Praise The Lord
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PRAISE THE LORD!
PRAISE THE LORD!
Preached:
Psalm 146:1–10 (ESV)
1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! 2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. 3 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. 4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. 5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, 6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; 7 who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; 8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. 10 The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!
Introduction:
Psalm 146 is one of the five Psalms that was probably written around the time Israel returned from their terrible time of bondage in Babylon. This Psalm was written to commemorate the grace of God in bringing them back from the edge of extinction. The Israel was so moved by what the Lord had done IN THEM and FOR THEM, that they couldn’t contain their PRAISE FOR HIM.
• They realized that they were back in their own land by the pure grace of God.
• They knew that they had been punished because they had worshiped other gods; and they knew they had been brought back home by the One true God.
They are praising God because of one reason: He Is Worthy! Notice that the Psalm begins with, “Praise the LORD!”
Just as God by His marvelous grace delivered Israel, He has also delivered us, we who are saved, from the bondage of sin. He has delivered us from an eternity of suffering in hell!
If these ancient people could praise the Lord for His grace in delivering them from bondage; how much more should God’s redeemed people praise Him, for bringing us out of the bondage of sin?
Today, I want to take a look at Psalm 146.
I want to try and show you from these verses:
God is worthy of our praise
Let’s consider:
I. WE ARE CHALLENGED TO PRAISE
1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! 2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Verses 1-2, says, “Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.”
Notice, in these verses the Psalmist gives a call to praise:
A. A CALL TO PRAISE
His message to himself and others is to “Praise the Lord.” Basically, this is what we do as we invite people to come to church. We are inviting people to come and Praise the Lord with us.
One of the mistakes we make inviting people to attend church, is that we say to them, “Come to church with us,” when we should be saying:
• Come worship the Lord with us
• Come praise this wonderful God that has saved us from a Christ-less eternity
The Psalmist gives an INVITATION FOR EVERYONE TO PRAISE THE LORD!
1. I KNOW SOME PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE SPORTS WORLD.
Illus: They have a chosen team and they are dedicated to that team.
• They go through life looking for an opportunity to recruit others to love the same team they do.
• They live their life just wishing everybody would love the same team they love.
• They want everyone to PRAISE THE TEAM they love.
Illus: A family that loved the Chicago Bears was shopping one day before Christmas.
While in a sport shop, the son picks up a jersey of the Green Bay Packers and says to his sister "I've decided I'm going to be a PACKERS supporter and I'd like this jersey for Christmas!" The sister is outraged at this and promptly whacks him on the head and says, "Go talk to your mother."
Off goes the little lad, with this PACKERS jersey in hand, and finds his mother. "Mum", "Yes, son?" "I've decided I'm going to be a PACKERS FAN and I'd like this jersey for Christmas."
The mother is outraged at this and promptly whacks him on the head and says, "Go talk to your father."
Off he goes with the green jersey in hand and finds his father. "Dad." "Yes, son?" "I've decided I'm going to be a PACKERS FAN and I would like this jersey for Christmas."
The father is outraged at this and promptly whacks his son on the head and says, "No son of mine is ever going to be seen in THAT!"
About half an hour later, they are all back in the car heading home. The father turns to the son and says, "Son, I hope you've learned an important lesson today." The son turns to his father and says, "Yes, Father, I have". Father says, "Good, son, and what is it?"
The son replies "I've only been an PACKERS FAN for an hour and already I hate you BEARS!!!
Those who live in the sports world are always trying to recruit others to like their team.
Illus: Basically this is what cheerleaders do; they jump and yell, trying to motivate the spectators to PRAISE THE TEAM FOR WHAT THEY ARE DOING!
I have come to the realization that we ought to all be cheerleaders for the Lord! If the Lord is REAL AND WONDERFUL to us, we all need to ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE AND GET OTHERS TO PRAISE THIS WONDERFUL GOD THAT WE HAVE COME TO KNOW, LOVE AND SERVE!
When Christ becomes REAL AND PRECIOUS TO US, we ought to want everyone to love Him like we do!
