples” means that every kind of person is called to shabach the Lord! So no, it’s not just those who it’s their “personality” or those who are “wired” that way. It’s all you peoples!
 
Finally, Psalm 145:4 talks about how one generation shall “praise” God’s works to another.  
 
So let’s practice this – If you are 50 years old or older, I want you to lift your voice to a “loud tone” and say this to the rest of the rest of the people in this place today – “Jesus saved me!” Now all of you who are 49 years old and younger, I want you to do the same, and say back to them – “He saved me too!”
 
Guess what we just did? We just “shabach’d” each other!
 
Stilling the Storms
 
Now here is an interesting point about this word shabach: Figuratively, it means to soothe, still, or pacify – which sounds a lot to me like how a parent might seek to quiet their baby when they are crying. What do they do? They try and “still” the baby by picking it up and holding it. They try and “soothe” the baby by maybe rocking it back and forth. And they attempt to “pacify” it by giving it a pacifier or bottle.  
 
Shabach is used this way in Psalm 65:7 & 89:9 in describing how the Lord “stills” the waves of the sea. So isn’t that interesting? The word that describes shouting & addressing in a loud tone also describes the stilling of the raging seas.
 
Now let me show you how this works: Oftentimes in life, we find ourselves caught in the middle of a storm. And in these trials & tribulations of life, it is important that we understand a couple of things:

1. First of all, it is our responsibility to speak to the mountain. No, we don’t talk to God about the mountain, asking Him to remove it for us; we talk to the mountain about our God. We see this in Mark 11:23, when Jesus taught us to speak to the mountain and it would obey us. We see this illustrated earlier in the Gospel of Mark when Jesus spoke to the winds & waves and “stilled” them. So in following both Jesus’ instructions & example, we are to still the storm by speaking to it with authority.
2. Secondly, it is our responsibility to speak to our own soul. You see, it’s not the storm on the outside that will sink you; it’s only the storm on the inside of you that will sink you. In other words, the only thing that can defeat us is letting what’s on the outside get on the inside of us. So this is why it is imperative that we learn to take authority over our soul that can certainly get affected by the mountains & storms of life.   

 
I love what Psalm 8:2 teaches us …
 
The original King James Version reads this way – “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.”
 
Most of us are familiar with Jesus’ response when the religious leaders derided the children who were praising Him as He entered into Jerusalem on a donkey.  He said, “Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise?’” (Matthew 21:16). 
 
Now what makes this statement so interesting is that looking back at the Scripture Jesus was quoting, He was quoting Psalm 8:2. However, in this Psalm, David did not say, “perfected praise;” He said, “ordained strength.”  You see, the Hebrew word used in Psalm 8:2 for “strength” was correctly translated.  It indeed means “strength.”  So, Jesus gave us His divine commentary by exchanging the word “strength” for the word “praise.”  In doing so, He showed us that praise is the equivalent of strength.  Amen!
 
But Jesus was saying that praise is “strength” to do what? That we might “still” the enemy and the avenger! So praise “stills” the avenger – specifically, shabach is what will still or pacify the devil!
 
Isn’t it interesting that this loud & high-volume kind of praise is what stills & quiets the enemy? Perhaps this is why so many of us get an earful from the enemy and the winds & waves constantly rage around us – It’s because we haven’t gotten loud enough. Amen?
 
Cry Out & Break Forth!
 
But shabach is not the only Hebrew word for shouting or lifting our voices. There are actually several other words that describe something similar:
 
One word is ranan (rah-nan), and this word is used for “crying out or shouting for joy.”
 
It’s used in the following verses:
 
Isaiah 12:6 - “Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
 
Psalm 35:27 - “Let them shout for joy and be glad, Who favor my righteous cause; And let them say continually, ‘Let the Lord be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.’”
 
There’s also a word that describes to “break forth” in something. This is the word pasah (paw-tsakh) and describes to break out in a joyful sound, break forth in joy, and to burst forth with a loud noise.
 
You know, a big part of all of this is just “breaking out” of our comfort zone. People might not like to look at it this way, but the fact is, if we do not feel free to praise God in all these way – including lifting our voices – then we are in bondage to something. So the key to breaking the bondage is to “break out.” And like someone who breaks out of prison, they have to do some things that everything around them is telling them not to do to get free.
 
Well, I believe that a lot of times those fortress walls come down and those prison doors swing open when we make the deliberate decision to “break out” in a joyful sound and a loud voice! Amen! (We will see more of this at the end of today’s message)   
 
One instance where this is used is Psalm 98:4,6, which says, “Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises … With trumpets and the sound of a horn; Shout joyfully before the Lord the King.”
 
Finally, let’s look at one more Hebrew word which means something similar and that’s used in these verses – the word rua. It’s used in Psalm 98:4,6 as “shout joyfully.” This word describes “raising a shout” or “giving a blast.” It was used in several Old Testament instances as the catalyst for victories when God’s people would, say, blast a trumpet to sound an alarm or as a war cry or simply lift their voices and shout for the victory.
 
Here’s a couple of other places in the Psalms where it is used …  
 
Psalm 47:1 = “O clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with the voice of triumph.”
 
Psalm 95:1-2 = “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.”
 
The most popular place that we see rua used is in the very familiar story of the Battle of Jericho. So let’s turn over to Joshua chapter 6 and look at the important role that “shouting” plays in the walls coming down in our life …
 
From Egypt To Jericho
 
How many of you know that just as the children of Israel had a Promised Land to possess after their Exodus from Egypt, that there are promises God has made to us that we must possess even after we have experienced our salvation? It’s true. Just because we get saved from “Egypt” does not mean that we automatically are ushered into Canaan Land. There is a process to renewing our minds and a spiritual walk that takes us through the wilderness of this world and into everything God has promised us.
 
So, I want us to conclude today by looking at one very key and critical story in the Book of Joshua of how the children of Israel began to possess what God said was theirs—the Battle of Jericho.
 
Of course, we know that the city of Jericho was the Israelites first victory in their conquest of possessing the Promised Land of Canaan. We have all heard the story of the great walls surrounding this city and how when the Israelites marched around them, they experienced a spectacular victory when the walls fell down. But since this is the first challenge the children of Israel faced in possessing their Promised Land, I see it as both a foundational & fundamental lesson in how we too are to possess our Promised Land.
 
So, let’s begin reading this account in Joshua chapter 6:
 
Joshua 6:1 says, “Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in.”
 
You see, like it was with the children of Israel’s challenge of possessing Jericho, many of us have walls built up from our past—things that keep us from getting out and from letting others come in. Sure, like the children of Israel had already experienced their Exodus from Egypt, the parting of both the Red Sea and the Jordan River, we too might have experienced salvation, being baptized with both water and the Holy Spirit. But there can still be walls that must be torn down that keep us from possessing our full inheritance.
 
A good Scriptural example of this is with Lazarus: After he was raised from the dead—a type of us being raised to a new life when we were born again—he still had his grave clothes on, to where Jesus had to tell those present to loose him and let him go (see John 11:44). This is how some of have lived our entire Christian life—spiritually alive. Sure. But still with our graveclothes on, and these graveclothes keep us from experiencing the complete freedom that is ours in Christ Jesus. Heck, in the spirit, I bet a lot of Christians look like mummies.
 
And I want you to notice how the phrase “shut up” is used here. I understand that this was talking about how fortified Jericho was, but I just think it’s interesting how these words are used here – because one of the things that the walls in our lives can produce is shutting us up. In other words, the reason why we have such a hard time praising God in a loud, demonstrative way is because of the walls that have been erected in our lives.
 
So, these walls need to come down. Like Israel found out how to experience this supernatural victory directly from the Lord, we need to hear from the Lord ourselves and find out how to pull these walls down once and for all. Amen? And I believe a good first step is to study this account of this Battle of Jericho and see how Israel experienced their first victory in possessing their Promised Land.
 
What Is a Stronghold?
 
But I want you to notice how this opening verse of this chapter says that the City of Jericho was “securely shut up” to where “none went out, and none came in.” Did you know that this as a clear description of what the Bible calls a “stronghold”?
 
The most popular reference to this term is found in Second Corinthians chapter 10, where the apostle Paul describes the strongholds, imaginations and renegade thoughts that are to be pulled down by the anointing.
 
Second Corinthians 10:3-5 says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”
 
Now this word “strongholds” was originally used in classical Greek to describe a “fortress” and then later came to describe a “prison.” And this is important to understand because I believe both of these describe the “strongholds” that even we believers can have built up in our hearts & minds:
 
So, first of all, what is the purpose of a fortress? A fortress is used to primarily keep people out. Then this word came to describe a “prison.” So, what is a prison designed to do? A prison is used to primarily keep people in. This sounds like that opening verse of Joshua chapter 6, describing the city of Jericho, doesn’t it?
 
So some examples of a stronghold being a “fortress” could be—if you grew up with your parents never telling you that they loved you and with them making you feel good for nothing, if you have always been rejected by your classmates throughout school, or if you have been physically abused by a loved one. If you have had any experiences like that and now have a hard time trusting people and/or being yourself, this would be considered a “fortress” (or a stronghold) in your mind that “defends” you from being hurt. In other words, a stronghold fortress is a belief system or heart attitude that keeps people from getting close to you.
 
Now some examples of a stronghold being a “prison” could be—if you battle with depression or oppression, if you have this image of yourself as overweight, stupid, or worthless, this would be considered having a “prison” (or a stronghold) in your mind that keeps you bound where you don’t feel like you can get free.  
 
You see, strongholds are more than just drug addictions, pornographic habits, and mental sicknesses. Strongholds come in many different shapes and sizes. There are strongholds like these more apparent ones, but there are also strongholds that are less apparent, like insecurities, self-centeredness, and beliefs that are contrary to God’s Word. Most of us have some sort of stronghold in our minds whether big or small.
 
Choosing To Follow the Instructions
 
Now it needs to be said here that as we saw, in these verses, Paul describing the weapons of our warfare as “pulling down” strongholds, the words “pulling down” give us an indication as how they are pulled down.
 
You see, this action verb of “pulling down” comes from Greek word which literally means “to choose down.” That’s right! When you take the words apart, you find that they come from the Greek words which mean “down” and “to choose.” So, the way we “cast down” imaginations and other proud thoughts is by simply choosing not to think like that anymore. Yes, we “pull down” strongholds by first deciding to not let that stronghold have a place in our lives ever again!
 
You see, saints, this is the first step to “letting this mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus” and “not letting our hearts be troubled;” it is a choice—a decision to change the way we think and to adopt a new mentality.  Amen!
 
And guess what this does? By choosing a different attitude and a new frame of mind, it will cause us to experience the life of God. As Deuteronomy 30:19 says, “…I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life!”
 
We can clearly see here today that the way we choose life is by choosing a certain way of thinking. We choose the kind of life we live by choosing the kind of thoughts we think! Selah and amen!  
 
So now, let’s move on to the good part—how we can pull these strongholds down and progress in possessing our Promised Land in Christ Jesus… 
 
Now I want you to notice the specific instructions that God gave Joshua in this story. Let’s now read verses 3-5: You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him.”
 
Now these are some specific instructions, aren’t they? What this teaches me is that I need to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and hear the specific battle plan that He has for me. Now, in my opinion, the most important thing to take away from these specific instructions, is how we, too, need to hear God’s specific instructions and obey them. 
 
You see, following this specific set of instructions that the Lord gave to Israel back then will not necessarily work for us today (unless, of course, He gives us this story and tells us to do it) just as it would not have worked for Israel if they would have tried it again at the next city in Canaan. But no, God had a different battle plan for every city that they were to possess.
 
No, God has a specific battle plan for every battle and doing what we did last time or what someone else did will not cut it. We have to inquire of the Lord, hear from Him, and then do what He tells us to do, come hell or high water! This is how we get results in the kingdom of God—whatever He says for us to do, just do it! (see John 2:5).
 
Nevertheless, I believe there are some good general lessons in this account of the Bible that will work every time for all of us!
 
Notice what Joshua chapter 6 goes on to say in verse 6-14: Then Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord.” And he said to the people, “Proceed, and march around the city, and let him who is armed advance before the ark of the Lord.” So it was, when Joshua had spoken to the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the Lord advanced and blew the trumpets, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them. The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard came after the ark, while the priests continued blowing the trumpets. Now Joshua had commanded the people, saying, “You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I say to you, ‘Shout!’ Then you shall shout.” So he had the ark of the Lord circle the city, going around it once. Then they came into the camp and lodged in the camp. And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. Then seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually and blew with the trumpets. And the armed men went before them. But the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord, while the priests continued blowing the trumpets. And the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. So they did six days.
 
So, what we see here is that for 6 days, they were told to take the ark of the covenant and lead it around the walls of Jericho for 6 days, making only one pass a day for those 6 days. And the trumpets leading the ark were to be blown, but no one was supposed to say a word or make any other noise with their mouths for those 6 days.
 
Now can you imagine how difficult that must have been? I can only assume that the people of Jericho might have been on the top of the walls harassing them, perhaps throwing rotten fruit & veggies on them. So, it must have taken great faith to not say anything, right? Likewise, it takes great faith for us many times to not open our mouth.
 
You see, it is so easy to get in the flesh and try to win our own battles, but by telling the children of Israel things like don’t use your own words, but just let my praise be in your mouth, it shows that God wants our faith to be in Him.
 
