A Life of Overflowing Praise

Introduction

Open your bibles please to Psalm 150, we will be in Psalm 150 this evening

Over our time in Psalms

The return of Christ king and how he will crush his enemies

The king that is also a great Shepherd of his Sheep.

The king that is a perfect magistrate

The king that is a mighty covenant keeper

The king that the fortress of his people

The king promised by God when God said sit at might right hand until I make your enemies your foot stool

The king that the saint of old looked forward to as the went to Jerusalem 3 times a year

What kind of response does this amazing king deserve?

Praise, and that is exactly what Psalm 150 is about.

Praise the Lord, if the first three and last three words in English from Psalm 150.

Its just one word in Hebrew, a word we know well, Hal-lu-yah.

Tonight we will consider how appropriate is it to respond with praise

How appropriate is it that after all the mighty proclamations about the King, we end with an admonishment to praise him.

Lets read Psalm 150

Psalm 150 ESV

1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! 2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! 3 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! 4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! 5 Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! 6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

May God Bless the Reading of His Holy and Infallible Word

Let’s Pray

Transition

Hal lu yah, praise the Lord, there is so much packed into that one word, phrase. How does one praise the Lord? Praise him for what? Praise Him where? Lets read verse 1 and 2.

Body

Praise Him for His Excellencies

Psalm 150:1–2 ESV

1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! 2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!

The Psalms is capped with the the words Praise the Lord.

Calvin Comments on this saying, “Though our minds can never take in this immensity, the mere taste of it will deeply affect us. And God will not reject such praises as we offer according to our capacity.” [1]

The more we learn about God, the more we learn about Jesus and his Christly work, the more we are driving to praise.

we were reading in Leviticus in the Bible reading this morning in chapter 26,

“14 “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you.” (Le 26:14–17, ESV).

Think about this, now because of the new covenant in Christ we have the opposite of these things,

We have a table in the middle of our enemies.

Death it self has be sting

Our enemies are his enemies and he is our fortress.

If the Psalmist can say, him according to his excellent greatness! How much more do we now that we have the perfect revelation of God in Christ.

And when we get to heaven? the Praising only grows.

Understand this, those who know Christ, overflow with praise for him, because he has done excellently.

Think about it, the writer of this Psalm got to hear about the Lord overcoming Pharaoh in the red sea. We have head about the Lord overcoming death and hell for his people.

Transition

We praise God, and we do it his way, if we are really awed by Christ, we will worship like him. Think about the lesson the Gold Calf teaches us.

This is YHWH Aaron said.

And they feel into all kings of debauchery.

The LORD didn't say, well they had good intention they just didn’t know better.

Because they didn’t have good intentions

That was not about worship, and neither is anything that does not conform it self to God’s word in worship.

Let’s read verse 3-5

Praise Him with Joyful Diligence

Psalm 150:3–5 ESV

3 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! 4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! 5 Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

We can accurately title this section “praise him with joyful diligence.”

I enjoyed Calvin commenting here “I do not insist upon the words in the Hebrew signifying the musical instruments; only let the reader remember that sundry different kinds are here mentioned, which were in use under the legal economy, the more forcibly to teach the children of God that they cannot apply themselves too diligently to the praises of God” {2]

Psalm 1 and Psalm 19, praise informed by the Word.

Its by the Law of the Lord that praise is informed

Like we already said, God will not sit in heaven and say, well they had good intentions.

He will say exactly what Jesus said, it is written.

The need for this message is abundantly clear in the so called “revival” happening in Kentucky where people are jumping up down in a concert setting, while LGBTQ students lead worship.

Anyone looking at this has to pause and go, wait a minute, wheres the repentance, where is the worship according to scripture, was God just kidding when he called Homosexuality and abomination? If what is happening there is biblical worship then anything goes, lets make a calf and start the party.

But there is a standard, and its the same one the Psalmist uses, the word of almighty God, the sufficient instruction for everything pertaining to life and Godliness. I wont expound more there because that’s the next section Pastor Gabe will be expounding on in 2 Peter, so stay tuned Sunday.

Let’s address the elephant in the room. The text says, “raise him with tambourine and dance”

How dare you Aaron, the people at that revival are just dancing to the Lord.

Historical contact as part of how we understand scripture

Iraq and the elections dancing.

Sexualized and partied dancing in America.

I hate to break it to you my fellow Baptists, dancing is allowed.

I would go as far as saying that I don't think that in this time in this country it can be done biblically

And it is certainly not a mosh pit, or putting a teenage girl on stage in a leotard

Transition

As we get tot he final verse, we see that the call to praise God is to all. Verse 6

Let Everything Praise the Lord

Psalm 150:6 ESV

6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

As

Conclusion

Praise the Lord

Benediction

1 Thessalonians 5:23 ESV

23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

References

[1] John Calvin and James Anderson, Commentary on the Book of Psalms, vol. 5 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 320.

[2] Ibid.

Bibliography

Calvin, John, and James Anderson. Commentary on the Book of Psalms. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010.