The Power Of Continuous Praise

Psalm 34:1 “I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth. s.

Introduction:

I am still learning the proof of Psalm 34. And I want to speak to you today on this subject: “The Power of Continual Praise.” Here is the resolution of the psalmist—the psalm of David, the sweet singer—and David said, “I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” (Psalms 34:1)

And while we’re going to look some more at the rest of the psalm, we could just pull over and park right there to hear what David said.

I. Meditation

A. The meditation begins with a call to worship. This individual expression of intent also becomes an invitation for us to identify with David (v. 3).

The content of verse 1 is blessing and praise. The object of such worship is “the LORD,” Yahweh; and the time element is continuous, “at all times.” Life is found and lived in the praise of God. As Paul writes to the Colossians, “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (3:17).

David begins very personally, “I will bless.” The verb for “bless,” which may share a common root with “kneel,” voices appreciation and gratitude. It also promotes respect for the one being blessed. The synonym here is “praise,” which includes thanksgiving (Ps. 35:18), giving glory (Ps. 22:23), and magnifying God (Ps. 69:30). Thus the worship and praise of Yahweh is David’s continual disposition.

The praise of the Lord is always in David’s “mouth” (v. 1) because his words reflect his heart.

Donald Williams and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, Psalms 1–72, vol. 13, The Preacher’s Commentary Series (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1986), 270.

