A0366_Bless His Holy Name
Date: 17th February 2008 (Sunday PM) Ref: A0366
Place: Kambah P.S.
Title: Bless His Holy Name
Text: & Ps 103:1-3
Illust: Went to the CSO concert in the Grounds of the Governor Generals house a week ago. – Very pleasant afternoon. – One of the things that you notice with an orchestra when you arrive is that they all tune their instruments. – The music is all in harmony, there are no discordant notes because all of the instruments have been tuned. – Over time they get out of tune – Need to be tuned. – Once tuned the powerful emotions and force of an orchestral piece can be realised. – Now Maybe you don’t struggle with this, if not just sit back & I’ll preach it to myself, because I certainly do. - I come to pray, to worship God & I just don’t feel like it, I know that if I can connect with heaven it can be powerful, but I just struggle. I am out of tune with heavenly things. - If we are going to worship God, we need to tune ourselves.
I. First Call
A. Bless the Lord
i. What does it mean to bless somebody? It means to give them something or do something for them that is seen as a blessing, a benefit a help.
ii. & vs1 ~ Think about what it means to bless God? – God already is the highest self sufficient being in existence.
Acts 17:28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, (NKJV)
He is the source of all blessing – so how do we bless God, what does it mean to bless God?
iii. Simply, that we praise Him, worship Him – Give Him the honour that is His due.
B. O’ My Soul
i. Here is the Psalmist in a way commanding His soul, His innermost self to praise the Lord. To worship God. – We need to do this, to praise & worship God. But how often do you really feel like praising God, be honest.
You wake up in the morning; is your 1st thought, Praise the Lord it’s morning!! Or is your first thought a curse for the alarm clock.
You come to pray in the morning or before the service – Just can’t seem to connect, get into it; weariness, distraction, a million thoughts of other things crowd your mind, Just not into it.
Why prayer before service is so important, have a halfway chance of getting to the worship service in some semblance of a spirit of worship. – Maybe you struggle in the same way in the worship service – It’s not a worship service it’s just a few songs before the preaching.
One author puts it this way: The well is seldom so full that water will at first pumping flow forth; neither is the heart commonly so spiritual, after our best care in our worldly converse (much less when we somewhat overdo therein) as to pour itself into God's bosom freely, without something to raise and elevate it; yea, often, the springs of grace lie so low, that pumping only will not fetch the heart up to a praying frame, but arguments must be poured into the soul before the affections rise.
ii. A nice poetic way of saying that we are so carnal that when we 1st go to pray no hope of worshipping God, - We are out of tune. We have to work ourselves up to it & oftentimes we have to bring to mind blessings to jump start our worship.
iii. We see this reflected in that David, repeats himself in & vs2 – He is working himself up, He is tuning himself to worship God.
Spurgeon writes: Certainly, he uses no vain repetitions, for the Holy Spirit guides his pen; and thus he shews us that we have need, again and again, to bestir ourselves when we are about to worship God, for it would be shameful to offer him anything less than the utmost our souls can render.
But Pastor that is fake! ~ No not at all, that is human. – I have books & literally hundreds of emails from “success” organisations and newsgroups and they all say the same thing. - What you say to yourself, is what you will achieve, how you will act, what you will accomplish.
The way we are made.
II. With All
A. Not Half-hearted
i. Ever watch an orchestra play, especially a complex piece full of life & movement. – A lot of effort. They have to give it everything they’ve got. Focus, energy, passion. – How do you worship God?
ii. In a half hearted, so so manner? The psalmist exhorts himself & vs2 ~ And all that is within me, bless His holy name! – It is God we worship, surely He is worth nothing less than all that we are, all that we have.
iii. We have, intellect, creativity, emotion, will, passion, energy, focus, surely all these should be engaged into gear when we worship God.
Like the various instruments of an orchestra. ~ I like the trumpets, the cello’s the violins, the percussion, and each on their own is fine, it can sound nice, it can even emphasise a point in a piece of music, but when they all play together.... something powerful, “The whole is more than the sum of its parts.”
Surely we should not switch the mind, emotions, our creativity or any faculty that we have into neutral & worship God with anything less than our whole selves. With all.
B. His Holy Name
i. & vs 1 ~ His holy name! – His Holiness. His uniqueness, His separateness – He is Holy:
Luke 1:49 holy is His name. (NKJV)
ii. The world doesn’t see God’s name as Holy, it is mocked, it is used as a swear word, it is trampled in the dirt, is not respected. – But His name is Holy, He is Holy.
Isaiah 6:3 And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” (NKJV)
iii. Holy; to be separate a cut above. – This our God, if you would allow yourself to dwell on the Holiness of God, on His awesome Holiness – quickly get into tune.
III. All His Benefits
A. Bringing to Mind
i. The psalmist completes His tuning to begin worshipping God through another device, the bringing to remembrance of what great things the Lord has done for Him. ~ & vs2
ii. A wonderful expression in latin that succinctly conveys this thought "Si oblivisceris, tacebis" (If thou forgettest, thou wilt be silent) ~ If you don’t remember the blessings of the past you will have nothing to say in gratitude. – dangerous place to be: ~ & Deut 8:11-17
iii. Need to spend some time bringing to your mind all the things God has done for you:
Psalm 116:12 What shall I render to the Lord For all His benefits toward me? - 17 I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, And will call upon the name of the Lord.
iv. You are alive, God has at times met with you, spoken to you through a word, the preaching, the still small voice. – Blessed you financially, in health, in understanding. – What great blessings – forget them not.
B. Forgiven & Healed
i. If still struggling, just think back the last 10 minutes or so to all your sin & reflect that you are forgiven, that should tune you up. ~ & vs3 – You are forgiven of all your iniquity, praise the Lord, thank you Jesus.
ii. You have been healed, you can be healed – Thank Him. – Praise Him – Tune up before worship.