And why is this so important? It is because we, in ourselves, cannot make the walls come down. No, they are not going to fall because of our own power or might. It’s not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord! Therefore, we need the power of the Holy Spirit—God’s manifest presence here on the earth—to pull these strongholds down! (Compare with Zechariah 4:6-7)      
 
So, the fact that they marched around the city for those 6 days without the people even saying a word and the ark went before them with the trumpets teaches us that biblical principle to be still and know that He is God. When we wait on the Lord, we exchange our weaknesses for His strength. And why? Because God inhabits the praises of His people (See Psalm 22:3)
 
And now let’s look at what happened on the seventh day: Verses 15-16 go on to say, “But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early, about the dawning of the day, and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day only they marched around the city seven times. And the seventh time it happened, when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people: “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city!”
 
But then came this seventh day—the day that the Lord rested from all His works! So, as it is said about the Sabbath rest, we must labor to enter into that rest. Now it is time for us to do something to trigger the manifestation of His victory. And interestingly enough, on the seventh day, they were told to march around the city seven times. Sevens are wild, amen! And as we see in verse 16, “And the seventh time it happened…”
 
So on the seventh day—the day which the Lord has made—when they obeyed in marching around the city seven times, then it happened! So, it all starts with God completing His part (seven being the number of completion) and then us laboring to enter into that rest. When we mix together God doing His complete part with us doing our complete part, then it happens! So, you might be wondering— “When is it going to happen?” When we mix faith together with God’s part!
 
Shout It Out!
 
Now notice that when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city!”
 
Now came the part where their silence was to turn to shouting—from one extreme to the other. And notice why the Lord told them to shout. It wasn’t just to shout for nothing, but to shout for (or, because) the Lord has given you the city! In other words, the Lord was telling them to act like they would when the Lord gave them the city. But the fact is, it is already a fact—the Lord had already given them the city! Again, it might not have looked like it in the natural. The walls might still have been up. The people might still inhabit the city within those walls, but from God’s perspective, it was as good as done! Therefore, He was telling them to act on what was already a reality in the spirit.
 
For example, if you were unable to walk right now, and then you were able to not only walk but leap, dance, and run, what would you do (i.e. how would you act)? Well, I am certain that some of you shyer people who might say, “Well, it’s just not my temperament, pastor,” would start shouting and praising God! Well, that is how the Lord wants us to act before we see it. But it is not us doing this to try and get God to do something. No, it is us acting in faith because we know that we know that we know that God has already done something. Amen? In other words, we are responding this way because we believe what we have “seen.”
 
So, we can clearly see that we are not “shouting” as one who buffets the wind; no, we are “shouting” because something is real, true, and a fact—God has already given His promises to us!
 
Skipping down to verse 20 and on, notice what happened: “So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.”
 
You see, this story is in the Bible to show you and I how we can take our Promised Land – because it’s important to understand that just because we have a promise from God, that doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to be possessed by us. No, we have to possess God’s promises, and one of the ways we do so is by following His instructions.
 
And in this case, the instructions were to know when to have our mouths shut and to know when to shout! So when it comes to strongholds in our lives, where we feel “shut up,” we can see that breaking out and shouting is the key to seeing those walls come down! Amen?  
 
As that company’s commercial used to say, some stains you got to shout out! Amen!

REVIEW
 
Praise the Lord!  This is the title of our current series, and as you just witnessed, we are not just wanting to observe what praise is; we want to actually “Praise the Lord!”
 
So we are stretching ourselves a little bit, right? We are finding out what God considers praise to be and then adopting these things into our praise lives. And we are doing this by looking at the various words that are used for praise in the Old Testament.
 
We started off by looking at the most common Hebrew word for praise, the word halal. We learned that this word is used close to 150 times in the Old Testament and is translated “praise” the vast majority of those times. However, even though the word “praise” is obviously its primary meaning, it actually has some interesting other meanings that we learned …
 
We saw that the word halal literally is defined as – "to be clear (originally of sound, but usually of color), to shine (thus to give light) – which results in to make a show, to boast, to rave, to celebrate, and to be clamorously foolish, or act like a madman."
 
So we made the point that when we read these various ways that halal is being described, we don’t see a lot of this reflected in people’s praise lives, do we? No, I see very few people “shining” by acting foolish or like a crazy person during the praise time. And that’s not to condemn us, but it does need to be brought to our attention because if this is how we are called to praise, then perhaps we ought to loosen up a bit. Perhaps we’ve grown up too much.
 
Yes, the Lord desires that our praise to first be “clear” – that is, true, sincere, and genuine. I made the point that this to me describes praising & worshipping God in truth.
In other words, this describes praise that is void of pretense and hypocrisy. He wants praise that is done in truth – that is, purely and sincerely.
 
But at the same time, the Lord also desires our praise to “shine” – that is, for it to first be displayed in how we live our lives. So that means that shining forth His praise is not just what we say, but how we live our everyday lives.
 
However, we also learned that this “shining” describes making a show, boasting, raving, celebrating, and to act clamorously foolish, or like a madman. What this means, church, is that we will stand out of the pack. We’ll be the one that seems to be in the spotlight even though that’s not necessarily our intention.
 
Now I know that a lot of people shun being in the spotlight and have a heart to not do things that draw attention to ourselves, the fact is, if we praise God this way, we will be noticed. Therefore, we learned that while we certainly don’t want to praise God to be seen of men, we also don’t want to hold our praise back because of the fear of man – meaning, while we might not want the attention, we are not going to hold back because of the attention we might get. Amen?
 
Then last week, we covered another Hebrew word for “praise”, the word todah.
 
We saw how from Psalm 42 that this kind of “praise” is the attitude by which we enter the house of the Lord— with the voice of joy and praise. Now we learned how the word “praise” here is not the word halal or any other of the popular Hebrew words for praise; it is the Hebrew word todah which describes "an extension of the hand in adoration, avowal, or acceptance." One expositor went on to say the following: “By way of application, it is apparent in the Psalms and elsewhere that it is used for thanking God for ‘things not yet received’ as well as things already at hand.” In fact, it is actually translated “thanksgiving” half the times it is used in the original King James Version. So the idea of this form of praise is more that of expressing gratitude and the giving of thanks to God.
 
So we looked at a couple of other passages of Scripture where this idea of entering the presence of God (i.e. the house of God) with thanksgiving is described (both of which, mind you, the Hebrew word todah is what is being used.  One is found in Psalm 95:2 where we are told to “come before His presence with thanksgiving” and the other is Psalm 100:4 that describes entering His gates with thanksgiving.

So what we learned is that the best way to enter the presence of God is “with thanksgiving.”
 
So just like the first step into God’s presence is through the gates of God’s House, the first step through the gates of His presence is by thanksgiving. Yes, Psalm 100:4 specifically says how we are to enter through them— it’s with thanksgiving. So what we can see through this statement is the best way to approach God in praise is through the gates of thanksgiving!
 
We learned that one of the reasons for this is because we “magnify God with thanksgiving, again the word todah (See Psalm 69:30). In other words, like a magnifying glass, we increase the size of Him in our own eyes when we thank Him for things He has done, is doing, and promised to do. So todah is what will make the One we are praising larger, bigger, and greater in our eyes – which will usher us into His presence and guess what wells up in us as a result? You guessed it… PRAISE!!! We started off traveling through the gates of thanksgiving and ended up in the courts of praise! Praise the Lord!
 
But we also learned that this word todah is oftentimes used when describing the sacrifice of thanksgiving. So I believe that one of the pictures of what it means to enter His gates with thanksgiving might be how the Jewish people would enter the house of the Lord with a sacrifice in hand. And we learned that it’s that offering up to Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving which has great reward in that it will change our perspective, help our focus, and bring His joy & power into the picture! The Lord always blesses the things we do in faith! Amen?
 
But then we learned that this todah kind of thanksgiving is not just what we should start out with; the New Testament teaches us that it’s what we end with as well. You see, even though we’ve seen thanksgiving mentioned being done first in these Old Testament verses, in the New Testament, we see it mentioned it as being done after when we’ve approached God.
 
We looked at three passages of Scripture that teach us this from the New Testament and with all three, we see the phrase “with thanksgiving” being included last. So based on these three passages of Scripture, we learned that not only is thanksgiving the appropriate way to enter into praise; it’s also the right way to end our time of praise as well.
 
Church, thanksgiving is not just something we should do at the end of the year; it is what we must do in the beginning of the year and all throughout it. It is how we come before Him and draw near to Him. It is the gateway into the holy of holies where the manifested glory and presence of God is housed.
 
So, it would behoove us to incorporate this spirit of thanksgiving into our praise lives—for not only is it the right & noble thing to do towards the One who has given us so much, but it also the vehicle that leads us into His presence. Amen. 
 
Why Y’all Do That?
 
Now this week, I’d like us to move into some Hebrew words & examples from the Old Testament of praise in the Old Testament that will answer the question – “Why y’all do that?”
 
You know, there are lot of things that we do in certain Charismatic, Pentecostal circles that I’m not so sure people understand why we do them – whether that be if you are someone who isn’t used to a church like this or whether you’ve grown up in a church that does these things. And the last thing we want to do is do things simply out of tradition or for some other religious reason.
 
So let’s begin answering that question 0f why we praise God like we do …
 
Why Do We Lift Our Hands?
 
The next word I want us to move into this week is actually the root word for the word we covered last week (todah), the word yadah.
 
Like todah which described an extension of the hand in adoration, avowal, or acceptance, the word yadah likewise describes "an extended hand or to throw out the hand.” And here it describes praising God by shooting out the hands, thanking Him with extended hands, or we might say to simply lift the hands in praise & thanksgiving.
 
Now the first time the word yadah was used was when the Lord opened Leah’s womb to bear sons to Jacob and she gave birth to Judah – for she said, “Now I will praise the Lord” and gave Judah his name (See Genesis 29:35).
 
So much can be said for what the Lord gave us through the Tribe of Judah namely the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ – which teaches me what raising our hands in praise & thanksgiving likewise produces in our lives – Salvation (i.e. Jesus)!  
 
We see this illustrated in Second Chronicles 20:20-22 when Jehoshaphat put the praisers in front and appointed them to say, “Praise (Heb. yadah) the Lord, for His mercy endures forever!” The Amplified Bible translates this as “Praise and give thanks to the Lord …” in order to give the full definition of the word yadah.
 
And we know what happened as these praisers led the army into the battle, don’t we? As they went into the battle with hands extended, praising & thanking the Lord, the Lord fought the battle for them! Church, this is how we procure the riches of our salvation – by praising & thanking the Lord with hands lifted high!   
 
So have you ever wondered why you see some people lift their hands during the praise & worship service? Well, here is one of your reasons – it’s because it’s Biblical since one of the Hebrew words for praise specifically describes it.
 
But not only do we have this Hebrew word that clear describes praise being done with lifted/extended hands, we have several Scriptures that specifically talk about this too …

1. Psalm 63:4 says, “Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.”
2. Psalm 134:1-2 says, “Behold, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.”
3. Psalm 143:6 says, “I spread out my hands to You; My soul longs for You like a thirsty land.”
4. Lamentations 3:41 says, “Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven.”
5. Even in the New Testament, we see this practiced when Paul told Timothy, “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;” (See First Timothy 2:8).

 
This is just a few of the Scriptural examples of what yadah describes. But you’ll still have someone who will say, “But I just don’t see the point. What good does it do to lift my hands?”
 
Well, first of all, you don’t have to understand or see the point to do it and reap the benefits of simple obedience. I mean, I don’t have to know why a brown cow, eats grass, produces white milk, that when churned makes yellow butter – to enjoy a good biscuit. Amen?
 
Now I think understanding is important. Don’t get me wrong. But there’s just a lot we aren’t going to understand that we should simply do because we are told to. In fact, there’s a lot of examples in the Bible where people are told to do certain things and simply by following those instructions, miracles came forth. How easy it would be to hear instructions and to say, “Well, I’m sure its not important to do it exactly like that” or “I don’t see the purpose in doing that, so I’ll just do it this way.” I’ll tell you, saints – that’s a sure-fire way to miss a miracle!
 
So when it comes to lifting my hands to the Lord, I don’t necessarily have to know why I’m doing what I’m doing to reap the benefits of the biscuit! Amen?
 
But I will give you a few logical reasons why lifting our hands is important to our relationship with the Lord …

1. It’s a posture of surrender. Therefore, a person with hands in the air is sometimes showing that they give up – not giving up like I’m quitting serving God, but giving up as in relinquishing control over their own life and giving in to God’s will – kind of like we put our hands in the air when we are under arrest.  
2. It’s also a posture of dependence. So a person lifting their hands is humbly showing their need for God while they praise Him kind of like a young child throws out its arms for its dad or mom – which is big sign of humility versus the one who refuses to lift their hands to this unseen God that we ought to be looking to for everything.  
3. It’s a posture of receiving. So extending our arms to Him with open hands can be indicative of our willingness to receive from Him. Therefore, if I have a need for say healing or grace of any kind, me lifting my hands to Him can be me showing my desire & willingness to receive.

 
And there are probably several more things that lifting our hands to the Lord shows, but the fact, the Lord wants His people to be demonstrative in expressing their praise to Him. Yes, while our hearts are where true praise is to begin, the Lord also wants us loving Him with all our strength. So the person who does not show any real physical expressions of praise is simply not doing it right – for when the Lord has our whole heart, our body will come along with it.
 