We see A CALL TO PRAISE, and also, we see -
B. A COMMITMENT TO PRAISE
The writer goes on to tell us that His praise will know no boundaries and no limits. Verse 2, says,
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
He is making A COMMITMENT TO PRAISE!
There are some folks who put on their religious garb as they enter the church, and they are constantly praising the Lord the whole time they are here. But when they leave the church house, they remove their religious garb and they never praise the Lord again until the next time they come to church.
Our praise for the Lord should know no boundaries. We should be committed to praising the Lord EVERY DAY and EVERYWHERE we go! The biggest problem with us is we don’t talk enough about Jesus! That why our lives are so hell ridden, we don’t praise Him enough! When life is smooth you ought to Praise Him! When life gets tough you ought to praise Him! There are some things you gotta just praise your way out of! Praise will break down barriers…(Paul and Silas, Jericho, Hebrew boys)
The Psalmist said that as long as breath filled his lungs, he would praise the Lord.
let’s also consider-
II. WE HAVE A CAUTION OF PRAISE
In verses 3-4, the writer says,
3 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. 4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.
A. MAN IS A POWERLESS CREATURE
The psalmist cautions us against making any man the object of our praise. We are told that man lacks the ability to “help” us in eternal things. Therefore, we are to be cautious in giving our praise to men.
• The trend in our society is to give praise to actors, singers, athletes, and entertainers. Many of them have problems that they cannot solve, addictions they cannot shake, pasts they cannot forget, and live in a world they can not change!
Man is unworthy of praise! He has no power over my situation and does not control my direction! Drake cannot help me! LiL Nas ain’t got nothing for me! Kendrick Lamar cannot fix me, None of these can make my life better!
But if you want to Praise them you go head and call them (oh you ain’t got the number do you).
But I’m going to call on the Lord and give Him all the Praise I can, cause I know WHEN PRAISES GO UP BLESSINGS COME DOWN!!.
The only one worthy of our praise is the Lord. He is the only one who can redeem us from our sins and change our eternal destiny.
Man Is A Powerless Creature, but also
B. MAN IS A PASSING CREATURE
At his best, man is a transient creature. He is here in this world for a short time and then he is gone. James 4:14, says,
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
Man is a passing creature, we are not here for long as a matter of fact, when man passes from the scene, he is soon forgotten.
God, on the other hand, is eternal. Therefore, He and not man, deserves all the praise we can render to Him! He is worthy!
We have looked at THE CHALLENGE TO PRAISE, and THE CAUTION OF PRAISE. Let’s look at-
III. WE HAVE A CAUSE TO PRAISE
Verses 5-10, shows us why the person who knows the Lord has many reasons to praise His name.
You see, those who place their trust in themselves or others have no reliable reason for rejoicing; but all those whose faith is in God have more to praise Him for than they can ever comprehend!
WHY SHOULD WE PRAISE THE LORD? I’m glad you asked!
This passage reveals that we should praise the Lord for:
The Greatness Of His Power – He is the God of creation! He is the God that said, “Let there be…” AND THERE IS. . .
The Greatness of His Mercy- He is the God who looked beyond my faults and still woke me up this morning!
The Greatness Of His Love- He Loves me in spite of myself
The Greatness Of His Deliverance: He has brought me out . . .
Conclusion:
Illus: Victor Hugo, in one of his short stories, describes a man walking along a path. Suddenly he discovers that the path is slipping out from under him.
He slides into some quicksand and he tries to get out, but the harder he tries, the deeper he sinks.
Hugo describes the horrible feelings of this man in despair.
As the man sinks to his waist, he tries to reach the tree limbs, but they’re too far. He tries everything he knows to try but suddenly he is up to his chin, and soon he is not able to breathe and he dies this horrible death.
All of us who know the Savior, praise Him because we all found ourselves in the quicksand of sin. He reached down with His loving hands and saved us. HE IS WORTHY OF OUR PRAISE.
The Greatness Of His Sacrifice! That’s what I want to tell you to day He’s worthy because He Sent His Son through forty and two generations to sacrifice His life for you and me. He’s worthy! He’s worthy! I got to Praise Him.