B. Who?First of all, whom is he talking about? Himself.

He said, “I will bless the LORD.” Listen, my friend. Nobody can praise God for you. People can praise God all around you, but if you don’t worship from that seat where you are tonight, there will be no worship in that seat. Church attendance is not a spectator sport. If you come to hear someone preach, and come to hear someone sing, and you don’t praise God, you have robbed yourself of one of the greatest joys and one of the greatest blessings. And also, you have denuded God of the glory that belongs to Him.B. What?Who will do it? I will do it. And I want you to say, “And me, too; I will praise the Lord.” What? “I will bless the LORD.” Did you know that you can bless God? How many times have we prayed and said, “O God, bless me”? I think, over and over again, we pray for a blessing. But have you ever thought about the fact that you bless God? “Bless the LORD, O my soul.” (Psalm 103:1) Praise blesses our Lord. And He alone is worthy of that praise.C. When?Who will do it? I will. What will I do? “I will bless the LORD.” When will I do it? Oh, here’s the secret: at all times. Now this is the thing that is transforming my life—and I’m still learning. In the good times, in the bad times, in the juicy times, in the dry times, in the up times, in the down times, in the daytime, in the nighttime—“at all times I will bless the Lord: His praise shall be continually upon my lips and in my mouth.”You say, “Well, Pastor, I can’t praise Him when I’m hurting, can I?” That’s when you really ought to praise Him. “When I’m sad?” Yes, praise Him. Praise Him, friend, and turn the bad times into good times by praise. If you’re having difficulty in your prayer life, pull out some of the groans and shove in a few hallelujahs, and you’re going to find out that it will transform your life.D. Where?Now not only who and what and when, but where will that praise be? “In my mouth.” That’s very important. You say, “Well, I’ll just praise Him in my heart. But I don’t say much about it. It’s very personal thing, you know.” Well, friend, you need to praise Him verbally. You need to open your mouth and let His praise get out of your heart and get into your mouth. You should not sit here in a worship service without saying a word. I see some folks out there—you know, “Bless me, if you can.” Why don’t you praise God? Why don’t you, when you meet one another, give Him a word of praise? Praise Him publicly, and praise Him privately, because if you do it all times, you’re either in public or in private. And in public and in private, if that’s part of all times, then you ought to be praising God. I mean, bless the Lord.I really wonder about this—Brother Jim, you and I have talked about it—I really wonder if it is praise, if it’s not articulated. I mean, praise is to give Him glory. How does He get the glory, if it’s not articulated? You say, “Well, He knows what’s in my heart.” Well, He may; but, you know, this psalm says—well, He does know, not He may; indeed, He does know—but this psalm says that that praise is to be in your mouth.E. Why?Why? Why? Well, listen. He goes on to say that “the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.” Now if you don’t put it in your mouth, the humble can’t hear. And if the humble cannot hear, then the humble can’t be glad by your praise. Now, why praise Him? The rest of the psalm is an answer as to the answer of perpetual praise. All right, are you ready?I. When You Praise, Your Faith Is BolsteredNumber one: When you praise, your faith is bolstered. Nothing will help your faith energize, vitalize, stimulate your faith like praise. When you boast in the Lord, when you brag in the Lord, make your boast in the Lord, at that time you say to yourself, “You know, God is really a great God”—when you exalt His name. “My soul shall make her boast in the LORD.” (Psalms 34:2) You see, this is the secret of faith. It’s not great faith in God that you need; it’s faith in a great God. When you have faith in a great God, then your faith becomes great faith. I’m not against great faith, but don’t put the emphasis upon your faith. Put your emphasis upon who He is. And when you make your boast in the Lord, as you boast in the Lord, as you glory in the Lord, as you bless the Lord, you’re going to find out that your faith grows.Faith is the highest occupation of angels. Why, even the rocks would cry out if you would fail to praise the Lord. You see, praise just honors God, and therefore God honors praise. Just as profanity degrades God, praise glorifies God. The word worship is actually a compilation of the Old English worth-ship. Tell me how much you praise, and I’ll tell you what God is worth to you. Tell me about your worship, and I’ll tell you what you think of God. He is worthy of our praise. And the Bible says, “The humble will be made glad.”We need to encourage one another. We live in a generation that’s got a lot of bad news. I don’t like to read the newspapers much anymore. Do you? I mean, things are just kind of caving in around about us. That’s all the more reason that we ought to be going around constantly praising the Lord. Do you know folks that can brighten up a room just by leaving it? Do you know any people like that? I know folks like that. I mean, they’ve just got this little cloud of gloom over their head, and everywhere they go, they’re just spreading gloom all around. Walk into a place; walk into a group of men; walk into a group of ladies; walk into a Sunday School class; come here on Sunday morning; greet your family at breakfast—wherever it is—with a “praise the Lord; glory to God.” I’m not talking about a smart-alecky phrase; I’m talking about a praise that comes out of your heart because you truly know and love Him. And as you praise Him, your faith will grow.Do you know what praise really is? It is faith turned inside out. Have you ever thought about the model prayer that Jesus taught us to pray? It begins praising God: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” (Matthew 6:9) Do you know how it ends? It ends in praise: “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.” (Matthew 6:13) Those are the bookends of any prayer: it begins with praise; it concludes with praise. So put this down: Friend, when you praise, faith is bolstered.II. When You Praise, Your Fears Are BanishedWhen you praise, fears are banished. Continue to read now in verses 4 and 5: “I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.” (Psalms 34:4–5) If you were to go into the average bookstore and the section of religion, you would find over and over again the subject of mental health being addressed. And many of those books are being bought by believers. And it is because