Jumping, Whirling, Dancing, the Whole Bit!
 
With that being said, let me give you a few more things you and I do with our body to praise God which will answer some more questions like “why do we do this or that” when we praise the Lord …
 
How about jumping? Have you ever seen someone jump during the praise time? Sure, I for one love to jump. And guess what? It’s Scriptural too.
 
We have a Hebrew word alaz (a-lauze), and while this word is not translated as “praise” per se, it is used to describe “rejoicing, exulting, and to be jubilant.” In fact, while this word definitely describes being joyful, it carries the idea of “jumping for joy.”
 
So there you go! Now you have Scriptural precedence for jumping during the song service.     
 
But even if we didn’t have this specific definition to “jump for joy” it should just be self-explanatory that if we are jubilant and rejoicing, things like jumping go along with this joyful heart. Amen?
 
Guess what else comes with a jubilant heart? Dancing and whirling!
 
Of course, we have a great example of this from David’s life: We’ve seen this already in Second Samuel 6:14-16 when we are told – “Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.”
 
Here we see how David’s jubilant heart resulted in him doing several things:


Yes, he was “leaping,” but he was also “whirling” – which comes from the Hebrew word karar (ka-rare) – which described how David was dancing before the Lord with all his might.
 
Now this doesn’t mean to bring your old worldly barroom dancing up in here, but it describes a joyful dance. In other words, what’s your snoopy, happy dance. That’s what the Lord is blessed when we let it loose for Him. It might be simply just leaping. It might be whirling around. It might waving your hands back & forth. The bottom line is – whatever dance you’d let loose when you are jubilant & rejoicing, feel free to do that at this church!  
 
In fact, this “dancing” before the Lord is also a common biblical practice. We see it in Hebrew word mahol (ma-hole) and this word is used in Psalm 150:4 when the psalmist said to praise Him with the timbrel and dance. One of my favorite instances of this is found in Psalm 30:11-12 for turning our mourning into dancing. So David declared how his sadness & mourning had now been turned into rejoicing & dancing.
 
So when people bring up to me about dancing before the Lord in church, asking me if I think it’s alright, here’s how I answer: Not only do we have several Hebrew words that describe dancing, we have this example from David’s life that proves how we too have every right to dance before the Lord.
 
You see, the Bible teaches us at the Old Testament was a type & shadow of things which are to come. Well, if David danced in the shadow, we sho’ ought to be able to dance in the light. Glory!
 
Is All This New Testament?
 
Now as talk about these various Hebrew words that describe all of this demonstrative type of praise, there are some who think that things have changed since the Cross. For some reason, the majority of the church has adopted this mentality that now we are supposed to praise & worship God “in the Spirit” – meaning, we don’t need any of that physical or emotional stuff anymore. But I’d like to end today by talking about how doing things “in the Spirit” doesn’t mean that we forsake these Biblical examples of praise & rejoicing form the Old Testament. In fact, the Holy Spirit should propel us into even more demonstrative praise!
 
You see, there are other things that you might see in our circles. Yeah, you’ll most likely see some lifted hands. You might even see some people jumping, dancing, etc. But have you ever seen people falling down, running around the church, laughing in the Spirit, and wobbling around like a drunk person? Well, there’s actually some Scriptural precedence for these things because this is the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s outpouring!
 
If you recall, in Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church, there was a comparison made to the Spirit’s infilling with drunkenness. Let’s look at it this week …
 
On the day of Pentecost, when the disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost in that upper room, we see that while the majority were amazed and perplexed by what they were hearing (i.e. the disciples speaking in other tongues and declaring, in their own tongues, the wonderful works of God), there were others mocking who thought that they were drunk with new wine (Acts 2:13). But then we see Peter correcting them saying, “For these are not drunk, as you suppose…” (2:15). Notice this phrase— “as you suppose.” So, Peter was admitting that they were drunk alright, just not like those people thought!
 
You see, most people “suppose” that the reason this group of people thought they were drunk was just by the tongues they were hearing, but when you hear people praying in tongues have you ever mistaken that with someone being intoxicated? I haven’t. So, what this shows me is that the effects of the infilling of the Holy Spirit can easily be mistaken for the effects of being filled with alcohol.
 
So, what was it that made the onlookers assume that the believers were drunk? It’s because they were acting under a new influence. They were behaving abnormally. They were speaking and moving in a way that was different. No, they weren’t incapacitated and belligerent, but they were joyful and having a good time!
 
You see, the Holy Spirit is compared with wine, not because He brings chaos, but because He brings freedom & joy. Just as people receive wine in celebration, so are we to receive the Holy Spirit with gladness. His presence, like wine, marks the occasion. Wine represents the joy, prosperity, and boldness brought about by the Holy Spirit.
 
Now what does this have to do with us praising God in all of these ways? Well, just think about it: If the infilling of the Holy Spirit has similar effects on us that alcohol has on people, what do you think might make us feel a little freer to dance, jump, whirl, and act what some might call a little foolish? The New Wine; that’s Who!  
 
Staying Full of New Wine
 
You see, Ephesians 5:18 says, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.” Notice that the apostle Paul here compares being drunk with wine as being filled with the Spirit. One expositor states that the word “drunk” means “to be filled.” So what Paul was literally saying was “don’t be filled with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.”
 
But notice that Paul makes the point of saying that being drunk with alcohol leads to “dissipation.” The word “dissipation” comes from the Greek word “sozo” which is the word translated “salvation.” But this word “sozo” has the alpha negative “a” before it which gives the word “sozo” the exact opposite meaning that it has on its own. It literally describes the opposite of that which has a saving quality about it. Therefore, it rather has a destructive quality. So, Paul was describing how living a drunkin’ lifestyle just leads to destruction and bondage, but how having a Spirit-Filled lifestyle has the opposite effect. It leads to freedom and wholeness!
 
Why do people like to get drunk anyways? It is because it frees them from their inhibitions. Yes, they become free to do the things they normally wouldn’t do. Another reason is because it makes them joyful and fun to be around. Likewise, full of the Holy Spirit, we become free to be ourselves and become joyful and fun to be around.
 
I for one, used to love to dance when I was drinking. But you’d never get me out on that dance floor when I was sober. You know, I think some of us live our lives too sober. No, I’m not advocating we start drinking this world’s alcohol because we just saw how destructive that is to one’s life. No, I’m saying we need to be filled with Spirit and stay filled so that we can experience the freedom to live for and praise God the way we are supposed to.
 
You know, Jesus must have been fun to be around if the kid’s all liked Him, right? Children aren’t drawn to sour-pusses, I can assure you. Speaking of Jesus, Hebrews 1:9 says, “Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than your companions” The Holy Spirit is called the “oil of gladness” because that is what is produced in a believer who is full of the Holy Ghost—JOY! Joy unspeakable and full of glory!
 
You see, the believer does not need wine to experience joy. Wine can only give unfulfilling counterfeits of what the Holy Spirit offers. The Holy Spirit is the wine of Heaven—and the good news is that He is free and He doesn’t give you a hang-over either! So, in essence, Paul is saying, “Hey guys. Don’t get drunk on wine because that just leads to bondage. But instead, be filled up with the Spirit and experience the new wine!” In other words, one doesn’t need alcohol in order to have a good time and enjoy life; learning to drink of and being filled with the Holy Spirit can give one what they felt like only alcohol could give them. Amen.
 
So how does one stay full of the Holy Spirit? Well, let’s look at the next verse and find out how:
 
Ephesians 5:19 says, “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” A major key to staying full of the Spirit is the words that come out of our mouth. In other words, just as our mouth is the primary way one fills their belly with wine, our mouth is the primary way one stays full of the Spirit. Paul said here that we are continuously filled with the Spirit when we let “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” come out of our mouth. So, what are “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs?”
 
“Psalms” suggests what we would call “scriptural music.” In almost every usage of the Greek word “psalmos” the Psalms of the Old Testament are what is being referred to. So, singing “psalms” would be singing the Psalms of the Old Testament obviously, but it could also include singing other portions of Scripture. The term “hymns” literally describe “festive songs” or “songs of praise specifically addressed towards God.” A hymn differs from a psalm in that while a psalm is generally scripturally-based, a hymn is a song that comes of human origin. Some examples of “hymns” could be “I Sing Praises to Your Name”, “Holy, Holy, Holy”, or “the Doxology.” Then Paul said that the third and final songs that we should sing are “spiritual songs.” The word “spiritual” literally means “non-carnal.” So “spiritual songs” are “songs that are not of human origin”—that is, songs that are given by inspiration of the Spirit. This would include singing in tongues or simply just singing a song in our own understanding that the Holy Spirit puts in our hearts and that did not originate from man.
 
Someone might say, “But it is not always convenient to sing. What do you do in those times?” That Is why Paul’s next phrase in Ephesians 5:19 is “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” In those times where it is not appropriate to sing aloud, we can make melody in our heart to the Lord. We can always maintain that inner communion with Him. God is a spirit so we can worship Him (or, fellowship with Him) in spirit (i.e. not naturally). So, when we cannot let it come out of our mouth, we need to let it continue in our heart.
 
Actually, this singing and making melody in our heart is always important to do. Sometimes we can just let songs come out of our mouth without our hearts being behind the words. If all we do is just sing psalms and hymns without our hearts truly being involved it will do absolutely nothing to keep us full of the Spirit. That is why Paul went on to say “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” This means that the songs that come out of our mouth should be aimed at the Lord. That is, that we are not just singing but that we are actually singing to the Lord—making Him the object of all the words that proceed from our mouth. This is getting our heart involved in our psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
 
But the main point I am making is the importance of praise, worship, and thanksgiving coming out of our mouths regarding maintaining a Spirit-Filled life. Amen. This is how we drink in the Spirit, when His praises come out of our mouth. And just like we need to bathe regularly so that we won’t stink in the natural, we need to be "bathed" in the Holy Spirit continually so that we won't stink spiritually.
 
So yes, being filled with the Holy Spirit won’t make us less free; it will make us more free – for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (See Second Corinthians 3:17)! Yes, freedom from the law, sin, and death, but also freedom to lift our hands, freedom to jump for joy, freedom to dance & spin around before the Lord, etc.  
 
The Hand of the Lord
 
In fact, you’ll see the Holy Spirit have all kinds of interesting effects on people.
 
For example, have you have seen someone take off running during a church service? I have! In fact, I’ve been that guy numerous times! Someone will say, “Is there any Scripture for that?” Sure, there is!
 
Do you remember when the Bible said that when “the hand of the Lord” came upon Elijah, that he outran the king’s chariot (First Kings 18:46)? Well, the hand of the Lord is a reference to when the Holy Spirit comes upon someone. And what did the supernatural experience of the Holy Spirit produce? He ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel! In other words, he was supernaturally endowed to run.
 
Even David said in Psalm 18:29 that “by the Lord” he could run against a troop and leap over a wall. Notice running & leaping are being referred to here.
 
Someone might say, “Well, all of this is talking about God empowering one for a purpose.” Well, is there not a purpose in praise?
 
I want you to know today that David was first anointed to praise! So much so, that when he played his harp before a demonized king, Saul experienced a freedom during those times. So there was obviously the hand of the Lord on David’s praise life for him to have so much grace that he could pen at least well over 100 God-inspired songs.
 
Well, this wasn’t all He was anointed for. We see in the life of David how he was also a warrior – one who could perform supernatural feats that began with him being able to manhandle both a lion and a bear and also kill tens of thousands of men at a time.
 
So do you reckon there is a connection there? Is it that a person who is powerful in praise will also be powerful in battle.  
 
So what do you reckon can happen when the hand of the Lord comes upon us? Running & leaping is certainly a viable option.  
 
But the fact is, when the natural comes into contact with the supernatural, something’s got to give. And it sure won’t be the supernatural!
 
Do you remember the story of when, at the tomb of Jesus, a couple of angels came and rolled the stone away? Well, we are told that there was a couple of Roman soldiers there that fell like dead men. Someone will say, “Well, that was because a couple of heavenly beings showed up.” I’ll tell you, there’s a Heavenly Being who is here today and He came in like a rushing mighty wind!  
 
Also, in the Garden, the Bible tells us that when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, that the men fell over backwards when Jesus said, “I am He.” Someone will say, “Well, they were right in the presence of Jesus.” Jesus said where two or three are gathered together, I am there in the midst of them! So we today are also right in the very presence of Jesus! Glory!
 
Church, this new wine of the Holy Spirit will have some very similar effects on us that alcohol has on people in the world. It’ll embolden us! It will free us from all our inhibitions! It will bring us joy – joy that will cause us to dance, jump, run, fall, laugh, etc. This is one of the many benefits of the Spirit-filled life, and one of that we should take advantage of during our praise services! Let’s let the hand of the Lord come upon us today, amen?  

REVIEW
 
In this series of teachings entitled “Praise the Lord,” our goal is that before we are done, this phrase will mean much more to us than it ever has before.
 
You see, this phrase is not just there for informational purposes; it’s there telling God’s people what to do. In other words, it’s a call to action. So if I read in the Bible, “Praise the Lord!”, what should my response be? It should be to praise the Lord! Yes, if the Scriptures say, “Hallelujah”, then I should stop what I’m doing, act on it, and begin praising the Lord right then! Amen?
 
But we are learning about this subject of praise so that it becomes something that we do the way the Lord intends for us to. Yes, we are looking at some things that reveal to us what God considers true praise to be and what it will look like in our lives.
 
