Praise the Lord - Part 8: Abiding in the Anointing

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!