those believers are preoccupied with fear. Ann Landers was asked, “Is there a common theme in the letters that you receive?” She said, “Yes, it is the subject of fear.” Over and over again people are put on by fear.I know something that would greatly reduce the traffic into the psychiatrist’s office and into the psychologist’s office—and that is for people to learn something that would be very simple: and that is to praise the Lord. You see, you cannot praise God and be self-centered. Do you know why people have psychological problems and fear? It’s because they’re egocentric. And Jesus never meant for us to be egocentric. Egocentrism is a form of self-destruction. And yet we’re being taught over and over again in America to be egocentric.But let me tell you what the great teacher said, the Lord Jesus. He said in Luke 9:24, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” Now the word “life” and the word “soul” are interchangeable there: “whosoever will save his [soul].” (Luke 9:24) And you know what the word soul means? It means “psyche.” The Greek word for soul is psyche—ego. What Jesus is saying is that when you become self-centered, you begin to destruct. When you try to save your ego, your self, your psyche, that’s when you lose it. But when you lose yourself in praise to Him, that is when you find yourself. You see, if you’re egocentric, that’s going to cause you to be self-centered. And if you’re self-centered, something happens to your precious little self: you’re going to become defensive. And after you become defensive, you’ll become hostile. And after you become hostile, you may become aggressive. And when you see your little world beginning to crumble, then you get filled with fear.No one, however, can truly praise the Lord and be preoccupied with self. You cannot put your eyes upon the infinite and holy and wonderful God and make your boast in Him, and keep your eyes upon your bankrupt self at the same time. But when you put your eyes upon Him, when you praise Him, your fear will melt away. You cannot sulk and praise at the same time. You cannot be irritated and praise at the same time. You cannot be filled with fear and praise at the same time.Tonight, before I came in, I was reading in God’s Word. I want to share a verse that I found in Isaiah chapter 61. It’s a beautiful verse. I’ve seen it before, but it came with new import to me tonight—Isaiah 61:3. Look at it. It says that we are “to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” (Isaiah 61:3) Do you have a spirit of heaviness tonight? Fear will be banished as you praise the Lord. Faith is bolstered, and fears are banished.How are you going to overcome fear? By feeling? Just laugh it off? You can’t do that. By forgetting? You can’t do that. We’ve tried that. You push those fears out the front door—they run around the house and come in the basement window into the subconscious. By fighting? You’re no match for Satan. By faithing you deal with fear. Fear not. Faith answers, and fear goes.III. When You Praise, Your Foes Are BeatenNow I’ll tell you a third thing that praise will do. I’m talking about the power of perpetual praise. Faith is bolstered. Fears are banished. And foes are beaten. Look, if you will, in 6 and 7 now: “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.” (Psalms 34:6–7) If you will not concentrate on your enemies, but if you will begin to concentrate on God and praise God, your enemies will be defeated as you praise God. When a man’s ways please the Lord, even his enemies are at peace with him. That doesn’t mean that they love him or like him; it means that they’re afraid to attack him—they’re afraid to come against him—because he has the power of Almighty God on his life.Learn this when we praise God. I have found this; I have seen this so many times. You say, “Pastor Rogers, do you have any enemies?” Yes, a lot of them. There are a lot of people who don’t like the stands I take. They don’t like the brand of gospel I preach. Now I can’t say that I rejoice in that; but I tell you, if I have enemies because of standing up for the Word of God, then I rejoice that God has given me the grace to do that. But I’ve found this: that when I focus on my enemies, I get morose; but when I praise God, when I begin just to praise God, if somebody says something bad about me, I just take that and I say, “Lord, I offer that to you as a praise, offer that to you as a glory,” and I continue to praise the Lord. God has a way of causing those people to defeat themselves. You don’t have to do it. It’s a Bible principle.Some time do this: Take your Bible and begin to study and see how many times in the Bible when God’s people got right and began to praise Him, God sent confusion among the enemies and they turn on one another and they defeat one another. And so foes are beaten. Who is behind your foe? Your enemy is not flesh and blood. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood.” (Ephesians 6:12) Our real enemy is Satan. And when you praise God, what happens? Well, when you praise God, God is especially near.Now God is omnipresent. That means He’s always here. There’s no place where God is not. But now, listen. God is dynamically present when you praise Him. May I say that again? God is omnipresent; He’s always present; but God is dynamically present when you praise Him. For example, the Bible says in Psalm 22:3 that God occupies the praise of His people. (Psalms 22:3) If you want to write God’s address down, it’s just “praise.” God dynamically moves in when we praise. Therefore, Satan is allergic to praise, because Satan is allergic to the presence of God. And that’s the reason when we meet together and we want God to do something wonderful, and Brother Whitmire, who’s not a song leader, but a worship leader and a praise leader, comes to lead us in praise, with all of your heart and soul and being, and every ounce and inch and nerve and fiber and sinew in you, you ought to be praising God. And do you know what? Every demon and imp of Satan will say, “I don’t like it in here. God is too much in here.” And Satan is paralyzed and bound and banished when we praise God.IV. When You Praise, Favors Are BestowedWhy praise God? Faith is bolstered. Fears are banished. Foes are beaten when we praise God. And favors are bestowed. Look, if you will, in verses 8 and following now: “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.” (Psalms 34:8–10) “Taste and see that the LORD is good”: praise is the taste buds of the soul. Do you want to know how good God is? Taste Him. Say, “How do I taste Him?” Praise—praise! You see, when you praise God, God responds. God reveals Himself to you as you lift your heart to Him in praise. And when this happens, you