So what we began doing last week was looking at some of these Hebrew words for “praise” and some of the Scriptures that they are used in. And last week, we started off looking at the most common Hebrew word for praise, the word halal.
 
We learned that this word is used close to 150 times in the Old Testament and is translated “praise” the vast majority of those times. However, even though the word “praise” is obviously the primary way this Hebrew word is translated, it actually has some interesting other meanings that we can learn from …
 
We saw that the word halal literally is defined like so – "to be clear (originally of sound, but usually of color), to shine (thus to give light) – which results in to make a show, to boast, to rave, to celebrate, and to be clamorously foolish, or act like a madman."
 
So when we read these various ways that halal is being described, we don’t see a lot of this reflected in people’s praise lives, do we? No, I see very few people “shining” by acting foolish or like a crazy person during the praise time. And that’s not to condemn us, but it does need to be brought to our attention because if this is the job detail of praise, then perhaps we ought to loosen up a bit. Perhaps we’ve grown up too much.
 
Yes, the Lord desires that our praise be “clear” – that is, true, sincere, and pure. I made the point that this to me describes praising & worshipping God in truth.
This describes praise that is void of pretense and hypocrisy. He wants praise that is done in truth – that is, sincerely and without shame.
 
But the Lord also desires our praise to “shine” – that is, for it to first be displayed in how we live our lives but also by what the rest of halal’s meaning – “to make a show, to boast, to rave, to celebrate, and to be clamorously foolish, or act like a madman." This means we will stand out from the pack. We’ll be the one that seems to be in the spotlight even though that’s not necessarily our intention.
 
You know, I’ve had people try to tell me about what everyone else is doing during times of praise & worship, and I’ve told these folks – “Yeah, but what were you doing?” Well, the obvious answer was – they weren’t praising God themselves because they were obviously too busy judging how everyone else was doing it. Amen?
 
So we learned that while we don’t want to praise God to be seen of men, we also don’t want to hold our praise back because of the fear of man. We serve a God who is worthy of all the glory, and He deserves our clear and shining praise. Amen?
 
The Todah Package
 
Now another word for “praise” that I would like us to tackle today is a very appropriate one for what we are celebrating this week …
 
Let’s look first at Psalm 42 where we get our very popular song “As the deer” from. This Psalm begins with that chorus, and then when we get to Psalm 42:4, the psalmists say, “When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me; For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with the multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.”
 
So this psalm is describing how the Jewish person would take their pilgrimage to Jerusalem and to the house of God during their feast days. And I want you to notice how the psalmists said that they approached the house of God (i.e. the Temple): It was with the voice of joy and praise.
 
Now the word “praise” here is not the word halal or any other of the popular Hebrew words for praise; it is the Hebrew word todah and this word describes a different aspect of praise. In fact, it comes from the same principal root word as yadah, which we will learn more about next week, but here it is used more specifically.
 
Todah literally describes – "an extension of the hand in adoration, avowal (i.e. an open declaration or acknowledgement), or acceptance." One expositor went on to say the following: “By way of application, it is apparent in the Psalms and elsewhere that it is used for thanking God for ‘things not yet received’ as well as things already at hand.”
 
In fact, it is actually translated “thanksgiving” half the times it is used in the original King James Version. So the idea of this form of praise is more that of expressing gratitude and the giving of thanks to God.
 
So how appropriate is this for today? We are looking at the Hebrew “praise” word for thanksgiving on the week where we celebrate Thanksgiving.
 
So what I want you to see from Psalm 42:4 is that the way the psalmists describe going to the Temple on these Jewish holidays was with both the voice of joy and the voice of thanksgiving.
 
Now as I consider this, I cannot help but think of other Psalms that say the same thing. One of them is Psalm 95:2 where we are told to “come before His presence with thanksgiving” – again, the same Hebrew word todah. But probably the more well known one that also uses this same Hebrew word for praise is the 100th Psalm.
 
The 100th Psalm reads like so … First of all, its described by the Psalmist as “A Psalm of Thanksgiving (or Praise).” In fact, this word for “thanksgiving” is the Hebrew word todah. Then he said, “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.
 
Notice Psalm 100:4. Again, it says, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” The word for “thanksgiving” here is again the word todah.  
 
But what I wanted you to notice here is that like Psalm 42 described approaching the House of God during their feast celebrations, the Psalmist here is also obviously painting the picture of entering the Tabernacle/Temple as well. But what we see in Psalm 100:4 is describing how one truly enters the Holiest of holies, where God’s presence is. And the first step through the gate is “with thanksgiving (Heb. todah).”
 
So just like the first step into God’s presence is through the gates of God’s House, the first step through the gates of His presence is by thanksgiving. Yes, Psalm 100:4 specifically says how we are to enter through them— it’s with thanksgiving. So what we can see through this statement is the best way to approach God in praise is through the gates of thanksgiving!
 
You see, giving God thanks for things that He has done, is doing, or even what He will do in the future is what causes us to enter the presence of the Lord the right way. For one, being thankful to our Creator, Savior, etc. is just the noble thing to do, so it is both the appropriate and acceptable way to approach God. In other words, it is the spirit by which we draw near to God. So, when we look at wonderful promises like James 4:8 that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to you, we understand the first steps to drawing near to Him—and it is “with thanksgiving.” Therefore, when you and I draw near to God with thanksgiving, He will draw near to us—meaning, His presence will be manifested in our lives, and we will experience more of His joy, peace, and power. Therefore, it’s also the best way to increase our awareness of just how awesome He is!
 
How does this work, you ask? Well, one way is how King David said in Psalm 69:30 that we magnify God with thanksgiving (Hebrew word todah), and the word “magnify” means to increase the size of something (or in this case, Someone). This means that through thanksgiving we can actually make God bigger in our eyes, like a magnifying glass makes objects bigger when we look at them through it. Now, of course, we are not going to be able to make God any bigger than He already is, but what this means is that we can make our view & perspective of Him bigger! So todah is what will make the One we are praising larger, bigger, and greater in our eyes! This is what David was saying.
 
So this is exactly why the Psalmist said that we are to enter into His gates with thanksgiving – It is because when we start off by giving thanks to God, He gets bigger and greater in our sight. Then our perspective changes! All the cares of this life begin to shrink, and all that God has done becomes magnified in our sight. This stirs us up, and guess what wells up in us as a result? You guessed it… PRAISE!!! We started off traveling through the gates of thanksgiving and ended up in the courts of praise as Psalm 100:4 teaches us.  
 
The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving
 
In fact, oftentimes, this word todah is used when describing the sacrifice of thanksgiving (See Psalm 107:22, 116:17, Amos 4:5, Jonah 2:9). So I believe that one of the pictures of what it means to enter His gates with thanksgiving might be how the Jewish people would enter the House of the Lord with a sacrifice in hand.
 
You see, a lesson I feel we can take away from this is that a lot of times offering thanks to God will feel a lot like a sacrifice. In other words, you won’t always automatically feel thankful. On some days, you might be focused on some current challenges, or your emotional state might just be in a bad place. So at these times, stirring ourselves up to offer up to God thanksgiving might be more of a sacrifice.
 
So we make it a point during these times to stir ourselves up to be thankful by purposefully and intentionally recalling things the Lord has done, is doing, and has promised He will do.
 
You see, it’s important in the eyes of the Lord that we do not just praise or thank Him when He does something for us. Sure, we should certainly do it at those times too, but what about the times where things aren’t going the way we’d like them to? What about the times where we don’t “feel” very thankful? Do we at those times just cater to the feelings & emotions that we are having, or should we still praise & thank Him like we would when we feel like it? I believe that’s when this sacrifice of thanksgiving is to be offered – when it costs us something. Amen?   
 
But again, what have we learned? It’s that offering up to Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving has great reward in that it will change our perspective, help our focus, and bring His joy & power into the picture!
 
Therefore, learning to thank God when we don’t feel like it and giving that sacrifice of praise will never be left unrewarded when done right. The Lord always blesses the things we do in faith! Amen?
 
New Testament Thanksgiving
 
But that’s only half of it …
 
Thanksgiving is not just what we should start out with; the New Testament teaches us that it’s what we end with as well. You see, even though we’ve seen thanksgiving mentioned being done first in these Old Testament verses, in the New Testament, we see it mentioned as being done after we’ve approached God.
 
Let me give you three passages of Scripture that teach us this.
 
In Colossians 4:2, the apostle Paul says, “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.” So Paul was wanting to make sure we apply the last two words of this verse to how we approach the Lord in prayer — “with thanksgiving.”
 
We see this echoed by Paul in Philippians 4:6 when he said that “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving we let our requests be made known unto God.” So again, we see the prayer and then the supplication followed up by “with thanksgiving.” So if the giving of thanks is left out, we do not have the complete recipe for having the peace that surpasses all understanding come through our prayer life (See Philippians 4:7).
 
And finally in First Thessalonians 5:16-18 we see yet another example of where the apostle Paul puts the giving of thanks at the end. In these verses, the apostle Paul said to the church of Thessalonica: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
 
Now in the middle verse here, we see the meat—and that is that we are to pray without ceasing. But notice how Paul starts off by saying, “Rejoice always.” But that’s just one half of the sandwich. Notice the other half in verse 18 where Paul goes on to say, “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
 
So, now we learn that not only are we to always rejoice in our unceasing prayer & praise life, but in everything, we are to give thanks to the Lord as well. And Paul goes on to reveal to us that this three-part instruction in verses 16-18 is “the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” In other words, we see here that the will of God in Christ Jesus for us when approaching Him is one that is always enveloped in unceasing joy and thanksgiving.  
 
What an awesome way to approach God, huh? Start it off with a good attitude that is rejoicing no matter if it’s a good time or a bad time. Let joy be what prefaces everything! Then be sure that after you pray to give thanks in everything as well!
 
So based on these three passages of Scripture, not only is thanksgiving the appropriate way to enter into praise; it’s also the right way to end our time of praise as well.
 
The Thanksgiving Turkey Sandwich
 
So if we combine together the truths of the Old Testament that teach us to come before Him and enter His gates “with thanksgiving” with the truths of the New Testament that teach us to end our times before Him “with thanksgiving,” guess what we get? We get the perfect Thanksgiving turkey sandwich!  
 
I’ve spoken before about the “sandwich technique” being a wise way to handle things. Like for instance, if I was dealing with a person and needed to give them some tough to swallow criticism, it would be good to begin that conversation with something positive and then end it with another positive. This way I’m “sandwiching” the tough part with two pleasant things. So today, I want us to look at the perfect Thanksgiving turkey sandwich 😉  
 
You see, if the bread we make the sandwich on is either stale or bland, it can kind of ruin the whole sandwich, right? I mean, you can have the best quality meat, cheese, and other fixings, but if your bread is not good and fresh, you probably will not say it was the best sandwich you’ve ever eaten. Well, I believe there is a spirit / attitude that our prayers can be sandwiched in that makes our constant & continual prayers to be offered up to God more appealing to Him …
 
Church, thanksgiving is not just something we should do at the end of the year; it is what we must do in the beginning of the year and all throughout it. It is how we come before Him and draw near to Him. It is the gateway into the holy of holies where the manifested glory and presence of God is housed.
 
So, let’s incorporate this spirit of thanksgiving into our praise lives—for not only is it the right & noble thing to do towards the One who has given us so much, but it also the vehicle that leads us into His presence. Amen. 

PRAISE THE LORD!
Part Three & Four – Foundations of Praise
 
 
REVIEW
 
So we started a new series of teachings a few weeks ago entitled “Praise the Lord,” and my intention is that at the end of this series, this phrase means much more to you than it ever has before. Yes, I want it to not just be something that we say, but to be something that we do the way the Lord intends for us to.
 
Let’s look over again at the last Psalm we have recorded – Psalm 150 – where the Book of Psalms comes to a dramatic climax. Again, this psalm is a beautiful summary of the common theme we see in the first 149 psalms, and that is the title of this series, “Praise the Lord!”  
 
This Psalm reads – “Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!”
 
But what we noticed about this phrase/word is that it is a call to action. No, it’s not just there for informational purposes; it’s there telling God’s people what to do. So if I read in the Bible “Praise the Lord!”, what should my response be? It should be to praise the Lord, right? Yes, if the Scriptures say, “Hallelujah”, then I should stop what I’m doing and praise the Lord right then! Amen?
 
So, we’ve seen that praising God is not just something we are to observe; it’s what we are called to do! Yes, everyone is called to be a praiser, not just a select few.
 
In fact, we learned that praising God is more like a profession, occupation, and vocation for us. And like any full-time occupation, there are benefits to doing our job – which we learned are found in the 103rd Psalm when David described all of God’s benefits such as our salary, health/medical insurance, life insurance, dental insurance, etc. Yes, being about our Father’s business yields so many wonderful benefits, so it is in our best interest to walk in our calling.  
 
However, in order to partake of your employer’s benefits, you need to be a good employee, right? So we looked at some verses that describe what being a good employee looks like and learned from that how we can praise the Lord in a way that fully pleases our Master!
 
For example, we learned that being a good employee doesn’t just mean we show up and clock in to work. Likewise, we are not participating in the praise service just because we are here in the room when the song service is going on. No, doing our job well means we are participating by engaging the Lord, opening our mouths, pouring out our hearts, lifting our hands, setting our feet to dancing, etc., etc., etc.  
 
So if you missed either of these first two teachings, I’d encourage you to go back and watch or listen to them because today, we will begin building on these truths of doing our job well and reaping all the benefits of praising the Lord …
 
JOB FUNCTIONS OF PRAISE
 
But this week, I want to pick back up on this idea of being employed to praise – because like it is with any place of employment, there are certain job functions that are given to us. Yes, like it is with any job, we have a list of duties that our job entails so that we know specifically what is expected of us by our employer. And when it comes to these job functions, we are not at liberty to do just whatever we want when we work for someone else. No, we do it their way or it’s the highway, right?
 
Well, our vocation of praise actually does have some very specific job functions too! Yes, the Lord gives us some very specific ways that our praise of Him is expected to be done.
 
You see, if we look at all the various words used to translate praise and how they are used in context, we get some very specific & Scriptural ways in which praising the Lord is to be done. In fact, in the Hebrew language that the Old Testament was written in, we have a lot of different words used for praising God and all of them describe specific demonstrative actions that reveal what true praise is to look like.
 
Now as we begin looking at these things, you will be tempted in something … Your mind will try and come up with every reason why you can’t do things. You might say, “Pastor, that’s just not the way I am.” Well, like it is when it comes to our jobs, that won’t necessarily fly. If, say, we are in a customer service position, we can’t just wear our feelings on our sleeves when dealing with the customers, right?
 
Well, likewise, we can’t just let the way we feel determine how we praise the Lord either. Like Isaiah 61:3 says, putting on the garment of praise is our responsibility. Yeah, our feet might feel heavy, but if we kick those shoes off and set our feet to dancing, we are doing our job well.
 
I understand that we all like to do what we feel like doing, but I believe one of the best ways to honor the Lord is to do what He tells us to do regardless of the way we feel. It’s called faith. It’s also called honor, when we obey in the face of contrary feelings.
 
You know, there were a lot of folks the week before last who “put on” costumes and “dressed” themselves in things that weren’t at all who they are. Heck, they might have even worn a mask that had a smiling face when underneath, they didn’t feel happy at all.
 
Well, being spiritual is a lot like that – Sure, we have feelings, emotions, and personalities that are not inclined to praise God like we see described in the Scriptures. But “putting on” the garments of praise, like we are called to put on love, humility, kindness, etc., is just what we do as spiritual beings. In other words, we don’t let the way our flesh feels or has been trained determine the way we praise our God. Amen?
 
So what I want to begin doing this week is to look at these words and some of the Scriptures that they are used in so that we can get a clear picture of what the Lord considers true praise to be. And we will begin this week, with the most common Hebrew word for praise, the word halal.
 
So what we are about to learn about this Hebrew word halal is what we need to be prepared to put on. Happy Halal-ween! LOL!
 
First of all, let me remind you that the phrase “praise the Lord” that is used as a bookend on the 150th Psalm actually comes from the word halal, but it adds the word ya to it, which is the word for Yahweh/Jehovah (i.e. God or Lord). So halal is the primary word for praise that is used in hallelujah.
 
But by itself, the Hebrew word halal is used close to 150 times in the Old Testament and is translated “praise” the vast majority of the time. However, even though the word “praise” is obviously the primary way this Hebrew word is translated, it actually has some interesting other meanings that we can learn from …
 
The word halal literally is defined like so – "to be clear (originally of sound, but usually of color), to shine (thus to give light) – which results in to make a show, to boast, to rave, to celebrate, and to be clamorously foolish, or act like a madman."
 
Okay, so when I read these various ways halal is being described, I don’t see a lot of this reflected in people’s praise lives, do you? No, I see very few people “shining” by acting foolish or like a crazy person during the praise time. And that’s not to condemn us, but it does need to be brought to our attention because if this is the job description of praise, then perhaps we ought to loosen up a bit and get to steppin’. 
 
But you see, even though we might not see it too much in our modern-day world, we do see it illustrated in the Scriptures, don’t’ we? We’ve looked at this already, but the way David danced before the Lord with all his might when leading the Ark of the Covenant back into Jerusalem certainly looks a lot like halal is being described here. Both David & his wife considered the way he was praising God as being “undignified” and that was obviously because it was considered crazy & foolish.

So let’s now look at these descriptions of halal in detail:
 
PRAISE IN TRUTH
 
The first definition of halal as being “clear” is very important. This means that true praise has a clear sound to it – meaning, it’s pure. It’s true. In other words, God doesn’t want our praise to be with pretense. He wants it pure, true, and clear (i.e. sincere). So if you and I are going to praise the Lord according to His standard, then it must be in this manner.
 
You see, what happens a lot of times during times of praise is we hold on to our dignity. We don’t let loose and praise Him with reckless abandon. And if we were being honest, what is happening during those times is we are holding the way we look and the way we sound to others as being more important than the Lord’s opinion. It’s tight but it’s right.
 
Church, the Lord wants clear praise – that is, praise that is void of pretense and hypocrisy. He wants praise that is done in truth – that is, sincerely and without shame.
 
I believe this is what Jesus meant in John chapter four as He ministered to the woman of Samaria: You see, she brought up to him a great religious debate between the Jews and the Samaritans during that time - where ought one to worship - in Jerusalem or on this mountain? (See John 4:20) And of course, this is always what religion wants to do – argue about the technicalities of where to praise & worship and when to praise & worship. But Jesus corrected that error by saying that God is seeking people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth (See 4:21-24). So Jesus corrected this religious debate by basically saying – “It is not where you worship that matters to God. He is more interested in how you worship Him than where you worship Him.” And according to Jesus, the specific way He is seeking us to worship Him is in spirit and truth.
 
What does this mean—in spirit and in truth? Well, this can be argued up and down, but the bottom line is that Jesus was referring to the unseen aspect of worship.
 
“In the spirit” is obviously referring to connecting with God, who is a Spirit- spirit to Spirit. In other words, it is praising & worshipping Him from the inside out, which is an attitude of the heart. “In truth” obviously refers to worshipping Him in all sincerity – totally void of any pretense and hypocrisy. This is what God wants – praisers who do it from their heart and are sincere!  
 
So our praise is to be clear, not convoluted with ulterior motives and hidden agendas. The Lord wants our praise to first be done purely and freely. Amen?
 
BE THE LIGHT
 
Now this leads me to the next part of our definition for halal: It means to “shine (to bring light).”
 
So we will see here in a moment what “shining” will look like, but I want to first draw your attention to something very important about praise – that its not just something we do by our actions; its something we also do by just letting God be who He is in us. Amen! 
 
I believe Psalm 148, which is loaded with halal’s, shows us how praise is given to the Lord like this. This Psalm describes how all of God’s creation is called to praise the Lord! This includes everything such as the sun, moon, fire, hail, snow, clouds, mountains, trees, cattle, birds, etc., etc., etc.
 
Now how do all of these things halal Him? Sure, man can do some things to praise the Lord, but what does the rest of God’s creation do to praise the Lord? Well, they do this –They “shine” and “make a show” of the glory of God – teaching us that praise is not just something we do; its something we are. Yes, our lives & existence can praise the Lord! And as we learn what praise actually is, you’ll see that it is indeed more than just our own words; it is also who we are that generates His praises from others.
 
For example, have you ever visited a place and saw how beautiful the trees, mountains, waters, etc. were and glorified God for the beauty of His creation? Well, that’s how something else that God has created can generate God’s praise, because you praised Him for what they were putting forth.   
 
 
THE HEART OF PRAISE
 
Now what did we say was the result of this “shining”? It means that as the definition of halal goes on to say, our praise will “make a show, to boast, to rave, to celebrate, and to be clamorously foolish, or act like a madman."
 
Do you know what this means? It means you will stand out of the pack. You’ll be the one that seems to be in the spotlight even though that’s not necessarily your intention. No, if your praise is bringing light then folks will notice you – not because you want the attention or for people to look at you but because you simply don’t care that people are watching you. There’s a real difference there.
 
You see, while we don’t want to praise God to be seen of men, we also don’t want to hold our praise back because of the fear of man. We serve a God who is worthy of all the glory, and He deserves our clear and shining praise. Amen?
 
When we are doing it with the right heart and with no flesh holding us back, it will result in us maybe “making a show, boasting, raving (to speak out wildly & enthusiastically), to celebrate, and to be clamorously foolish, or act like a mad man."
 
Now the only place I ever seem to see what is being described here as being done is at a sporting event when someone experiences their favorite team doing something exciting. Sure, I see those people acting like “mad men, clamorously foolish, and raving.”
 
You see, why is it that these “fanatics” act “clamorously foolish” and like “mad men”? Well, the answer is simple. It’s because their fandom has a big chunk of their heart. Therefore, the key to operating in this kind of praise is having a heart full of the Lord. 
 
You know, sometimes in our attempt to do things correctly we forget a simple thing that God desires above anything else. And that is that He wants our heart. We can learn how to technically praise God better, but if our heart is not right, then it does not avail anything. I wholeheartedly believe that God would rather us have right hearts with wrong heads, than right heads with wrong hearts. In other words, regarding praising Him, He would rather have us saying the wrong things with the right heart behind it rather than saying the right things with the wrong heart.
 
Think about it like this: Whenever your kids were young and showed a lot of excitement when you got home from work, didn’t that bless you? I mean, when they met you at the door smiling, jumping, and clapping their hands because they were just so excited daddy or mama was home, that had to make your heart feel good, right? Well, that’s what I’m referring to here. God wants our hearts to be so full of Him that we show genuine & sincere excitement for Him, and we praise Him out of hearts that are so appreciative and in love with Him.
 
You see, when your kids did this to you, what exactly blessed you about it? Was it what they said, or how they said it? Was it because they so eloquently worded what they said or was it the fact that you knew, even though they used such simple terms, it came from their heart? Of course, it is what came out of their heart that blessed you. Well, God is the same. He would rather us mean what we say than say things that have no meaning to us. And He would rather us show great zeal & enthusiasm at the same time. It’s all about the heart, church.
 
A MORE EXCELLENT WAY
 
So now that we’ve dealt with some important foundation issues about praise like how it needs to be done in truth, how our lives can actually praise God just like our words, and how the principal thing is the heart behind our praise, let’s now begin to look at some technicalities of praise. Yes, let’s look at a few verses where halal is being used so that we can see from a Scriptural example what praise looks like …
 
The first time we see the word halal being used in the Bible is in Genesis 12:15, but it was not used regarding praising the Lord. In verses 14-15 we are told – “So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman (Sarai), that she was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house.”
 
The word “commended” in verse 15 is the word halal. So what were these princes of Pharaoh doing? They were praising Sarai to Pharaoh. Now does this mean that they were approaching Pharaoh and saying, “Oh Pharaoh, we praise this woman!” No, of course not! What they were doing was more like this – “Yo Pharaoh, this chicha is gorgeous, man! She is one hot tamale! You need to see about her!” Someone’s thinking, “They didn’t talk like that!” You’re not that old! How would you know? LOL!
 
My point is that when folks saw how beautiful Sarai was, they started talking. And some of the people that started talking were the Pharaoh’s men. Likewise, when you and I see just how beautiful the Lord is, we will start “commending” Him to others – that is, we will tell of His beauty in a similar way that we would “praise” someone else for their good looks.
 
Here is another example of halal that is similar …
 
In Second Samuel 14:25 the Scriptures teach us that Absalom was “praised” for his good looks. Does that mean that people went around saying, “I praise Absalom! Oh, I praise Absalom!”? Of course not! Since it was his good looks that they were praising this is probably what they went around saying – “Girl, isn’t that Absalom good looking!?! My, oh my, his hair is so beautiful! What a man!” Church, this is praise!
 
So if this is what it means to “praise” God, how do we technically do it? How do we technically commend, applaud, or boast of Him? Is it by saying, “I praise You Lord! I magnify You! I glorify You!” Well, that is what most of us do, but is it the best way?
 
Certainly, as I previously made a point of, the attitude of the heart is what really counts. I have been in certain services where we sung things like “Praise the Name of Jesus, I Exalt Thee, O Magnify the Lord, etc.,” and you could tell that God was pleased. So I am not saying that we cannot minister to God by using this kind of terminology. Again, the heart behind it is what is most important. But what I am saying is there is a more excellent way of ministering to Him. (I feel like Paul when he said, “And yet I show you a more excellent way” in First Corinthians 12:31)
 
Let me give you another Scriptural example …
 
Last, but not least, in Second Chronicles 5:13 we have a great example of true praise… It says, “… and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying: ‘For He is good, for His mercy endures forever,’…” Notice that it says that they praised the Lord saying. In other words, they were praising God as they said something. Said what? “For the Lord is good and His mercy endures forever!” (which is definitely the single most used “praise phrase” in the whole Bible). You see, this is a true statement of praise – To declare that God is good and that His mercy lasts forever is the praise of God.
 
So from these examples can you see what it truly means to praise God? It means to declare how beautiful and lovely He is to you! It means to boast in all that He has done for you! It means to tell how good and merciful He is!
 
You know, I think this would be a good time for me to demonstrate what true praise looks and sounds like  …
 
“God, I thank you for being so faithful to my family. You have been so good to us. Thank you for being true to your Word and performing your promises in our lives. You are so good! Your mercy endures forever! Your love never ends! Hallelujah! What a great God you are. You always provide for us, and we have never lacked any good thing. You are worthy to receive all praise, honor and glory. There is none like you. There is none higher than you. There is none who can compare to you. You are holy! Great is your name! I love you so much Lord. You deserve all of my heart. So I give it to you because you’re worthy.” Amen!
 