know that God is good.Now, suppose you tell me that God is not good. Well, you won’t convince me, because what you have is an argument; what I have is an experience.I mean, suppose I had just eaten apple pie, and you tell me that apple pie is no good; it doesn’t taste good. I’ve got the evidence on the inside. You see, a Christian with an experience is never at the mercy of an infidel with an argument, isn’t that true? And you tell me that there is no such thing as apple pie, or if there is, it doesn’t taste good: I say, “Well, I’ve got the evidence on the inside.”This is what the psalmist was saying: “Taste and see that the LORD is good.” And the taste buds of your soul, your spirit, is praise, as you praise the Lord.Notice what he says about the lions in verse 10: “The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger.” What he’s saying is that even the fiercest and cunning king of the beasts will howl for hunger, but a simple-minded believer who praises God has an advantage over a mighty, roaring, greedy lion.V. When You Praise, Your Future Is BrightenedNow, here’s the final thing I want to say: Not only are favors bestowed and God meets your needs when you praise, but the future is brightened. Notice verse 5: “They looked upon him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.” (Psalms 34:5) Begin to read now in verse 11: “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD. What man is he that desireth life, and that loveth many days, that he may see good?” (Psalms 34:11–12) Now, isn’t that what you want? Say amen. “What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?” Every one of us wants that.Well now, listen to what he says: “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.” (Psalms 34:13) That is, get that junk off your mouth, out of your mouth, and out of your vocabulary. “The eyes of the LORD are among the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.” And he’s talking here about the prayer and the praise of God’s people. “The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.” (Psalms 34:15–17) What’s he saying? He’s saying that your future is made bright when you praise the Lord. “What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?”Over there in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John there’s a story of a woman—a thirsty woman—at the well of Samaria. She was out there in the noontime—not when women normally come to draw water—because she was a social pariah; she was an outcast. But Jesus was sitting on the curbing of that well. And you remember that the Lord Jesus asked that woman for a drink of water. It was His device, among other things, to begin a conversation with that woman, that He might bring her to saving faith. And He talked to her about that water of life and talked to her about having the hunger and the thirst of her soul quenched by that everlasting water. But in the course of that conversation, He talked to her about praise and worship. She wanted to get into a denominational argument: “Should we worship God here or there?” And Jesus said, “Listen, lady. God is a Spirit. Neither in this mountain or in that mountain. But God is a Spirit, and you must worship Him in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” (John 4:23–24)You know, God is seeking people to worship, seeking people to praise. You know why God is seeking people to praise? Why does God want you to praise Him? Is God an egotist? I man, is God insecure? Does God have to have us constantly telling Him how big and how great and how wonderful He is? Friend, when you praise God, you can’t make Him any more glorious, because He’s all glory. When you give to Him, you can’t make Him any more wealthy. He owns everything. Well then, why do you praise God? Not for what praise does for God, although He is worthy of our praise, but for what praise does primarily for you, because we become like what we worship. We were created to worship; and when we praise, the deepest needs of our lives are met.This woman had had five husbands, and now she was sleeping around, not even bothering to get married. You say, “Is that unusual?” It was in that day. It’s not in this day. Today, we’d give her an Academy Award, I guess. But what had happened to this woman? She was going from husband to husband to husband to husband to husband, from one affair to another. Why? She was thirsty—she was a thirsty woman. She was looking for something that she could not find. And she thought, like so many people, “I can find it in a happy marriage. If I could just get married; if I could find the right man, that man would meet my deepest needs.”Now I want everybody to listen to me very carefully. How many married people do we have? Let me see your hands if you’re married here tonight. That’s most of us. Now, listen to me very carefully. Your husband cannot meet your deepest needs, lady. Mister, your wife cannot meet your deepest needs. Do you know why people get divorced? They say, “She’s not meeting my needs.” She was never meant to—never meant to! It is God who meets your needs.This woman was asking of her husband and her boyfriends something that they could not give and no one can give. It was Larry Crabb or someone who said that people enter into marriage for the same reason that a tick gets on a dog: for what he can get out of it. Only trouble is, in marriage, there are two ticks and no dog. We’re asking other people to meet our needs, to give us satisfaction. There is a need in your life—and that need is God. And when you worship Him, then you’re going to be the kind of husband and kind of wife that you need to be, because your needs are not going to be met by that individual; your needs are going to be met by the Almighty.ConclusionWhy don’t you take Psalm 34, and why don’t you make it the desire of your heart and the pledge of your life? “I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” And when you don’t need anything, don’t want anything, just do what I find myself doing frequently—and I’ve been doing all day long: just saying, “Jesus, I love you. I bless you. I praise you. I give you glory.” Hallelujah! Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Wake up in the morning—tomorrow morning, before you get out of bed—bless Him and praise Him. Through the day, bless Him. Bless Him before other people. Let the humble hear and be glad. And when we worship together, brothers and sisters in Christ, with all of our heart, let’s praise Him. And when people come in here, let them feel the spirit of worship. Let’s not have any more spectatoritis on Sunday. Let’s be praising God. And Satan won’t like it. But the Holy Spirit will, and He’ll move in, and we’ll see God do marvelous things in our midst.