Church, this is how we clothe ourselves in praise. It’s what we put on. So while I’m not a fan of celebrating Halloween, I am a fan of this – Happy Halal-ween.  

REVIEW
 
“Praise the Lord” is a phrase you’ve likely heard many times, but what I aim to do in this series is for it to mean more to you than it ever has before. Yes, I want it to not just be something that we say, but to be something we do to a greater degree than we ever have before.
 
Let’s look over again at the last Psalm we have recorded – Psalm 150 – where the Book of Psalms comes to a dramatic climax. Again, this psalm is a beautiful summary of the common theme we see in the first 149 psalms, and that is the title of this series, “Praise the Lord!”   
 
This Psalm reads – “Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!”
 
We saw how the first & last phrase of this Psalm, “Praise the Lord”, comes from the Hebrew word that you’ve certainly heard before – the word “Hallelujah!” Hallelujah contains the Hebrew word halal, which simply means “praise”, and “jah” which is one of the Hebrew names of God, Yahweh or Jehovah. So now you know that this word we utter a lot in praise simply means “Praise God” or “Praise the Lord!”
 
But what we started noticing about this phrase/word last week is that it is a call to action. No, it’s not just there for informational purposes; it’s there telling God’s people what to do. So if I read in the Bible “Praise the Lord!”, what should my response be? It should be to praise the Lord, right? Yes, if the Scriptures say, “Hallelujah”, then I should stop what I’m doing and praise the Lord right then! Amen?
 
So I’d like us to do something fun throughout this series: Every time you hear the phrase “Praise the Lord!” I want the congregation to shout, “Praise the Lord!” And every time you hear the word “Hallelujah!” I want the congregation to shout, “Hallelujah!” Let’s practice right now – Me: Praise the Lord! (The congregation: Praise the Lord!) Me: Hallelujah! (The congregation: Hallelujah!)
 
You see, church, praising God is not just something we are to observe; it’s what we are called to do! I understand we have those in the church today who are specifically gifted to lead worship, sing, or play instruments in a praise service, but I made the point last week that I think it’s interesting that the New Testament doesn’t specifically identify this as a gift or office in the Body of Christ. I don’t believe this is because we shouldn’t have a praise & worship team, but rather because we are ALL called to this office! Yes, everyone is called to be a praiser, not just a select few. 
 
So that’s what we began talking about last week – how praising God is our calling in Christ Jesus!
 
I remember having a conversation with someone before I was born-again, where we were discussing what the purpose of mankind is. We were pondering those universal questions- Why am I here? What is my purpose? Of course, being lost, I was not able to answer these questions, but when I had my encounter with Jesus in 2000, I knew immediately the core-purpose of every single person who has ever lived on the earth – It is to know God! Yes, the primary purpose for every single person who ever has or ever will be created is to have a personal relationship with their Creator, and the predominant activity in that relationship is to praise and worship Him as His creation!
 
But we saw how this is not only God’s primary purpose for mankind. It is also the foundational purpose for all His creation. In the Psalms, many references are made to different created things such as the sun, moon, stars, mountains, animals, etc. declaring God’s praise (See Psalm 69:34, 145:10, 148, and Psalm 150:6). Didn’t Jesus say that even the rocks would cry out (See Luke 19:40)?
 
So all of creation here on the earth is praising its Creator! But we also learned that this is exactly what is going on in heaven as we speak. Yes, if you study the Scriptures that give us a sneak peak into what is going in heaven, you’ll find that continual praise & worship of God is the main activity of heaven’s residents.
 
So if it’s happening with all of His creation in heaven, and it’s happening with His entire creation on the earth, then I believe it is easy to conclude that the praise & worship of God is the primary purpose for everything and everyone God has ever created.
 
So I made the point last week that if this is true, wouldn’t it behoove us, the crown of His creation, to join in? Yes, wouldn’t it be a good idea to begin fulfilling our divine purpose sooner rather than later? You see, there is coming a day soon and very soon when we are going to slip out of these tents that we call bodies and be ushered into the presence of God where, as we’ve seen, singing His praises will be our habitual tendency. Therefore, we ought to begin to do it now when we can do it by faith and please Him all the more. Amen?
 
So we learned that praise is not only our purpose, it is our calling too!
 
You know, when we meet someone new, we might ask them “how are you doing?” but that usually leads us to another question that we are much more interested in learning the answer to – “What do you do?” Yes, we are very interested in finding out what people do for a living.
 
Well, I believe we need to see ourselves as what we were all created to be in Christ Jesus – Praisers! This is what the Bible teaches us: First Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
 
This is who we are, saints! We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and His own special people! But what we are called to do as these things is to proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
 
So this is to be our spiritual vocation! Isaiah 43:21 forecasted this by saying, “This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise.”
 
And here is one of the main points we learned: Just as sometimes that question is not just “What do you do?” It’s “What do you do for a living?” And what that obviously means is, what is your job/occupation that you earn your income from and live off of.
 
Well, this is something that’s important to understand about being a praiser: not only is it what your spiritual vocation is, but it’s where your spiritual income comes from. In other words, praising the Lord isn’t just something we do to benefit the Lord. No, it is loaded with benefits for the one who “does their job.” Amen!
 
So we looked at the 103rd Psalm that shows us both our response to having this responsibility and occupation and also the benefits of doing our job well. Now Psalm 103 is one of my personal favorite psalms – namely because we see our benefit package in Him.
 
We learned that after saying “and forget not all His benefits” in verse 2, David begins to show what those benefits of our spiritual vocation are.
 
Verse 3 says, “Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases.”
 
Now by far, the most important benefit is this first one – the forgiveness of all our iniquities! No, not just some of them; all of them! I see this as the salary portion of praise’s employment package! It’s certainly the greatest and most important part of our job as praisers. But like it is with most people in this world’s workforce, it seems like most Christians are only concerned with their salary. Yes, it’s evident that most believers only know about the forgiveness of their sins. In other words, that’s the only part of their benefit package that they consider. It’s the big one. No doubt about that. But it’s not all that we have in our benefit package.
 
One benefit that the body of Christ does not esteem like it needs to is the next one – our medical/health insurance.
 
You know, if you’ve ever had to pay for your own health insurance out of pocket, then you probably know just how invaluable having health insurance included in your job’s benefit package is. It’s expensive! And oh, how expensive can physical issues be. 

Well, as we are promised in Psalm 103:3 among many other places, we have been given free health insurance! He heals ALL our diseases by the stripes of Jesus, being our Jehovah Rapha!
 
On top of that, some types of medical insurance cover prescription drugs too! And that’s covered under Jehovah Rapha’s insurance program as well: We are told in Proverbs 4:20-22 that God’s Word is “medicine” to all our flesh. So not only are we promised divine healing, but we are promised divine health because we have been given an unfailing medicine that will heal “all our flesh.” Amen!
 
Saints, our health insurance—the stripes of Jesus—have already paid for our prescription. Amen! And in God’s kingdom, there is no co-pay. There is no deductible that needs to be met. It’s already been paid for 100% by our Great Physician!
 
But what else do some businesses offer as part of their benefit package? Well, with some jobs we might get “life insurance.”
 
Well, Psalm 103:3 gives us another benefit of our covenant with the Lord: It says, “Who redeems your life from destruction.”
 
So guess what else we have as a benefit? Life insurance! We have been given the benefit of the God kind of life – which unlike life insurance in the world, can be experienced now! The Bible calls it eternal life, resurrection life, and abundant life! This is the life of God and it’s a part of our benefit package in Him! Amen!
 
But then notice what verse 3 goes on to say and then verse 4 – “… Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
 
Hmmm … So we see here the word “crowns” and then how He satisfies our “mouth” with good things. What benefit does that make you think of? Dental insurance! Lol!
 
I wonder how aware the Body of Christ is that we have the benefits of God crowning us with lovingkindness and tender mercies and also satisfying our mouths with good things so that even our youth is renewed. These are just a few more things that the Lord desires for us to taste and see!
 
So I think you get the point. There are a ton of benefits that the Lord has given us as we walk in our calling of declaring His praises! I’d encourage you to continue looking at the 103rd Psalm as it contains many more awesome benefits of our employment in the “Father’s business.”
 
But we saw how, unlike our jobs, these benefits are not just things we can partake of annually, quarterly, monthly, or weekly. No, these benefits are promises that we can experience DAILY – for as Psalm 68:19 says, “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation!”
 
But let me give you just one more very important benefit of God’s kingdom that we can also experience in our jobs on this earth – retirement planning benefits!

I know a lot of us have taken advantage of things such as 401(k)s, etc. at our jobs which help better prepare us for retirement, but there is no better retirement package than what we have in the kingdom of God. Our future is so bright, you have to squint to look at it.
 
Saints, as much as God desires to bless us in this life, our retirement package is loaded! And I can guarantee you that the more you and I live our lives to praise the Lord through thick & thin, the more we are seeing being contributed to that retirement package. Amen!
 
BEING A GOOD EMPLOYEE
 
So now that we’ve talked about how praise is our occupation in the kingdom of God and how doing our job well holds a myriad of benefits, let’s begin looking at what it means to do our job well. Yes, let’s learn how we can do a good job for our Father’s business that we are called to and employed for.
 
You see, when it comes to our jobs on this earth, there is a difference between being a good employee versus being a bad employee. And when I say “bad employee” I’m referring to those who aren’t necessarily bad enough to lose their job, but just aren’t the employees who do their job in excellence, work hard, and are dependable. The good ones are the kind of employees an employer is looking for, and I can assure you, they are not growing on trees in this world we live in.
 
For example, there are employees who just show up to work. Yes, they don’t call in sick much and they are dependable in terms of being physically present and manning a position. But that’s not what makes an excellent employee. A worker who is esteemed in a workplace is the one who not only shows up, but performs their job function well – meaning, they work hard, doing exactly what their boss expects out of them, and even go above and beyond those job duties.
 
So how does this relate to spiritual things? Well, it can mean that just because I faithfully show up at church every week and even come to extra things that are going on, that doesn’t automatically mean that by being present I’m pleasing the Lord Jesus, my Boss. No, I please Him by doing my job well while I’m here – which would be loving the people present, having ears to hear the message God has given the speaker, and certainly me engaging the Lord during our times of praise & worship.
 
Now regarding the praise service, that won’t be simply looking around and seeing what everyone else is doing. It won’t be me just standing there and watching what those like Bryan & Cameron are doing on the stage. No, it will be me participating! That might be me closing my eyes, raising my hands, lifting my voice, etc. It is me engaging the Lord by looking unto Him and lifting up my voice in song. This is how I don’t just show up to work, but I show up to work to work.
 
This also goes for how I praise Him in my everyday life:
 
You know, just like some Christians think they are doing enough simply by attending church, there are also a lot of them who think that by living a good life & not doing bad things that they are doing their Christian duty. Well, as good as that is, our duty to praise God goes beyond our church services.
 
You see, these praise services are not the only time that you and I are called to engage in praising the Lord. In fact, you don’t even need music playing to praise the Lord. It is something we can and should do all the time.
 
Didn’t King David say in Psalm 34:1 that he was going to bless the Lord at all times and His praise would continually be in His mouth? So this sounds like more than just when praise music is going on around us. This is at all times and continually!
 
So my occupation in the kingdom is more than just me going to church and living a moral life; it is me living a life of praise where I am giving Him glory “at all times” in my everyday life, and also giving Him all my heart during the praise services we have at church. God wants us to do our job well at all times – whether it be at home or at our church home.    
 
So let’s begin talking a little bit about what it means to doing our job of praise well – because I, for one, want my Employer to look at my life and say, “Job Well Done!”  
 
Let’s look at some of the verses in the New Testament where being a good “employee” is talked about, and by looking at these instructions to “servants,” learn how this applies to our occupation of praise …
 
BONDSERVANTS?
 
You see, the apostle Paul liked to deal with very practical issues like the relationship between a husband & a wife, how both a parent & a child should behave towards one another, etc. And beginning in Colossians 3:22, he gives instructions to one of the more prevalent situations in the early First Century church – the relationship of the “bondservant” with their “masters.” Yes, in this verse, he begins addressing the “slaves” who were a part of the Colossian church.
 
Now this might seem strange to hear that there were Christians who were still slaves in their church, but we need to understand the cultural differences between now and then. You see, while slavery is not a part of our society today (and that’s certainly a good thing), in Paul’s day, slaves made up over half of the population of the Roman Empire. In other words, it was a very normal part of society back then. So, what this means is that those who were considered the property of others made up the vast majority of the workforce back then. So my point is that this was an accepted part of society in the Roman world.
 
So how does all of this relate to us? While none of us are slaves today, I believe the way we ought to relate to these commands to “bondservants” is as words to the “employee” or the “volunteer servant.” Yes, the instructions for Christian slaves can be related today to Christian employees. Therefore, as we read the following exhortations, read them in this light—as words to the Christian worker, whether that be as a paid employee in the secular marketplace or simply as a servant in any other capacity. All of the following commands should be applied to any of us who serve others in any capacity.   
 
So let’s look at this verse and glean, not just how we should serve in our jobs or in any other thing we might volunteer in, but how I can serve the Lord in praise …
 
OBEY IN ALL THINGS
 
So in Colossians 3:22 the apostle Paul said, “Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.”
 
The first thing that the apostle Paul tells these “servants” is to “obey in all things your masters according to the flesh.”
 
Now while Paul does say to obey our “masters” (i.e. bosses, supervisors, etc.) “in all things,” we need to balance this statement out with other truths in the Bible. Specifically, we can see from other passages that “all things” does not include breaking God’s commandments and violating His precepts and statutes. We see this in the story of Daniel and three Hebrew boys: They did not obey the king’s commandment when they were told to not pray and to bow down before an idol. However, when it came to something like their dietary laws, they honorably requested that they might abstain from those foods. In other words, they did submit to their authority when it came to just about everything, but refused to violate things that were clearly against God’s commandments.
 
And also, by throwing the phrase “according to the flesh” in there, Paul was making sure that these servants understood that while they might have earthly masters, that is all they are—masters “according to the flesh.” In other words, our true Master is “according to the spirit” and His name is Jesus (which he gets into in this passage).  
 
So when we look at this from the perspective of our job of praising God, obeying in all things our Master according to the spirit means “all things.” In other words, everything He tells us to do is right and appropriate. Therefore, there is no room for questioning what the Lord tells me to do.
 
So when it comes to this subject of praising God, it’s important that I fully obey the Lord in it – which includes not only when I do it, but also how I do it. In other words, if it’s for Him, I need to do it His way and not my own.
 
Let me give all of you employees out there a good piece of advice – When your boss tells you to do something, it’s wise to simply do it his or her way. For example, if they tell you to do something in a certain way or at a certain time, don’t do it your own way or when you feel it’s the best time to do it. Being a good employee means following the instructions of your superiors even if you feel there is a better way to do it. Now that doesn’t mean that you cannot respectfully ask your supervisor if they are okay with you doing it another way, but just blatantly disregarding instructions because, after all you know better, is not best.  
 
So the way this applies to praising God is that you and I need to search the Scriptures to find out how the Lord would like us praising Him. In other words, we ought to study to see what are the specific instructions He gives us to praising Him in the Bible and then do it the way He teaches us.
 
I say this because how many Christians do it their way? I mean, if they do it at all, how many just do it like they feel it needs to be done and never consider looking at how God describes true praise in the Scriptures? That’s kind of arrogant when you look at it that way, isn’t it?
 
And the truth is, church, that God has shown us how He likes to be praised in the Bible and so one thing we are going to do in the weeks ahead is look at some of these things so that we can learn how to work for Him the way He desires us to. Amen?
 
EYESERVICE & MAN-PLEASERS
 
Now the next thing that Paul said to these “servants” in Colossians 3:22 was that they needed to obey their masters “not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers.” What he was obviously saying here was “But don’t simply obey your supervisor only when he’s watching you. Do your job for him or her just as hard when they aren’t watching—for if you only work hard when their eyes are on you, then you are only seeking to please man and not God.”
 
But the truth is when it comes to our service of praise unto the Lord it is definitely intended to be for HIS “eyes” and a “service” unto Him. Yes, our praise of the Lord is to be a pleaser of the Lord.
 
However, I believe a good takeaway from this is that we need to avoid the being “men-pleasers” part and how we don’t want our praise to be done with “eye-service” to the ones around us. In other words, we are not to be concerned with how we look or how we sound to anyone else in the room.
 
I’ve just seen cases where people keep from singing out loud because they are worried about others around them hearing them. In other words, they are self-conscious of their singing ability and hold back because they don’t want others to know how bad they think they sing.
 
Church, that should never be a deterrent from any of us singing out loud in church. No one in here should be judging other’s vocal abilities in here anyway. It’s all unto the Lord, not unto others. And if that is something you are really insecure about, leave the pew where you are sitting and go to a part of the church where you feel more comfortable singing out loud. Again, we want to be God-pleasers! And one of the things He has told us to do is sing, shout, dance, etc. Don’t let flesh & blood keep your mouth shut!
 
Now on the flipside of this, there are also those who have NO problem singing, lifting their voice, jumping, and dancing in front of others. And the way I believe this applies to this specific group of people is to also be sure we are not doing it to be seen of man.
 
This has not been much of an issue here @ HPC in recent time, but I have been in the churches where some “praisers” like the attention they get. So there is a lot of singing where people like to show off their voices, some dancing that seems to be more for those in the room than for the Lord, and some other demonstrative forms of praise that are certainly motivated by being “men-pleasers.”      
 
And this is the truth of the matter—if we only put our best foot forward when others are watching us, then we are proving that we are only interested in pleasing man rather than pleasing God. A person of praise will glorify Him all of the time—when the boss is around and when he is not—because they believe they are really serving God and not those around them.
 
SINCERITY, FEAR, AND TREMBLING
 
Then Paul counters the doing things with eyeservice with the phrase – “but in sincerity of heart.”
 
The word “sincerity” here is defined by Thayer’s as “the virtue of one who is free from pretense and dissimulation.” In other words, this describes one who is genuinely, sincerely, and honestly serving and is void of any self-seeking agenda. This is what God desires from all of us, saints – To be a people who walk in the truth and sincerely serve our authority figures from the heart. It is easy to go through the motions and serve because we either are afraid of the consequences or because we are seeking a reward, but the Lord has called us to whole-heartedly serve sincerely.
 
So when it comes to serving the Lord through praise, it’s important that we do it in “sincerity of heart”—that is, it’s genuine, heartfelt, and sincere.
 
This reminds me a little of what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:23-24 where Jesus said the hour was coming where God was seeking those who would worship Him in spirit and in truth. The truth part might be described as “sincerity of heart.”
 
Then Paul includes “fearing God”: In his letter to the Ephesians, he said it a little differently. He said, “with fear and trembling” (See Ephesians 6:5). This phrase does not mean that we are to be afraid and terrified of our authorities. It just simply means that we are to obey them “carefully, reverently, zealously, and diligently.”
 
For example, if you were personally instructed by some dignitary to perform a specific task, how would you perform your service? I suppose you would perform it carefully, reverently, zealously, and diligently because of who it was that gave you the duty. Well, that is the same mentality we should have when serving our “masters according to the flesh.” Everything we do for our authorities should be done in excellence and for the glory of God!
 
Likewise, when you and I praise God, there needs to be this same attitude where its not just this casual drawing near unto Him, but something that we handle with care. Like, for instance, you and I were asked to introduce some elected official. If your audience were some people of clout and importance, I can guarantee you that you will handle that introduction with some “fear and trembling.” Well, any time we are entertaining the King of kings and Lord of lords, we ought to handle those times with care and revere the One we are praising.
 
AND WHATEVER YOU DO
 
Then in verse 23, the apostle Paul said, “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.”
 
The phrase “And whatever you do” can be applied to “whatever”, which would certainly include whether we lift our voice, dance, raise your hands, etc. in praise. So whatever we do in life including praise, we need to do it in the following manner …
 
The first thing he said, “do it heartily”- The word translated “do” here is a word describing “work or labor” and the word “heartily” comes from the words ek psuche, which means “out of the soul.” So, this phrase literally describes one working out of the soul as opposed to out of mere pretense and outward conformity. In other words, the Lord desires for all of us to serve with all that is within us—that is, for it to come out of the heart and not just external obedience. 
 
So what the Lord is looking for in us when we praise Him is that we do it “heartily” – that is, out of the soul.
 
I know some of us have been trained in church to not to praise & worship God from the soul but from the spirit, but I don’t believe that’s what the Lord would say to us. Yes, praising & worshipping Him in spirit is the highest & best form of it, but this does not mean that God does not want us doing any of this from the soul either. Yes, He wants your personality involved in praising Him. Let those emotions out! Let your whole heart fully be released when you praise Him! He wants all of YOU to praise Him from the inside out. Amen! 
 
The next thing he said was that whatever we do, do it “as to the Lord and not to men.” And here is the foundation & motivation of both our servanthood and our praise of God: We are not simply serving another human being; we are serving the Lord when we serve others.
 
Oh, that we would have this mentality throughout all our life on this earth—that the things we do and say are all “as unto the Lord and not to men.” I guarantee you that this would change the way many of us lived our lives, including our praise lives!
 
THE INHERITANCE OF PRAISE
 
So this is both how you and I can serve on this earth and serve the Lord via praise. If we praise God this way, I believe that the Lord would say, “That’s a job well done!” And as we know about the Lord, there is no job done well that won’t be rewarded by Him. And that’s what we see in the next verse …  
 
Colossians 3:24 then gives us an awesome promise of what serving the Lord in this way will lead to when Paul said, “knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”
 
In the Book of Ephesians, where Paul said a lot of similar things about the master/servant relationship, he described this reward part a little differently: He said in Ephesians 6:8, “knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.”
 
Regardless of which verse you are looking at and the specifics of the rewards, it is important to see that it is from the Lord that we will be rewarded for doing what is right.
 
When it comes to working for others, too often we look to man for our raise, promotion, words of affirmation, etc. We ought to avoid that and look only unto the Lord for those rewards. He is the One who exalts one and brings down another! He is the giver of all favor! So, avoid the temptation of making man your source and begin to look unto the Lord as the One who will provide you with all of the favor, honor and reward that you need. Amen?
 
And what an awesome promise this is that we can expect when we do good to others! We will (not might or hopefully) … we will receive the same from the Lord for whatever good we do! And I can promise you one thing: when the Lord returns the favor, it will be pressed down, shaken together, and running over! In other words, you will reap from the Lord in a much greater measure than you sowed it into others!
 
So what about when we praise the Lord? If we do our job of praising Him well, is there a reward in that? You can bet your bottom dollar there is! Just like in your worldly job, you can receive raises, promotions, benefits, etc. from the Lord when you do your job of praising Him well.
 
Just as that common Christian cliché says, “You cannot out-give God!” there is also truth in this – You cannot out-praise God! Yes, the more you glorify His name, the greater your name can become! The more you lift Him up in praise, the more He can give you a “raise.” Great are the benefits of the employee of praise, church!

INTRODUCTION
 
Praise the Lord! This is a phrase you’ve likely heard many times, whether it be in church or in your Bible. It is indeed a very popular phrase in our “Christianese” language.
 
But what I want is for this phrase to mean more to you than it ever has before. That’s the purpose of this teaching – for our church to come to be a body of believers who truly know how to praise God and who live our lives to “Praise the Lord.”
 
Let’s look over at the last Psalm we have recorded – Psalm 150 – where the Book of Psalms comes to a dramatic climax. Yes, this psalm is a beautiful summary of the common theme we see in the first 149 psalms.  
 
This Psalm reads – “Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!”
 
Notice how the first & last phrase that we see in this Psalm is “Praise the Lord!” This phrase comes from the Hebrew word that you’ve certainly heard before – the word “Hallelujah!” Hallelujah contains the Hebrew word halal, which simply means “praise”, and “jah” which is one of the Hebrew names of God, Yahweh or Jehovah. So now you know what Hallelujah means, don’t you? It simply means “Praise God” or “Praise the Lord!”
 
But what I want you to notice about this phrase/word is that it is a call to action. No, it’s not just there for informational purposes. It’s there telling God’s people what to do. So if I read in the Bible “Praise the Lord!”, what should my response be? It should be to praise the Lord, right? Yes, if the Scriptures say, “Hallelujah”, then I should stop what I’m doing and praise the Lord right then! Amen?
 
So I’d like us to do something fun throughout this series: Every time you hear the phrase “Praise the Lord!” I want the congregation to shout, “Praise the Lord!” And every time you hear the word “Hallelujah!” I want the congregation to shout, “Hallelujah!” Let’s practice right now – Me: Praise the Lord! (The congregation: Praise the Lord!) Me: Hallelujah! (The congregation: Hallelujah!)
 
You see, church, praising God is not just something we are to observe; it’s what we are called to do! I understand we have those in the church today who are specifically gifted to lead worship, sing, or play instruments in a praise service, but I think it’s interesting that the New Testament doesn’t specifically identify this as a gift or office in the Body of Christ. I don’t believe this is because we shouldn’t have a praise & worship team, but rather because we are ALL called to this office! Now you and I maybe should not be on the stage with a microphone. Like I’ve heard it said before – Everyone can sing. Not everyone should record, but everyone can sing. But everyone is called to be a praiser, not just a select few. 
 
And that’s what I would like us to begin talking about this week – how praising God is our calling in Christ Jesus!
 
PURPOSED TO PRAISE
 
I remember having a conversation with someone before I was born-again, where we were discussing what the purpose of mankind is. We were pondering those universal questions- Why am I here? What is my purpose? Of course, being lost, I was not able to answer these questions, but when I had my encounter with Jesus in 2000, I knew immediately the core-purpose of every single person who has ever lived on the earth – It is to know God! Yes, the primary purpose for every single person who ever has or ever will be created is to have a personal relationship with their Creator, and the predominant activity in that relationship is to praise and worship Him as His creation!
 
But, you see, this is not only God’s primary purpose for mankind. It is also the foundational purpose for all His creation. In the Psalms, many references are made to different created things such as the sun, moon, stars, mountains, animals, etc. declaring God’s praise (See Psalm 69:34, 145:10, 148, and Psalm 150:6). Didn’t Jesus say that even the rocks would cry out (See Luke 19:40)?
 
So all of creation here on the earth is praising its Creator! But did you know that this is also exactly what is going on in heaven as we speak? Yes, if you study the Scriptures that give us a sneak peak into what is going on in heaven, you’ll find that continual praise & worship of God is the main activity of heaven’s residents.
 
So if it’s happening with all of His creation in heaven, and it’s happening with His entire creation on the earth, then I believe it is easy to conclude that the praise & worship of God is the primary purpose for everything and everyone God has ever created.
 
So if this is true (and it most definitely is), wouldn’t it behoove us, the crown of His creation, to join in? Yes, wouldn’t it be a good idea to begin fulfilling our divine purpose sooner rather than later? You see, there is coming a day soon and very soon when we are going to slip out of these tents that we call bodies and be ushered into the presence of God where, as we’ve seen, singing His praises will be our habitual tendency. Therefore, we ought to begin to do it now when we can do it by faith and please Him all the more. Amen?
 
WHAT DO YOU DO?
 
But like I’ve already said, praise is not only our purpose, it is our calling too!?! In other words, praising God is not just something we do; it’s who we are. Let me explain …
 
You know, when we meet someone new, we might ask them “how are you doing?” but that usually leads us to another question that we are much more interested in learning the answer to – “What do you do?” Yes, we are very interested in finding out what people do for a living.
 
So what do you do for a living? Most of our immediate responses would be – “I’m a banker, a cashier, a housewife, a pilot, a lawyer, etc. etc. etc.” But I think we need to see ourselves as more than what our physical/natural occupation is. I believe we need to see ourselves as what we were all created to be in Christ Jesus – Praisers!
 
Did you know that’s what the Bible teaches us? First Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
 
Now I know that a lot of people read this verse like it was being written to Israel because all of these things were how the Lord referred to them, but I want you to notice what Peter went on to say in verse 10. He said, “who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
 
So his audience here was a people who once were not a people. That doesn’t sound like the Jewish community to me – for they had been the people of God for hundreds & hundreds of years to this point. No, this is obviously describing Gentile believers because, during their lifetime, they were definitely not a people, but now had become the people of God through the blood of Jesus’ Cross. Amen? 
 
So First Peter 2:9 is talking to you & I. We are those who were once not God’s people. We are those who once had not obtained mercy. But now, we are a part of God’s people, having received mercy! Praise the Lord!
 
This is who we are, saints! We are a chosen generation! We are a royal priesthood! We are a holy nation! And we are His own special people! But what do we do? What is it that we do because we have been made all of these things through the mercy of God? Well, notice the next part of First Peter 2:9: It says, “…that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
 
The word “proclaim” here is only used this one time in the New Testament and comes from a word that was a combination of the word “out of” and “angel or messenger.” So it describes a messenger like an angel and what comes out of that messenger.
 
Let’s consider angels for a minute: If you had an angel before you and asked him – “What do you do?” – what do you think he would say? He would probably respond with – “I am a servant of the Most High God! I go where He tells me to go! I do what He tells me to do! I say what He tells me to say!”
 
You see, angels were oftentimes, what? They were God’s messengers! Yes, they are God’s representatives that come to tell someone the word of the Lord! So this is what came “out of” them.
 
But what else do you think God’s angels would say that they do? I guarantee you that one thing you’d hear them say is that they praise & worship God! Yes, one of the most important jobs & privileges that angels have is to PRAISE THE LORD!
 
Well, it’s the same with us! We too are called to “proclaim” the same thing – Peter described it as “the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light!”  
 
So this is to be our spiritual vocation! Yes, it is our occupation as His chosen generation, His royal priesthood, His holy nation, and His special people! Our job is to declare the praises of Him! Amen!
 
Isaiah 43:21 forecasted this by saying, “This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise.”
 
So I guess when someone asks you what you do for a living, you might say, “I’m an appraiser” because that’s what you are – “a praiser.” You know, there’s a reason they are called “appraisers.” That’s because they are someone whose job is to assess or estimate the value of something. Isn’t that what “a praiser” is doing as well? By praising God, we are showing how much we value God.
 
FOR A LIVING
 
Now sometimes that question is not just “What do you do?” It’s “What do you do for a living?” And what that obviously means is what is your job/occupation that you earn your income from and live off of.
 
Well, this is something that’s important to understand about being a praiser: not only is it what your spiritual vocation is, but it’s where your spiritual income comes from. In other words, praising the Lord isn’t just something we do to benefit the Lord. No, it is loaded with benefits for the one who “does their job.” Amen!
 
Let’s look at a psalm that shows us both our response to having this responsibility and occupation and also the benefits of doing our job well – the 103rd Psalm. Now Psalm 103 is one of my personal favorite psalms – namely because we see our benefit package in Him.
 
Psalm 103:1 starts off by saying, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name.”
 
So, as it has likely been with all of us when it comes to our jobs, we don’t always feel like getting up and going to work. Sometimes our flesh would just love to call in, roll over, and go back to sleep.
 
Well, it’s like that with the vocation of praise too! There are going to be countless times where it’s the right time to praise Him, but like it is when our alarms go off in the morning to get up and go to work, we must grab ourselves by the ear and rise up & praise Him! Amen?
 
Well, this is exactly what David was doing here: He was giving Himself a little pep talk, talking to his soul, and telling himself what time it is! It’s time to bless the Lord!
 
Now why would one have to do this? It’s because their soul is going to not want to bless him at times. These times are usually when things are tough, when life is throwing you lemons, or simply when your emotions are down. This is when a child of God has to do something like David did here – start talking to your soul.
 
Let me give you a good example of this from the New Testament:
 
Many of us are familiar with trials that the apostle Paul went through and how he was imprisoned on multiple occasions.
 
Well, in the Book of Philippians, we have the backdrop of one of these extremely difficult circumstances. He told this church how his imprisonment had actually turned out for the furtherance of the Gospel (See Philippians 1:12). He talked about how, as bad as this situation he was in was, that one of the hardest things was how he was hearing about people on the outside preaching Christ for spite, “supposing to add affliction to his chains.”
 
So let’s put this into perspective: Suppose you were a successful businessman, and you were arrested and put into a jail even though you were innocent. And this imprisonment was one of the closest things to hell you had ever experienced. Then you learned that there were people on the outside who were trying to steal your business and you knew that they were doing it just to hurt you. That would be a pretty bad day, don’t you think?
 
Well, that’s pretty much what Paul was going through. People were preaching Christ just to spite him. He knew that there were people who were trying to inflict even more suffering on him by taking his “business.” But I want you to notice what Paul said in Philippians 1:18 – “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”  Wow, I just love that!  What a remarkable attitude Paul possessed! Instead of getting hurt and offended by the wrong motives of others, the apostle Paul’s only concern was that Christ was being preached, and that caused him to rejoice.
 
But notice the terminology he used here – “…and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice!” The force of this statement just resounds with passion and conviction, does it not? It is as if he was saying, “I will rejoice in this and, yes, I will most definitely continue to rejoice in it!” But why such a bold statement? What is the cause for such an emphatic proclamation?  To me, it is quite simple—the apostle Paul was giving himself a little pep talk like David did in Psalm 103.
 
I am sure Paul was dealing with the same temptations in his heart to be discouraged and offended like any normal human being would be regarding these things. I am certain that he had to take those “woe is me” thoughts captive. But here in this verse I believe Paul was making this declaration, not just for their information, but to inform his own soul that it was “rejoicing time.” Amen! Yes, he was telling himself— “Paul, you will rejoice in this!  Oh yeah, you are going to rejoice about it!”
 
Saints, this is an extremely effective and biblical way to keep those negative emotions in check. That’s right—sometimes we just need to talk to our soul and let it know who is in charge. 
 
Again, as King David said in his 103rd Psalm: “Bless the Lord O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!”  This opening verse of this psalm was not just poetry; David was actually talking to his own soul.  Yes, he was telling himself that everything within him was going to join together in giving praise to God. Bless the Lord, forevermore!
 
So, what the apostle Paul was doing here to counter the offense and discouragement that he was likely being tempted with was telling those unruly emotions that he was not going to yield to them. In fact, he was telling his soul exactly what it was going to yield to—praise. He was telling his mind, will, and emotions – “You are going to praise the Lord!” In short, he was telling his soul what it was going to do rather than let his soul dictate whether he was going to be happy or not. Yes, Paul chose to both look at the positive side of things and take up the reins of his heart. In so doing, he was choosing joy. Amen?
 
Now back to the 103rd Psalm …
 
David goes on to say in verse 2 – “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”
 
So now, not only was David just telling his soul to praise the Lord, he tells it to not forget all of his benefits. 
 
Now don’t let the wording here confuse you. This does not mean that we can forget some of them, but to make sure we do not forget all of them (as I interpreted this statement when I was child). No, it means not to forget any of the benefits that we have as His covenant people. But I want you to also see how what King David said shows us how to not forget any of them. There is a major solution that he gives us in these first two verses to help us not forget any of His benefits.
 
Notice how David uses the phrase- “blessing the Lord”- three times in these two verses. This is a significant part of remembering His benefits…What does “blessing” the Lord mean? The Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “bless” (the way it is used in Psalm 103:1&2) as “to praise, glorify, or magnify.” So, in the context of Psalm 103:1&2, “bless” is basically a synonym for “praise.”
 
So what does “blessing” (or, praising) the Lord have to do with us not forgetting all of His benefits? Well, when you praise the Lord, what are you doing? You are proclaiming the goodness and greatness of God through declaring who He is and what He has done. So, in essence, you are recalling all of His benefits when you bless Him, right? You see, a great benefit of glorifying and magnifying the Lord through praise is that it helps us to not forget His benefits. In other words, it causes us to constantly recount all that He has done for us and be less likely to forget them. And guess what that does? It will cause you and I to experience them more!
 
I wonder how many people miss out on certain “benefits” that they have in this life simply because they stay ignorant of them. I’m sure that many of us have missed out on certain benefits of jobs we’ve had or other things we’ve been part of simply because we weren’t mindful of them.  
 
Well, being God’s child and a part of His kingdom, we have many different benefits that we are meant to take advantage of. So if you and I are employed to praise the Lord, then what are those benefits? Well, Psalm 103 goes to describe a bunch of them …
 
Verse 3 says, “Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases.”
 
By far, the most important benefit is this first one – the forgiveness of all our iniquities! No, not just some of them; all of them! I see this as the salary portion of praise’s employment package! It’s certainly the greatest and most important part of our job as praisers. But like it is with most people in this world’s workforce, it seems like most Christians are only concerned with their salary. Yes, it’s evident that most believers only know about the forgiveness of their sins. In other words, that’s the only part of their benefit package that they consider. It’s the big one. No doubt about that. But it’s not all that we have in our benefit package.
 
One benefit that the body of Christ does not esteem like it needs to is the next one – our medical/health insurance.
 
You know, if you’ve ever had to pay for your own health insurance out of pocket, then you probably know just how invaluable having health insurance included in your job’s benefit package is. It’s expensive! And oh, how expensive can physical issues be. 

Well, as we are promised in Psalm 103:3 among many other places, we have been given free health insurance! He heals ALL our diseases by the stripes of Jesus, being our Jehovah Rapha!
 
On top of that, some types of medical insurance cover prescription drugs too! And that’s covered under Jehovah Rapha’s insurance program as well: We are told in Proverbs 4:20-22 that God’s Word is “medicine” to all our flesh. So not only are we promised divine healing, but we are promised divine health because we have been given an unfailing medicine that will heal “all our flesh.” Amen!
 
Saints, our health insurance—the stripes of Jesus—have already paid for our prescription. Amen! And in God’s kingdom, there is no co-pay. There is no deductible that needs to be met. It’s already been paid for 100% by our Great Physician!
 
But what else do some businesses offer as part of their benefit package? Well, with some jobs we might get “life insurance.”
 
Well, Psalm 103:3 gives us another benefit of our covenant with the Lord: It says, “Who redeems your life from destruction.”
 
So guess what else we have as a benefit? Life insurance! We have been given the benefit of the God kind of life – which unlike life insurance in the world, can be experienced now! The Bible calls it eternal life, resurrection life, and abundant life! This is the life of God and it’s a part of our benefit package in Him! Amen!
 
But then notice what verse 3 goes on to say and then verse 4 – “… Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
 
Hmmm … So we see here the word “crowns” and then how He satisfies our “mouth” with good things. What benefit does that make you think of? Dental insurance! Lol!
 
I wonder how aware the Body of Christ is that we have the benefits of God crowning us with lovingkindness and tender mercies and also satisfying our mouths with good things so that even our youth is renewed. These are just a few more things that the Lord desires for us to taste and see!
 
So I think you get the point. There are a ton of benefits that the Lord has given us as we walk in our calling of declaring His praises! I’d encourage you to continue looking at the 103rd Psalm as it contains many more awesome benefits of our employment in the “Father’s business.”
 
But unlike our jobs, these benefits are not just things we can partake of annually, quarterly, monthly, or weekly. No, these benefits are promises that we can experience DAILY – for as Psalm 68:19 says, “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation!”
 
But let me give you just one more very important benefit of God’s kingdom that we can also experience in our jobs on this earth – retirement planning benefits!

I know a lot of us have taken advantage of things such as 401(k)s, etc. at our jobs which help better prepare us for retirement, but there is no better retirement package than what we have in the kingdom of God. Our future is so bright, you have to squint to look at it.
 
Saints, as much as God desires to bless us in this life, our retirement package is loaded! And I can guarantee you that the more you and I live our lives to praise the Lord through thick & thin, the more we are seeing being contributed to that retirement package. Amen!